- The new European Toshiba European innovation laboratory can improve storage technology
- Lab offers architectural tests, concept configurations of concept and comparative analysis
- Toshiba’s claims combining dozens of hard drives can increase overall performance
Toshiba Electronics Europe has opened a new discreet innovation laboratory on its Düsseldorf site, expanding its storage assessment services across Europe and the Middle East.
The new installation (it already has a smaller one in Dubai) is designed to support customers and partners to optimize hard drive drive configurations for a range of applications, including cloud storage, surveillance systems and NAS environments.
The Toshiba laboratory will focus on assessing hard disk configurations for wider computer systems such as storage networks (SAN), providing space where material configurations can be tested and refined. It will be able to assess the architectures specific to the customer and offer a platform for concept proof tests and comparative performance analysis.
Combine hard drives
“This new discreet innovation laboratory represents a leap forward in the provision of tailor -made solutions and advancement hard drive technologies,” said Rainer Kaese, principal director of HDD Business Development.
“It demonstrates Toshiba’s commitment to advance industry and support customers and associate with technical expertise and resources. We are impatient to strengthen existing collaborations and explore the future commercial opportunities that the new installation will bring.”
To carry out these evaluations, the laboratory brings together servers, JBOD, chassis, controllers, cables and a variety of software tools. It also includes equipment to precisely measure energy consumption.
Although the SSDs have a clear speed advantage on the hard drives, they are expensive and, according to Kaese via Blocks and files“The flash industry cannot make enough capacity to meet growing demand, and will still not be in an important time.”
The solution to this problem, suggested Kaese, is to put hard drives together.
“We have shown that 60 hard drives in the storage defined by ZFS software can fill the total speed of a 100GBe network,” he said, adding: “[We] found that a typical configuration of four hard drives (i.e. in Small Soho Nas) can fill the 10gbe networks. 12 HDDS correspond to the 25gbe of corporate networks, and 60 hard drives would require a high -end 100gbe network speed to release the full performance of the many combined hard drives. »»
Beyond technical tests, HDD Innovation Lab aims to support knowledge sharing. The ideas of evaluations will be transmitted directly to customers, and Toshiba says that he will carry out his own internal assessments of his ranges of hard disk products, publishing results as white papers and laboratory reports.
