Hitachi Vantara has been shown to offer higher data accesses per watt of electricity for its block storage arrays than Dell, HPE, IBM, and Pure Storage.
Its VSP One Block array was rated the most efficient in terms of IOPS/watt by the US Energy Star agency with a 537.8 score in a test of arrays with solid state drives – the Energy Star NVSS Disk Online 4 category. Overall, the VSP arrays hold the top three ranked storage array positions in this category:
The “Trans Optimal Point Hot Band Workload Test” (TOPHBWT) measures the input/output operations per second (IOPS) per watt at an optimal point of operation under a “hot band” specific workload, which refers to a frequently accessed subset of data. The “Trans” item refers to transaction. An Energy Star web page states that the TOPHBWT indicates “the hot band measurement for the highest predicted deployed storage device optimal point in I/O Per Second (IOPS) per watt. This information is for the highest predicted deployed storage device.”
Octavian Tanase, Hitachi Vantara chief product officer, said: “Our Virtual Storage Platform One Block storage appliance exemplifies our vision for the future, delivering powerful, reliable, and eco-friendly solutions that drive value for our customers and help significantly reduce carbon emissions.”
According to Hitachi Vantara, the Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) One “features Dynamic Carbon Reduction technology, reducing energy consumption by switching CPUs into eco-mode during periods of low activity. ‘Always-on compression’ allows the system to switch from inline data reduction to post processing, which further reduces energy consumption and contributes to a lower CO2 footprint by as much as 30–40 percent.”
The VSP One Block 28 model ranked highest in the Energy Star benchmark test, with 538 IOPS per watt, followed by the VSP One Block 26 at 409 IOPS per watt, and the VSP E1090 at 368 IOPS per watt.
In general terms, Hitachi Vanatara leads IBM’s FlashSystem 7300, with Dell’s PowerStore next, followed by HPE Alletra 9000 arrays, then Pure’s FlashArrays, with HPE’s Primera arrays being the tailender.
The differences in IOPS/watt ratings were substantial:
- Dell’s PowerStore average IOPS/watt score was 147.99 compared to the average VSP One Block rating of 473.2, 3.2x worse;
- The average HPE Alletra 9000 score was 110.6, 4.3x worse;
- The average Pure FlashArray rating was 41.9, 11.3x worse;
- The average HPE Primera score was 10.3, 46x worse;
There are no NetApp test measurements.
Tanase blogged: “I don’t want to get too technical here, but that’s what an elite athlete might call ‘crushing it.'”
Hitachi Vantara says all its “storage arrays have obtained CFP (Carbon Footprint of Products) certification under the SuMPO (Sustainable Management Promotion Organization) environmental labeling program and have ensured transparency and environmental accountability by undergoing third-party verification of greenhouse gas emissions per terabyte per year (kg-CO2eq).”
You can read more about its parsimonious use of electricity in the Tanase blog.
