Dell Technologies Wins an Emmy: That’s Good News for Financial Trading and Other Data Analytics Applications

The National Academy of Television Arts and Science has honored Dell Technologies with a 2020 Technology and Engineering Emmy® for the Dell EMC Isilon for driving early development of Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) systems. This is exciting news for those of you working with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) applications of all types. Here’s why.

Back in the early 2000s, media and entertainment companies began to require large-scale shared storage to handle the increasing frame resolution demanded by viewers and to support a proliferation of media formats. Technology has progressed to accommodate the increasing demands of these workloads, and the result is advanced storage like Dell EMC Isilon.

What’s exciting is that the same technology used to accelerate video processing can also serve as the critical foundation for modern data analytics applications. You can’t have Big Data if you don’t have Big Storage. But larger storage simply isn’t enough to deliver performance at scale.

Let’s look at the financial trading industry. Today’s trading firms are transitioning their algorithmic models from intraday to multi-day trading. This, coupled with ongoing exponential growth in daily transactions, means that financial systems can no longer store their active trade data sets (> 10 TB) in memory. Without advanced storage, firms would need to reduce the data sets they are working with, give up near real-time performance, or limit the number of simultaneous processes (e.g. concurrency).

This isn’t just a problem for financial trading. Utility companies need to work with increasingly greater data flows as more and more meters are brought online. Massive numbers of smart sensors are being deployed in Industrial 4.0 applications, smart buildings, and smart cities. There is more data to collect, and as a result there is more data to process. If this data is going to be useful, it must be processed in as close to real-time as possible. After all, it’s pointless to learn that a stock is a good buy or that a system is about to fail after the window of opportunity to act is past.

What’s extraordinary about Dell EMC Isilon is how it overcomes the limitations of previous memory architectures. HSM automates movement of data between high-speed (i.e., high-cost) storage and lower-speed storage to balance cost with access speed. HSM requires massively parallel I/O to achieve this and avoid bottlenecking the system.

With up to 945 GB/s and 17M IOPS, Isilon provides industry-leading storage efficiency of 85 percent. Isilon’s outstanding performance crosses the board, as shown by its impressive STAC benchmarks. When combined with Dell EMC PowerEdge servers and Nvidia GPU technology, the results are near real-time with high currency for even the most demanding AI and ML applications.

Two other important factors are scalability and transparency. Isilon scales from 10s of TB to 10s of PB. In addition, HSM is handled transparently. With these capabilities, Isilon is able to serve as a Data Lake for running analytics, enabling developers to focus on what to do with data rather than expend their resources trying to manage it.

The benefits to financial trading firms are significant. They can train, validate, and score models faster, reliably share access to a single copy of data, and deploy more advanced and iterative models. Enterprise security and compliance becomes easier to manage. And higher model accuracy directly impacts the bottom line. For example, one large New York city hedge fund has been using Isilon storage since 2007 and is now able to leverage 30.5PB of tick data analytics in their daily operations. They have also seen a significant performance increase (390% more) in throughput, allowing them to run larger, more sophisticated research jobs without any impact to performance. In addition, as the company grows, they are able to scale storage much faster than compute resources.

Data analytics for applications like AI and ML are steadily becoming more important, and storage is the bridge to get there. With the throughput, scalability, and transparency of innovative storage technology like Isilon, there are no bottlenecks to innovation.

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Pure//Accelerate 2019 – After 10 Years, Still a lot of Questions

Pure//Accelerate 2019 finished last week. I hope you had a great time in Austin and had a chance to enjoy downtown riding on the Dell Technologies sponsored pedicabs. This event marked the 10th Anniversary of Pure Storage, and there was a lot of hype and anticipation created by Pure around “big” product innovation announcements. Well, I would hardly consider the announcements made as “earth shattering”–they actually left me with even more questions to ask Pure.

Let’s take a look at a few key takeaways from the event, as well as several announcements made during the conference.

New SLOWER FlashArray//C Optimized for QLC flash…but shipping with TLC first.

Clearly Pure is trying to extend the appeal of their FlashArray//X line by adding a new lower-end cost-conscious version announced as the FlashArray//C, which is targeted at addressing the Tier 2 workload use cases.

FlashArray//X with SCM as Read-Only Cache…but not as persistent storage

Pure announced optional support for Intel’s Optane SCM (Storage Class Memory) drives in their FlashArray//X, models //X70 and //X90 only, but only as a read-only cache extension and not as a persistent storage tier. Also, something different with Pure’s approach is that it requires the customer to swap out persistent storage capacity to add DirectMemory modules.

