When Qumulo tells you the usable storage capacity of our file system, we mean exactly that: this is the capacity you can use to store files, regardless of file size and without adversely affecting performance. It seems straightforward, yet this is a statement that most file storage and NAS vendors can’t make.
In fact, taking into account the inefficiencies of traditional data protection methods and the performance problems that can come with full utilization, most storage vendors recommend you leave at least 20 percent, and often as much as 30 percent, of your storage capacity reserved to maintain the performance of your system. In addition to this 20-30 percent, vendors often require additional capacity reserved for data protection or for administration.
No Need to Reserve Storage Capacity to Preserve Performance
For example, given our leading-edge restripe and rebalance performance, the Qumulo File Data Platform can safely run at 2-drive protection where others require 3-drive protection. The difference between 2-drive and 3-drive protection can be up to 15 percent of raw capacity. Certain vendors also have a “small file tax” where managing small files less than 128K in size, adds to the problem of not being able to use all of your storage.
Think about that: depending on your configuration, you may need to allocate 20 to 30 percent of your traditional storage to ensure performance, up to 15 percent for data protection, and a few more percentage points to be able to perform standard maintenance tasks. You, in fact, paid 40 to 50 percent more for your usable storage than you thought you did.
The tradeoff between utilization and performance is also very familiar to storage administrators. Many scale-up systems, RAID-based systems, and some of the more popular open-source file systems experience performance degradation as the storage starts to be consumed. To avoid performance problems, you’re supposed to stay under 70 percent of usable capacity. When you exceed the recommended usable capacity, you can experience significant performance problems. Which means you need to be constantly monitoring your platforms.
You shouldn’t have to choose between utilization and performance—but that’s the position many vendors put you in. We know this is what you have come to expect but we challenge you to raise your expectations.
Storage Administrators Can Choose Performance and Utilization
Unlike some legacy storage vendors, Qumulo’s performance doesn’t degrade as your system fills. Instead of keeping 30 percent of your capacity in reserve, you can go ahead and use 100 percent of it, storing billions of files with no impact on performance.
Over 25 percent of Qumulo’s customers show actual usage is over 80 percent of capacity on a regular basis; for example:
Qumulo Customer Actual Usage
Satellite, imagery 99.0%
Large Game Developer 94.8%
Creative Studio 94.9%
Creative Studio 94.7%
Creative Studio 92.4%
IT Service Management 91.8%
Creative Studio 93.8%
Design Engineering 91.2%
No more over provisioning. No more paying for storage you don’t use. No more dealing with performance degradation as you consume more storage. With Qumulo File Data Platform you can use 100 percent of usable capacity (available capacity after erasure coding protection) for files with confidence.
Manage File Data Usage with Real-Time Analytics
One of our file data services is Qumulo Aware. it provides you with the ability to monitor and manage real-time performance, capacity, and usage, even for file counts numbering in the billions. With our real-time analytics, you gain insights and can prevent issues before they occur. Further, you can efficiently plan for future growth. Up-to-the-minute analytics allows administrators to rapidly pinpoint problems and effectively control how storage is used.
Your data is too important to leave to outdated legacy storage methods or to vendors with a loose grip on the concept of “usable capacity.” Qumulo delivers the transparency, predictability, and performance you need for modern digital-era data storage on premises and on the cloud.
When evaluating enterprise data storage solutions, make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Be sure to compare the Qumulo solution to a 70 percent-usable capacity of legacy NAS vendors to understand the true cost you will be paying. Add to this the resulting environmental efficiencies (RU’s, power, HVAC) and Qumulo is the obvious choice.
Now is the time to get what you paid for.
Originally published in December 2020, we’ve updated this story for comprehensiveness.
Learn More
- Read this blog post to learn why organizations are upgrading to Qumulo, including our ability to give them 100% of what they pay for.
- Find out What’s New in our file data platform, including a new suite of data services.
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