London – May 4, 2021 – SoftIron Ltd., maker of purpose-built data center solutions, today announced the introduction of their Ceph-optimized, software-defined storage appliance family, HyperDrive Performance+. Leveraging the AMD EPYC 3000 processor, the new Performance+ family debuts the company’s first x86 CPU and NVMe SSD-based designs to be introduced in its HyperDrive series of storage appliances.

With the initial appliances in the HyperDrive Performance+ family (Models HD61026 and HD61052), SoftIron is targeting edge computing deployments, where high-performance, low latency operation is needed in situations where space, power, and cooling are challenges. The new appliances are ideal in use cases where powerful and efficient compact clusters are desired in order to ingest data as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. These include applications such as media and entertainment content delivery, CGI rendering, tier one research computing, fintech applications, and AI training. HyperDrive Performance+ appliances consume less than 250W of power each and provide line-rate throughput with 25GbE network connectivity, providing an ideal balance of performance and power for edge and remote workloads. Used in conjunction with other members of the HyperDrive family, and capitalizing on the automatic tiering capabilities of Ceph, Performance+ appliances are also an ideal solution in larger storage infrastructures for the provision of a high performance caching tier over less powerful, but more cost-effective spinning disk-based deployments.

“SoftIron has always been oriented towards providing the best performance value for challenging computing environments. Recent events have accelerated the need for solutions optimized around this value-proposition, as the COVID-19 pandemic changes the way both edge and even traditional data center solutions are being implemented,” said Phil Straw, CEO of SoftIron. “Our customers are increasingly telling us that they need to build cost-effective edge computing deployments that deliver efficient, resilient, performance that require as little specialized support as possible. SoftIron is committed to engineering solutions for the issues that organizations are facing today as they push computing into places that were previously unthinkable. We are the leaders in delivering the scalability and reliability that mission-critical applications require, while freeing our customers from the vendor lock-in challenges of proprietary solutions.”

The HyperDrive Performance+ family continues SoftIron’s commitment to right-sizing data center appliances to provide powerful, flexible, and durable software-defined storage in a highly efficient form factor. As with all of SoftIron storage appliances, the HyperDrive Performance+ models are uniquely engineered to maximize the operation of Ceph by eliminating I/O bottlenecks and hardware waste common in storage solutions that use commercial off-the-shelf (commodity) hardware.

Drive configuration/Capacity: 25.6 or 51.2 TB NVME Solid State Drive (SSD)
Networking: 2x Interfaces (25GbE)
Data resiliency: Configurable durability by service & protocol
Storage Protocols: Block, File, Object (Ceph-FS, RBD, S3 RADOS)
Management: 1x 1GbE, IPMI, Hyperdrive Manager
Power supply: Redundancy power (Dual Supplies); 120v – 240v; 50Hz – 60Hz
Power consumption: < 250 watts
Dimensions: 1 Rack Unit (H 44mm / W 430mm – 16.9 inches / L 899mm – 36.4 inches)

SoftIron creates the world’s best appliances for highly efficient, scale-out data center solutions, delivering industry-leading performance on all critical metrics including density, efficiency, capacity, speed, and heat emission. Performance breakthroughs are enabled through task-specific specialization; optimizing the performance of its operating software at a granular level and thus creating the ultimate productization of open source Ceph. Uniquely, SoftIron controls the entire design and build process, producing all their products within their own manufacturing facilities. As a result, SoftIron offers ‘Secure Provenance’ which is the auditable provenance on all of its data center appliances. This ensures that units are “clear-box” solutions, free of hidden componentry that is often at the root of common supply chain attacks.

The SoftIron HyperDrive Performance+ family of products are available for POC and purchase today. SoftIron offers both traditional purchasing (CAPEX) and as-a-Service (OPEX) options.

About SoftIron
SoftIron is the world-leader in task-specific appliances for scale-out data center solutions. Their superior, purpose-built hardware is designed, developed, and assembled in California, and they are the only manufacturer to offer auditable provenance. SoftIron’s HyperDrive® software-defined enterprise storage portfolio runs at wire-speed and is custom-designed to optimize Ceph. HyperSwitch™ is their line of next-generation, top-of-rack switches built to maximize the performance and flexibility of SONiC. HyperCast™ is their high-density, concurrent 4K transcoding solution for multi-screen, multi-format delivery. SoftIron unlocks more excellent business value for enterprises by delivering best-in-class products, free from software and hardware lock-in.