Questions – Why would Pure go through the effort of supporting the Intel Optane SCM drives and then not use them for persistent storage? Leveraging them as read-only cache, at the expense of persistent storage capacity, will bring a slight performance benefit to read-intensive applications, likely at a cost premium, but why not use them for actual persistent storage? (Hint: we believe this is related to the reason they introduced the FlashArray//C, with QLC flash, as separate array – NO Persistent STORAGE TIERING in FlashArray. If they had mixed SCM and NVMe flash modules together, as one big pool without tiering, the SCM would have been severely bottlenecked by the slower NVMe flash.)

Quick commercial for Dell EMC storage – We have been doing storage tiering for years across all our arrays! A recent example, shows how PowerMax can now mix SCM with NVMe AND provide intelligent and automated storage tiering to get the most out your storage investments.

FlashBlade Gets Bigger…but still does not support CIFS/SMB 3.0

Pure announced only one substantial new feature for its FlashBlade product – it can now scale to 150 blades instead of only 75.

Question – How does this help address some glaring gaps like the lack of support for CIFS/SMB 3.0 protocol? Moreover, if NAS capabilities are added to the FlashArray next year, as mentioned at Accelerate leveraging Compuverde, does this mean the end of FlashBlade?

Re-branding of ES2

Pure also announced their intent to offer “everything-as-a-service”, a similar promise made by other vendors in the market. In my opinion this announcement adds little differentiation to their portfolio. Pure talked about a unified contract for on-prem and cloud, but little details were available.

Question – Will cloud and on-prem subscriptions cost the same? It is unclear how this will look in practice so we will see.

Cloud Block Store for AWS is GA…Finally!

At last, Pure has launched a Cloud based offering, joining the ranks of storage vendors that already had options to offer replication and DR to the cloud, as well as software defined storage array running on AWS.

Question – How will Cloud Block Store make it easy for customer to migrate workloads to and from the cloud? How expensive will it be for a customer to subscribe to Cloud Block Store? Will they get two bills – from Pure and from AWS? Moving applications to the public cloud can be really expensive depending on the service, I encourage customers to look at pricing and TCO models very carefully.

What about FlashStack and AIRI….and still no HCI?

Not much to say with regards to FlashStack and AIRI and no announcements around HCI, which is quite interesting. How can a Storage company call themselves innovators when they don’t participate a segment that is growing at double digits and enables customers to have “cloud-like” experiences on premises? Your guess is as good as mine.

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When the Going Gets Tough, the PowerEdge XR2 Gets Going

Presenting the Small but Mighty PowerEdge XR2

Picture a tiny, tough, mobile data center that packs a punch, fits into the tightest of spots, takes pretty much everything that might be thrown at it right on the chin, and still comes out fighting. You’ve got it – it’s the latest addition to the PowerEdge family – the brand new XR2.

Ideal for Tough Conditions and Tight Spaces

Part of our latest family of 14th generation servers, the XR2 offers the latest and greatest industry-first security features and enhanced systems management, but with the added benefit of being small, lightweight and rugged. This server is ideal for situations where you cannot use a standard-sized server, due to space limitations or tough conditions, but you still need a lot of compute power, close to the action, maybe for fog computing, virtualization, analytics or mass storage.

Light, Tough and Resistant

The XR2 measures just 52.5 cm (20.67 inches) rack depth and is lightweight at a maximum weight of 13kg (28lbs). It is resistant to shock and vibration plus capable of operating in temperatures of up to 45 degrees C° (113F°). In fact, it can tolerate 55 degrees C° for up to eight hours and is certified suitable for telecom and military use in situations, where failure is frankly not an option. The XR2 features an optional filtered bezel for improved dust protection. Compliant with DNV, IEC 60945, and MIL-STD-810G, this little beauty has optional, rugged sliding rails for installation in standard four-post racks or in transit cases.

Additional Security

In addition to all the usual PowerEdge security features that you have come to know and love, a common access card reader on the XR2 provides additional authentication. If, for whatever reason, you need to get out of dodge in a hurry, instead of taking a hammer to the server or being forced to pull out and carry the hard drives, all you need to do is simply remove the common access card reader and the server is rendered useless with all the data automatically encrypted.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going

In what situations would you need to use the XR2? Perhaps, you are an emergency responder, saving lives in the back of an ambulance? Maybe you work on a dusty factory floor or busy construction site? You could be sitting in the back of a Humvee in the desert on covert, military operations and need satellite communications to send critical information back to HQ. It is hot, dusty and sandy. If a mortar blows up a half a mile away, the server needs to remain operational. If so, the XR2 is right down your alley.

