Compare SSD Flash Memory Vendors with Pricing

UPDATE: Pure Storage lawyers requested that we remove all pricing information (publicly available with a quick search). We complied.

This post highlights the most popular Solid State Disk/Flash vendors and provides a chart to help decipher their costs. This data has been aggregated from various sources so no claims are made as to its accuracy.

In some cases the manufacturers provide a link to “Self-Service Pricing” via EchoQuote™ so you can get up to date pricing information quickly, often in minuts (last column).

Top 10 Solid State/Flash Array Vendors in Alphabetical order:

Vendor Category Pricing
Astute Networks Flash Memory Arrays Not Available
Fusion-io Pricing Solid-State PCI Express Cards (Nexsan acquisition may put it on path to full appliance gear) Not Available
Range $2-$5/GB
Nimbus Data Pricing Flash Memory Arrays Not Available
Per 2012 article – $150K for 10TB dual configuration
OCZ Pricing Flash PCI Express Cards Not Available
Range $2-$5/GB
Skyera Pricing Flash Memory Arrays Not Available
Texas Memory Systems Pricing PCI Cards
Flash Memory Arrays
Not Available
Virident Pricing PCI Cards
Flash PCI Express Cards
Flash Max II
Starts at $6000
VIOLIN Systems Pricing NVMe Flash Arrays Velocity cards come in 1.37, 2.75, 5.5 and 11TB raw capacity versions at a list price cost of $6/GB for all of them except the entry-level 1.37TB card which lists at $3/GB.Flash Max II
Get a Self-Service Quote at our Violin Systems Pricing page.
Whiptail Pricing PCI Cards
Flash Memory Arrays
From $50K to $250K for multi-terabyte arrays
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Fusion-io Pricing at CES with ioscale

Original article at Anandtech

The Fusion-io ioScale comes in capacities from 400GB to up to 3.2TB (single half length PCIe slot) making it one of the highest density, commercially available drives. Compared to traditional 2.5″ SSDs, the ioScale provides significant space savings as you would need several 2.5″ SSDs to build a 3.2TB array. The ioScale doesn’t need RAID for parity as there is built-in redundancy, which is similar to SandForce’s RAISE (some of the NAND die is reserved for parity data, so you can rebuild the data even if one or more NAND dies fail).

The ioScale is all MLC NAND based, although Fusion-io couldn’t specify the process node or manufacturer because they source their NAND from multiple manufacturers (makes sense given the volume required by Fusion-io). Different grades of MLC are also used but Fusion-io is promising that all their SSDs will match with the specifications regardless of the underlying components.

The same applies to the controller: Fusion-io uses multiple controller vendors, so they couldn’t specify the exact controller used in the ioScale. One of the reasons is extremely short design intervals because the market and technology is evolving very quickly. Most of Fusion-io’s drives are sold to huge data companies or governments, who are obviously very deeply involved in the design of the drives and also do their own validation/testing, so it makes sense to provide a variety of slightly different drives. In the past I’ve seen at least Xilinx’ FPGAs used in Fusion-io’s products, so it’s quite likely that the company stuck with something similar for the ioScale.

What’s rather surprising is the fact that ioScale is a single-controller design, even at up to 3.2TB. Usually such high capacity drives use a RAID approach, where multiple controllers are put behind a RAID controller to make the drive appear as a single volume. There are benefits with that approach too, but using a single controller often results in lower latencies (no added overhead by the RAID controller), prices (less components needed) and it takes less space.

The ioScale has previously been available to clients buying in big volumes (think tens of thousands of units) but starting today it will be available in minimum order quantities of 100 units.

Pricing starts at $3.89 per GB, which puts the 450GB model at $1556. For Open Compute Platforms, Fusion-io is offering a 30% immediate discount, which puts the ioScale at just $2.72/GB. For comparison, a 400GB Intel SSD 910 currently retails at $2134, so the ioScale is rather competitive in price, which is one of Fusion-io’s main goals.Volume discounts obviously play a major role, so the quoted prices are just a starting point.

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NexGen Storage Pricing

Original article at NexGen Storage

Pricing and availability

The NexGen n5 Series n5-100 and n5-50 systems will be available on August 20, 2012 and the n5-150 system will be available September 30, 2012 through authorized NexGen resellers. List pricing for the three new n5 Series systems will range from $55,000 to $108,000.

NexGen Storage today announced the expansion of its n5 Series of storage systems with new PCIe solid-state offerings. The NexGen n5 Series offers several solid-state configurations that deliver a range of performance levels and price points, and each n5 system offers both 10GbE and 1GbE network options. With higher performance and capacity in a compact, 3U footprint, the new offerings provide:

• 5x to 10x lower $ per GB than all-SSD arrays with equivalent performance1; and
• 10x more IOPS per rack unit versus disk-based storage systems2.

With its expanded offering, NexGen makes enterprise-class solid-state storage capabilities available and affordable for mainstream customers to meet targeted performance requirements in mixed workload environments.

“There is tremendous end-user value to be gained from judiciously employing solid-state storage as part of an overall storage approach. Our research indicates a clear shift toward end-users viewing solid-state technology as applicable for increasingly broad data center deployment and usage, and not just for specific applications or isolated workloads,” said Mark Peters, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “By offering high-end solid-state capabilities at affordable price points, NexGen’s n5 Series solutions are well-positioned to bring that solid-state storage value into mainstream data centers.”

Each n5 Series storage system provides active-active high availability and delivers the full power of NexGen’s cutting-edge capabilities, including:

Predictable Performance with Storage QoS. Provides predictable, guaranteed application storage performance. IT administrators can set performance levels for all applications and manage performance as easily as capacity.
Service Levels for Total Control. Automatically shifts resources from non-critical to mission-critical applications as needed to ensure performance is maintained for an organization’s more critical applications, even if the system is compromised.
The Lowest $/GB and $/IOP. Moves data real-time between high-performing solid-state and economical disk drives to offer industry-leading price/performance.

“NexGen’s innovative solid-state storage systems and Storage QoS allow us to deliver extremely efficient, high quality IT services to our organization,” said Robert Samples, senior systems engineer at Kansas City Urology Care. “NexGen’s n5 systems have a very small footprint compared with my existing storage, which chews up a ton of power, takes up roughly 15U of rack space and costs a fortune every year in maintenance and support. By comparison, the NexGen n5 takes up only 3U of rack space and utilizes about one-third of the power.”

“Organizations can achieve higher storage efficiency along with more consistent performance levels through smart, right-sized solid-state storage deployments,” said Rick Merlo, vice president of sales, NexGen Storage. “NexGen’s n5 Series gives organizations the ability to meet varying performance, capacity and price point requirements.” Read more about this on NexGen’s blog.

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