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CONCLUSION
We recently had a phone conversation with John Scaramuzzo, President of SMART Storage Systems, regarding an upcoming release that actually can tell us many things about SMART and their approach to SSD design and innovation. SMART Storage Systems went private after a long run in the public sector in August of 2011. During that time there became a large focus internally of building a good team of individuals with vast experience in Qualifications and R&D. As John mentioned, it all starts with the people.
This approach has served SMART very well, focusing on quality design and manufacturing is of the utmost importance when designing SSDs that must meet the highest criteria. By going out and acquiring the best and the brightest, with fresh and new ideas, SMART has built a great platform to innovate from.
Focusing on performance and cost are two key building blocks that are integral into the approach taken with the XceedIOPS2. The eMLC that was selected gives plenty of headroom for enhanced endurance, while achieving an excellent mix of value. With the price of SLC being prohibitively expensive for many deployments, eMLC price points can help to usher in widespread adoption.
Utilizing a SATA connection with the proven Tier 1 LSI SandForce SF-2582 processor is also another of the key ingredients for success with this drive. Utilizing the compression algorithms the SandForce controller is able to help tremendously with write amplification, sucking out every bit of endurance that can be had from the eMLC flash. Staying with the less price restrictive SATA connection, in lieu of SAS, also increases the number of devices that the SSD can be deployed into.
Creating the value proposition of eMLC flash is a great move going forward, as the market for SLC is relatively small considering its premium price. This SSD is a great alternative for SLC SSDs for users who need the ultimate in reliability.
With incompressible data the drive performs well, but it must be understood that a small percentage of data in some cases will be entirely incompressible. A large amount of data in most enterprise scenarios is either highly, or partially, compressible. It is here that the XceedIOPS2 really begins to outstrip the competition with its compressible data performance.
Overall the SMART Storage Systems XceedIOPS2 performed very well in our battery of tests. showing its strengths in several of our very high impact mixed read/write profiles. In the pure 4k Random tests it dominated with very high performance across the board.
The 5 Year Warranty, which covers 7 full rewrites of the capacity of the drive daily, signifies a commitment to deliver upon the promise of great endurance. Coupled with the EverGuard power protection and the steps taken for data security and reliability, users can be assured that their data is safe.
Overall this is a good showing from SMART Storage Systems, as they continue to expand their portion of the enterprise market. With extensive Tier 1 certifications, and the great endurance for the price, the XceedIOPS2 is a great buy.
Awesome product!
The independent review on you-tube, shows Enterprise/Server level at 50,000 to 100,000 P/E not 10,000 like this review states?
This report dates back to 2012. SMART is no longer a company. The reviewer, Paul Alcorn, was and remains to be one of the best storage evaluators in the industry.