Infinidat has refreshed its fourth-generation (G4) InfiniBox arrays with larger drives, more slots, faster internal networking, a smaller all-flash model, S3 protocol support, QLC flash, and a new capacity-upgrade scheme.
The InfiniBox arrays are high-end and scale-up storage array products competing with Dell PowerMax, Hitachi Vantara VSP and IBM DS8000 systems. Their unique features include having three controllers for reliability, Neural Cache-branded memory caching providing data access responses in as little as 35μs, and both all-flash (SSA) and hybrid flash/disc versions of its array. The controlling software is InfuzeOS, which also runs in the AWS cloud, providing an InfiniBox environment there. Infinidat supplies an InfiniGuard cyber-protection and backup system, and has an InfiniVerse cloud-based monitoring system receiving telemetry from the InfiniBox arrays.
Infinidat CMO Eric Herzog stated: “We continue to expand and enhance our InfiniBox G4 family, enabling enterprise customers and service providers to store larger quantities of data more efficiently, have easier access to advanced storage capabilities, benefit from flexible capacity management, free up rack space and floorspace, and reduce energy consumption for a greener storage infrastructure at a better power cost-efficiency per terabyte of storage.”
The hardware changes start with support for 24TB disk drives, up from 20 TB, the SAS-4 22.5 Gbit/s internal array drive connectivity support, upgrading from 12 Gbit/s SAS-3, and a 78-slot drive enclosure, replacing the prior 60-drive box. This takes maximum capacity per InfiniBox rack up from 17.2 PB to 33 PB effective, a 92 percent increase. One use case for this is as a high-capacity backup storage target.
There is a new F24 SSA model. The existing F24ST SSA, with SAS drive support, starts at 155 TB capacity in its 14 RU enclosure. The new F24NT comes in an 11 RU enclosure with 77 TB starting capacity, offering a 29 percent lower entry price than the F24ST. It supports NVMe-connected 16 TB TLC-format SSDs with 30 TB and 60 TB QLC drives coming later this year.
Herzog told us: “We obviously know that there’s other capacities coming out in the market. So as those come out, we will test them of course, and add them in, just like we did with the 24 TB hard drives.”
The F24NT can be installed in a customer’s existing datacenter racks, where there is space, at a colocation facility, or at an enterprise’s remote locations where there are rack-level IT hardware facilities, such as major office or factory deployments. This means that the InfiniBox can now compete for the high-end of mid-range storage requirements where these require features above and beyond what classic mid-range storage products can provide.
The InfiniBox systems now support 100 GbitE connectivity, up from 25 GbitE.
The InfuzeOS now supports the S3 object storage protocol, on top of the existing SMB/NFS, NVMe-F/TCP, and Fibre Channel. Herzog told us: “We made some replication enhancements. We’ve gone multi-target and multi-parallel for async replication… If we have a customer on the third generation or who bought a G4, for example, last summer, and they want faster replication, they just get our software and then they just load it up and they’ll get better performance.”
Infinidat also pitches a green angle, saying its systems consume less power than rivals such as Dell’s PowerMax:
Infinidat enables customers to buy a partially populated SSA array with pre-determined fixed capacity percentages – such as 60, 80, and 100 percent – with non-disruptive upgrades. It’s now offering capacity-based upgrades with lower increments per upgrade and lower costs.
Ashish Nadkarni, Group VP and GM, Worldwide Infrastructure at IDC, stated: “In 2025, the progression of the G4 is extending the reach of the G4 beyond existing customers and into new enterprise customers. Infinidat is making it easier for large enterprises to deploy the InfiniBox G4 for a broader range of applications and workloads. The G4 is gaining extensive additional momentum.”
Get a hybrid InfiniBox product range datasheet here and an all-flash InfiniBox (SSA) product datasheet here.
Availability
The 24 TB disk drives will be available in Q4 2025. NVMe QLC flash modules in 30 TB and 60 TB capacities will be added to the SSA range during the same period.
