DDN’s Tintri enterprise array business unit has added entry and mid-range models alongside an updated VMstore T7000 dual-controller, all-NVMe flash array product.
Tintri’s VMstore arrays are organised to supply storage capabilities to VMware virtual machines using a VMware administrator’s language and concepts. They can also provide storage in a similar way for SQL Server database admins. The original T7080 model now has added T7040 and T7060 sibling products in the same 2RU 24-slot chassis. There are new 100GbitE data and replication port options and expanded vDisk support. Virtual disks (vDisks) are a virtual machine’s view of its physical storage devices.
Graham Breeze, Tintri VP of Products, provided an announcement statement which reiterated VMstore’s capabilities: “The Workload Intelligence-driven efficiencies and optimisations of VMstore are the reason it has held the title of the most revolutionary storage management appliance on the market for more than a decade. VMstore truly is a self-driving system that provides the unparalleled VM density required for deploying virtual infrastructures and accommodating the enterprise’s dynamics and changing needs.”
Now more customers can buy the all-NVMe T7000 systems with these new entry-level and mid-range systems with their tiered vDisks and maximum supported VMs. Tintri’s new exec team will be using these new systems to increase product sales.
We’ve tabulated the basic size and performance parameter for the new T7000 line up along with the prior T7080 product for comparison purposes:
We can see that the maximum supported vDisks on the prior high-end T7080, 15,000, has increased to 22,500 — a near 50 per cent increase. The minimum and maximum raw SSD capacity is the same for all three T7000 models and we think that the maximum number of Virtual Machines (VMs) and vDisks supported is down to controller CPU variations.
The systems start at ten populated drive bays and can grow to 24 fully-populated bays with no disruption to operations.
Tintri says the T7000s have fully autonomous operations, granular per-VM and per-Database management, real-time and predictive analytics. The predictive analytics is said to be able to forecast resource requirements to optimise performance and capacity up to 18 months in advance.
The company’s marketing stance is based on its arrays being far easier to use and manage by VMware and SQL database admin staff than competing arrays. Tintri believes that their capabilities have been under-valued and it has a significant time-to-market lead which it can extend into Kubernetes environments and beyond.
The T7080, T7060, and T7040 are now available, either directly from Tintri or through certified partners.