I sat in on a recent EMC briefing regarding some Isilon enhancements and I thought my three loyal readers might like to read through my notes. As I’ve stated before, I am literally one of the worst tech journalists on the internet, so if you’re after insight and deep analysis, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere. Let’s focus on skimming the surface instead, yeah? As always, if you want to know further about these announcements, the best place to start would be your local EMC account team.

Firstly, EMC have improved what I like to call the “Protocol Spider”, with support for the following new protocols:

• SMB 3.0
• HDFS 2.3*
• OpenStack SWIFT*

* Note that this will be available by the end of the year.

Here’s a picture that says pretty much the same thing as the words above.

In addition to the OneFS updates, two new hardware models have also been announced.

S210

• Up to 13.8TB globally coherent cache in a single cluster (96GB RAM per node);
• Dual Quad-Core Intel 2.4GHz Westmere Processors;
• 24 * 2.5” 300GB or 600GB 10Krpm Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6Gb/s Drives; and
• 10GbE (Copper & Fiber) Front-end Networking Interface.

Out with the old and in with the new.

X410

• Up to 6.9TB globally coherent cache in a single cluster (48GB RAM per node);
• Quad-Core Intel Nehalem E5504 Processor;
• 12 * 3.5” 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB 7.2Krpm Serial ATA (SATA) Drives; and
• 10GbE (Copper & Fiber) Front-end Networking Interface.

Some of the key features include:

• 50% more DRAM in baseline configuration than current 2U X-series platform;
• Configurable memory (6GB to 48GB) per node to suit specific application & workflow needs;
• 3x increase in density per RU thus lowering power, cooling and footprint expenses;
• Enterprise SSD support for latency sensitive namespace acceleration or file storage apps; and
• Redesigned chassis that delivers superior cooling and vibration control.

Here’s a picture that does a mighty job of comparing the new model to the old one.

Isilon SmartFlash

EMC also announced SmartFlash for Isilon, which uses SSDs as an addition to DRAM for flash capability. The upshot is that you can have 1PB Flash vs 37TB DRAM. It’s also globally coherent, unlike some of my tweets.

Here’s a picture.