OCZ Launches Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCIe SSD With Up to 16TB Capacity and 1.4 Million IOPS

High performance solid state storage devices for enterprise and data center use are getting faster everyday it seems.

Today, OCZ announced the release of their a new product, the OCZ Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCIe SSD. While the name is impressive, the specifications are decidedly more so.

To start things off, the CloudServ is availability in several configurations up to an incredible 16TB capacity.  OCZ specs list 6GB/s bandwidth and a staggering 1.4 million IOPS for this PCIe SSD and, to think of it another way, that’s around 20x more IOPS than a high performance consumer SSD.

Designed for cloud and virtualized computing applications which require high bandwidth and large numbers of transactions per second, OCZ is leveraging their own Virtualized Controller Architecture 2.0 and SuperScale storage controllers in addition to elements from Sanrad, now owned by OCZ, and enterprise grade SandForce flash controllers.

CloudServ utilizes sixteen SandForce 2581 controllers and two OCZ SuperScale storage controllers. The massive amount of storage is courtesy of 25nm synchronous MLC NAND, though OCZ can customize the device for organizations should it be required. All of that hardware fits in a standard PCIe x16 form factor, similar to a GPU.

The CloudServ is capable of being used as either a stand-alone device or as a flash based cache device thanks to Sanrad’s VXL caching system. Sanrad’s purchase by OCZ in January was a notable acquisition, and one which OCZ seems to be putting to use quickly. The Z-Drive R4 is said to be available for order in upcoming weeks.

As a bit of a refresher, we had published a short performance demonstration of the Cloudserv, with results, after our OCZ interview at CES this past January.

See OCZ Z-Drive Prices at Amazon!