StoneFly announced the use of HGST FlashMAX II enterprise-class SSDs in their flash-based version of their USS Hyper-Converged appliances. StoneFly takes a simpler approach to converged architecture by incorporating local direct-attached storage for faster performance and greater flexibility.
 
Each node in a new StoneFly cluster includes flash-based storage to deliver massive IOPS for high-performance as well as enterprise hard disk drives for low-cost high-capacity storage adhering to the principles of software-defined solutions. Each volume can be provisioned as iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or NAS (CIFS/SMB and NFS). Its hypervisors allow multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) to run on a single physical host and mediate all I/O operations including read and write requests to centralized NAS and SAN storage arrays, which are typically used to provide shared storage for all of the VMs.
 
All control logic is implemented as a software-based service running on HGST FlashMAX II PCIe enterprise-class SSDs. Virtual storage controller(s) run on each cluster node improving scalability and resilience, while preventing performance bottlenecks since the storage and control logic is now local to the guest VMs.
 
The Distributed File System for StoneFly's NAS aggregates local storage across all of the nodes. There is no metadata database to limit the quantity of StoneFly USS nodes participating in the NAS cluster allowing it to easily expand (scale out). StoneFly USS appliances use a hash-based algorithm in each node to accomplish this task. This approach mitigates against latency issues associated with competing NAS cluster solutions that do utilize metadata databases.
 
StoneFly allows users to create a single storage pool that can be partitioned into one gigantic NAS volume (single namespace) or several smaller volumes and these data stores are then presented to the hypervisor. These volumes are fully POSIX-compliant for seamless integration with any applications requiring this capability.
 
StoneFly USS appliances can begin with a single node configuration and then nodes can be added in increments as small as 2U (12 drive bays) to 4U (24 Drive bays). Plus each appliance can be scaled up to support a total of 256 drives per node. Cluster nodes and their expansion nodes can be seamlessly added one at a time with zero downtime. This provides a time to value deployment of under 30-minutes with no disruption to ongoing operations.