Alternatively, you could be running video surveillance operations on a large ship, down in the greasy engine room, dealing with vibrations caused by waves and high winds. Or you are perhaps doing mapping and spatial analytics on an oil rig in the Arctic in sub-zero temperatures. In all these situations, without a server, you have no way of filtering the data, making calculations on the fly, or conducting analytics at the edge. Everything must go back to the data center, resulting in delays and negative impact to cost, bandwidth, latency and storage. The good news is that in all these scenarios, the PowerEdge XR2 will shine.

Consistency From the Data Center to the Field

The XR2 reflects our 20 years plus experience in developing award-winning server technology. Other vendors tend to farm the technology out but we own the process end-to-end and are responsible for development, maintenance, sales and support. With this server, you get all the key tenets of the PowerEdge family – high performance, versatility, high storage availability, enterprise-grade, industry-leading components, flexible configuration options, global support, and the enhanced systems management of standard and OEM-ready servers.

IT Infrastructure Solutions for Every Environment

I’m guessing that when you hear the word “server”, you probably pictured racks in a secure, temperature-controlled data center environment with redundant connections to the Internet, power direct from one or more local utilities, diesel generators, vast banks of batteries and huge cooling systems. But, you can now add an image of the small, tough, lightweight PowerEdge XR2 on the move!

I believe that Dell EMC provides modern IT infrastructure solutions for every possible environment with the PowerEdge XR2 delivering Tier 1 quality and support to customers, who need rugged, small and powerful servers.

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Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program Expands with More Products and Streamlined Maintenance Pricing

Dell EMC has improved the Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program with the addition of high end, unstructured and data protection storage products and straightforward support pricing.

Since Dell EMC announced the midrange products in the Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program less than 30 days ago, the response has been everything we could have hoped for. The feedback has been tremendous because the program offers buyers a sense of security and confidence when making a purchase decision.

Customers, partners, and even competitors all appreciate the business and technology value embodied by the program. Yet the one common question has been, “When do other products join the program?”  So in keeping with the customer-first value of our culture code, Dell EMC answered by adding new products to the Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program in the form of high-end, unstructured, and data protection storage products. And we bring the Clear Price Maintenance Framework for Storage Appliances, which we communicated to our ‘family’ at Dell EMC World last May, into the Future-Proof program.

This announcement adds Dell EMC VMAX All-Flash, XtremIO X2, Isilon, ECS (Elastic Cloud Storage) appliance, Data Domain and Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA) to the list of products along with the midrange Dell EMC Unity and SC Series products in the Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program.

Future-Proof is a customer program designed to provide investment protection with a set of world-class technology capabilities and programs that enable Dell EMC storage products to provide value for the entire lifetime of applications. The Future-Proof program is different from other offers because there is no additional cost in terms of product price and only a standard maintenance contract is required.

Each of the benefits above are tailored to match the unique capabilities of each of the products and the specific requirements of the products’ respective users. And Clear Price delivers fair, cost-effective and predictable support costs for storage appliances.

New Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program highlights include:

◈ Products in the program now all carry a 3-Year Satisfaction Guarantee.

◈ Hardware Investment Protection has been a hallmark of Dell EMC primary storage products and is carried to VMAX All Flash, XtremIO X2, Isilon, Data Domain and IDPA in addition to Dell EMC Unity and SC Series.

◈ The Clear Price Maintenance Framework for Storage Appliances (Clear Price) is available for all products except SC Series.

◈ All-Flash products carry the 4:1 All-Flash Storage Efficiency Guarantee.

◈ Never-Worry Data Migrations help users transition to new storage technologies, led by VMAX All Flash, Isilon, and ECS, in addition to Dell EMC Unity and SC Series.

◈ All-Inclusive Software is provided for VMAX All Flash – shipping with its FX Package, XtremIO X2 and ECS, along with Dell EMC Unity and SC All-Flash products, to enable customers to get up and running with the software and licenses that come in the box.

◈ Built-In Virtustream Storage Cloud benefit is available only with Dell EMC Unity.

As a user of Dell EMC storage, the Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program delivers lower acquisition and support costs as products evolve and improve, simple technology transitions, and the peace of mind that customers get more than what they pay for – backed by written guarantees.

Simply put, Future-Proof is all about our customers and offering them what we believe is the best loyalty program in the industry.

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