Smart Storage Systems Debuts First 2 TB SAS SSD With 19 nm MLC Flash

News
By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Smart Storage systems has released some SSDs aimed at enterprise environments which boast some impressive capacities.

Smart Systems Storage has released its 2 TB SAS Optimus Eco SSD, which is the first SSD in the world to pack 19 nm MLC flash and boast a 2 TB capacity through an SAS interface. The purpose of these SSDs is to dramatically reduce the total cost of ownership due to cheaper MLC flash.

The units are built using the Guardian Technology Platform, which is a suite of features that ensure that the drives can deliver up to ten drive writes per day for an extended period of time. The units also boast read and write speeds of 500 MB/s sequential, with 100K read IOPS and 45K write IOPS. The drives also feature hardware support for 256-bit AES encryption.

"This announcement marks the beginning of a new era in flash storage. We are bringing the cost effectiveness of 19nm flash to a high performance enterprise SAS SSD platform, without compromising on endurance or reliability. This unprecedented combination will enable storage architects and data center managers to design high performance, high reliability, high available storage systems while reducing costs, and minimizing TCO,"said  Mike Lakowicz, VP of sales and marketing at Smart Storage Systems.

The drives will be available in capacities from 200 GB through 2 TB. So far, only the price of the 2 TB version is known, which is $3,999. The Optimus Eco SSDs will be available starting June 2013.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

See more SSDs News
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • drwho1
    $4000 is going to sell like hot cakes!!!
    /sarcasm
    let me know when they get to $200-$300 dollar range, until then hot cakes have nothing to worry about.
    Reply
  • brythespy
    Buy four 512 SSD's for a quarter of that price...
    Reply
  • halcyon
    10765549 said:
    Buy four 512 SSD's for a quarter of that price...

    Where can we buy a 512GB SSD for the $250 you've advertised?
    Reply
  • purrcatian
    10765727 said:
    Where can we buy a 512GB SSD for the $250 you've advertised?
    eBay. Some have been selling for as low as $200.
    Reply
  • NightLight
    most small businesses don't even spend 4k on an entire server.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    10766395 said:
    most small businesses don't even spend 4k on an entire server.

    This is obviously not for them. It is obviously not for you or me either.
    However, in the corporate world where high endurance HDDs cost upwards of $800 for 600GB, and it is very difficult (if not impossible) to find a high endurance drive over 1TB (especially in a 2.5" form factor) this is nothing short of a miracle drive.
    In short, an SSD like this allows for massive drive performance with less numbers of drives, or insane capacity in a very small form factor (likely both for those in the market for this). For systems like multi-user video editing servers where you can literally have dozons of drives in order to meet the performance and storage requirements of the system, you could replace all of your drives with a much simpler 4-10 drive setup.

    Still, I cannot wait for this type of drive to be consumerized so that I can have an all SSD system and get rid of my last 2 HDDs in the house.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    10766287 said:
    10765727 said:
    Where can we buy a 512GB SSD for the $250 you've advertised?
    eBay. Some have been selling for as low as $200.

    Aaaah, good 'ole eBay. I've never purchased from there but if these are new drives with the same return policies that you'd find at a reputable retailer then woot! ...good deals to be had indeed!
    Reply
  • mapesdhs
    It never ceases to amaze me that so few seem to appreciate the
    difference between consumer and Enterprise markets. As CaedenV says,
    for Enterprise customers this is a superb product, I'm sure it will
    sell very well indeed. The article headline made it clear this product
    is not aimed at consumers; comments from the latter about pricing and
    eBay are irrelevant.

    Re small businesses, I know of a few who survive on old 2nd-hand
    hardware (by that mean typically P4 era tech at best, maybe
    Core/Core2); over time I've helped them out with replacement SCSI
    drives, etc., but I always tell them buying on the cheap is a false
    economy in the long term as it provides marginal growth potential, and
    they're always operating on the edge of reliability. Too many small
    businesses operate on the assumption that cheapest is always best;
    they seem oblivious to the concept of long term TCO (eg. long term
    power usage of old tech often wipes out the apparent upfront cost
    saving). Usually, the sysadmins understand and agree, but they're not
    the ones making the decisions. And don't even get me started on small
    business backup strategies... :\

    Ian.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    10766550 said:
    It never ceases to amaze me that so few seem to appreciate the
    difference between consumer and Enterprise markets. As CaedenV says,
    for Enterprise customers this is a superb product, I'm sure it will
    sell very well indeed. The article headline made it clear this product
    is not aimed at consumers; comments from the latter about pricing and
    eBay are irrelevant.

    Re small businesses, I know of a few who survive on old 2nd-hand
    hardware (by that mean typically P4 era tech at best, maybe
    Core/Core); over time I've helped them out with replacement SCSI
    drives, etc., but I always tell them buying on the cheap is a false
    economy in the long term as it provides marginal growth potential, and
    they're always operating on the edge of reliability. Too many small
    businesses operate on the assumption that cheapest is always best;
    they seem oblivious to the concept of long term TCO (eg. long term
    power usage of old tech often wipes out the apparent upfront cost
    saving). Usually, the sysadmins understand and agree, but they're not
    the ones making the decisions. And don't even get me started on small
    business backup strategies... :\

    Ian.

    Out my way I am seeing more and more businesses finally understanding that old equipment really dosn't work well for them in the long run (especially used drives). But the sticker shock of newer server equipment is still a bit much for them, so instead I am seeing them get mid to high end consumer equipment, and using that as their server. It is not the best solution, but if a company just needs a system that stores/shares files across a network then I guess it works. At least it is a step above used server grade equipment, and more and more businesses are actuially using RAID instead of single drives... *sigh*
    Reply
  • mavroxur
    10765727 said:
    10765549 said:
    Buy four 512 SSD's for a quarter of that price...

    Where can we buy a 512GB SSD for the $250 you've advertised?


    A quarter of $3,900 is $250? Where did you go to school?
    Reply