Huawei: The next stage of the all-flash era

Sponsored Renowned economist William Brian Arthur wrote in The Nature of Technology, "In the real world, technologies are highly reconfigurable; they are fluid things, never static, never finished, and never perfect.” Data storage technologies are no exception. They are constantly evolving for greater efficiency and versatility. Data-driven business models and the pursuit of new IT architecture is leading everyone into the new all-flash era.

What Drives the Rapid Development of All-Flash Storage?

In 2015, Gartner predicted the advent of the all-flash era, where solid-state drives (SSDs) would ultimately replace hard disk drives (HDDs) in enterprise storage. Indeed, high-performance SSD all-flash arrays (AFAs) are expected to replace 50% of traditional HDD storage systems in data centers by 2020.

Gigantic volume of diverse data is driven by new technologies such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G. Huawei estimates that by 2025 global data will total a stunning 180 ZB. Surges in non-structured data like text, images, audio files, and video files will complicate data processing and require new forms of storage. Therefore, storage systems must address the deployment environments, application models, and value requirements.

SSD technology is developing fast with the capacity scale rolling from hundreds of gigabytes to dozens of terabytes. Network interconnection technologies and applications are starting to utilize SSDs. Block, file, and object storage are just a few of the next-generation storage technologies being introduced in rapid succession. However, the true game-changers are flash storage and SSDs, which are quickly taking over the two-decade-old SAS and SATA technologies in the storage market. SSD performs particularly well, able to process millions of IOPS, making it ideal for performance-hungry Internet, cloud computing, and AI applications. Market data reveals that the finance industry generates the most AFA revenue, where governments, telecommunications, and manufacturers are showing more preference of AFAs.

How Can Industrial Customers Capitalize on Data Floods?

Data floods are changing the landscapes of many industries. Pressure is stacking on data centers of banks, for instance, as more customers operate online or via mobile, demanding banking systems to stay always on.

The emergence of Internet financing further complicates the situation. Unpredictable access methods and service volumes keep testing the limits of various systems. Transaction volume on November 11, aka Singles’ Day, jump ten-fold, with tens of millions of transactions being processed every second, adding gigantic workload to the infrastructure.

Huawei actively helps enterprises tackle these challenges. An international bank found its customers unsatisfied as its original solutions could not cope with huge amount of data. Huawei solved the problems by replacing the legacy storage systems with OceanStor Dorado, AFAs ensuring a seamless user experience 24/7.

More people file their tax return and pay online globally, adding enormous pressure on the payment system. One country’s tax authority was concerned by possible stoppages and data security after offering new round-the-clock services including e-taxation and e-invoice to its citizens. Two OceanStor Dorado high-end systems have then been deployed with a gateway-free metro cluster to provide secure and undisrupted services for taxpayers.

The automotive industry stands out during manufacturing transformation. Making cars and auto parts is a tedious process, and the extensive marketing chain covers manufacturer and dealership. This involves multi-tier data flows and frequent reports, any issues in between slow car production, decreases sale, and eventually compromises corporate competitiveness.

An older ERP system of a leading automaker took seven minutes to respond to a production and purchase order query, and over an hour to report on queried monthly battery sales. A Huawei AFA cut the response time down to just a third.

These are just some examples showing what AFAs can do. Industrial players are choosing AFAs for their higher performance, lower cost, and higher reliability, and Huawei is a preferred vendor.

Innovations and Dedications Make Huawei a Top AFA Provider

The company has long been an AFA pioneer since its first-generation launch of in-house SSDs in 2005. With its 15-year expertise, Huawei has become a leading storage vendor with in-house SSDs, controller chips, and operating systems for all-flash storage.

In its next generation AFAs, Huawei’s end-to-end chip platform facilitates vertical consolidation of transmission, computing, intelligence, storage and management. These chips include the intelligent multi-protocol interface chip Hi1822, processor Kunpeng 920, AI chip Ascend 310, SSD controller chip Hi1812e, and BMC management chip Hi1710. The highlight is the Kunpeng 920 chip, which is considered the most powerful and combines with multi-core technology to double performance.

These five chips can particularly eliminate bottlenecks caused by unbalanced development of CPUs, media, and networks. They let enterprises cope with a new flood of data to accelerate their digital transformation.

Global success stories confirm Huawei's expertise

A 2019 IDC report projected a 1.3% year-on-year growth in expenditures for external OEM storage systems of enterprises worldwide in the third quarter. Expenditures on Huawei storage systems topped the market, logging a 60.1%, increase in expenditures. Such fast growth has been fueled by industry recognition and shows no signs of slowing down. AFAs are the fastest growing product line of Huawei storage.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for General-Purpose Disk Arrays recognized Huawei as a Leader for the third straight year in 2018. The 2019 Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage listed Huawei as a leader in recognition of its improved strategy integrity and execution. Huawei continues to innovate and help enterprises to embrace digital transformation, and its all-flash storage is the key to success in the data-thirsty era.

Huawei has now launched the ‘Flash Only+’ program, enabling customers to enjoy the ultimate performance and efficiency of AFAs at the price of hybrid storage of the same capacity. Better seize the chance for it is only available till December 31, 2020. Discover more by clicking here.

Sponsored by Huawei.