Seagate Technology plc announced today at the 2017 Flash Memory Summit (FMS) enhanced versions of two flash technologies to boost performance and capacity for mixed data center workloads. The updated solid-state drives — including the Nytro® 5000 M.2 non-volatile memory express (NVMe) SSD and the Nytro 3000 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) SSD — address different segments of the cloud and data center markets and help organizations maximize the value of their data. Anticipating the needs of a range of hyperscale data centers and cloud providers in the future, Seagate also will highlight a 64-terabyte (TB) NVMe add-in card (AIC) reading 13 gigabytes per second (GB/s) — the fastest and highest-capacity SSD ever demonstrated.

As next-generation versions of the Seagate Nytro XM1440 M.2 NVMe SSD and the Seagate 1200.2 SAS SSD, respectively, the Nytro 5000 NVMe M.2 SSD and Nytro 3000 SAS SSD offer new levels of performance and scalability. The Nytro 5000 NVMe M.2 SSD is a cost-effective, lower-power technology ideal for the demands of today’s data center environments with 2TB of industry-leading capacity. It also boosts random write performance levels as high as 67,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) — double the performance levels of the previous version. The SSD’s new features match the growing needs of demanding enterprise applications like data mining, weather modeling and online transaction processing, where fast data access and processing power are paramount to an organization’s success. The SSD also comes with configurable overprovisioning, providing additional layers of flexibility so organizations can adjust the drive’s endurance and capacity properties based on their specific data storage needs — all in a small footprint to allow data centers to more easily scale and accommodate exponential data growth.

For data center environments where data availability and capacity are critical to operations, such as content streaming services and software defined storage (SDS) configurations, the new Nytro 3000 SAS SSD offers enhanced capacity and performance features, and a dual-port SAS interface to maintain data integrity in the event of an unexpected communication channel loss. The drive provides up to 15TB of capacity, more than four times the capacity of the previous version. It also offers up to 2,200 megabytes per second (MB/s) in sequential read performance through a 12 gigabits per second (Gb/S) SAS dual or wide port interface, helping prevent storage bottlenecks and ensuring high data reliability, availability and scalability. Organizations can choose from multiple configurations, endurance, and security options to fit their application needs, and avoid having to compromise on functions and features or pay for more than necessary.

“Seagate is investing heavily in their already broad range of NVMe and SAS enterprise-class products aimed directly at the data center, cloud, and hyperscale storage markets,” said George Crump, lead analyst of Storage Switzerland. “With some product specifications increasing by as much as five times over the last generation, these products are ideally aligned to meet the ever expanding requirements of this market.”

Reflecting the continuous growth of data and the need for organizations to incorporate technologies that address capacity and performance needs, Seagate is also demonstrating a 64TB NVMe AIC that includes performance of up to 13 gigabytes per second (GB/s) in a single PCIe NVMe add-in-card with full power fail protection. The technology takes advantage of the industry standard M.2 form factor to combine multiple SSD controllers into a single PCIe card. As a result, servers benefit from eight high-performance controllers managing the SSD’s flash capacity through the one PCIe socket. Customer samples of the technology are anticipated in the first half of 2018.

The Nytro 5000 NVMe M.2 SSD and Nytro 3000 SAS SSD will be available later this year using leading 3D NAND flash technology.

“Large-capacity SSDs are in high demand in hyperscale computing, a market that is growing faster than any other sector,” said Jim Handy, general director of research firm Objective Analysis. “Seagate’s new SSDs, with their high-performance interfaces and high capacities, should find ready acceptance in this market and other data center applications.”

Flash Memory Summit – Product Demos and Keynote Presentation
Seagate will demonstrate the 64TB NVMe AIC, Nytro 5000 NVMe M.2 SSD and Nytro 3000 SAS SSD in booth #505 at the 2017 Flash Memory Summit. Other planned demonstrations and displays include:

  • A Seagate RealStor™ 5005 all-flash array using the Nytro 3000 SAS SSD
  • A Nytro Q-Boost technology demonstration with IO Determinism and Multi-Streams

Matt Rutledge, senior vice president of marketing at Seagate Technology, will present the FMS keynote address, “Mission Impossible: Surviving Today's Flood of Critical Data,” on Wednesday, Aug. 9, at 1 p.m. Pacific. The presentation will examine the role of flash memory and new storage technologies in managing—and benefitting from—a deluge of data deemed increasingly life-critical.