When the clouds are small: High-performance storage devices

/ photo Pete Birkinshaw CC

Not so long ago, we asked representatives of Russian IT companies about what data they consider possible to entrust to cloud services . As a result, some of them went a little further and told about data backup devices (for example, Time Capsule ). We decided to continue the topic and talk about interesting high-performance and high-capacity storage devices.
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ZDNet columnist Adrian Kingsley-Hughes cites as one of the most interesting examples of such VisionTek USB Pocket SSD devices, which looks just like any other high-capacity USB flash drive with a USB 3.0 connector, but is actually a portable SSD drive with high-performance SandForce controller. Read speed up to 455 MB / s, write speed up to 440 MB / s.

The solution to the problem of storing a substantial amount of data at minimal cost was combined with the provision of additional features for Smart TV, tablets and car audio systems. The cost of such a disk of 64 gigabytes of data is only 800 rubles (on Yandex.Market).

Patrick Moorehead, an analyst in this field, commented to Wired that high-performance and compact storage devices can be used to work with virtually any localized smart home solution that does not have to transfer large data sets to the cloud. As an example, Samsung’s 16TB SSD disk using 256 Gbps NAND flash memory .

If we talk about amateur RAID-storage, it is worth noting the external storage ThunderBay 4 , which is equipped with two high-speed ports Thunderbolt 2. With it, you can create arrays of RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, 1 + 0 with a capacity of 4 to 24 terabytes. To feel the control over the situation will help special software with which you can monitor performance and receive email alerts.

A more modest counterpart from Western Digital, the My Passport Pro device comes with a Thunderbolt and cable included. It includes two disks that can be configured in RAID 0 or RAID 1 (depending on what is more important - speed or data duplication). Another interesting version of the home “hub” is a portable Lexar Professional Workflow storage drive . It will provide flexible options for storing and backing up data.

Participants in thematic conferences like Storage Visions say they prefer to keep their local storage “under control,” which entails corresponding requirements. Today, it’s not entirely easy to satisfy them, and industrial-grade discs with increased capacity and performance are used. Of course, it cannot be otherwise - the requirements for local, corporate or cloud storage throughout the world continue to evolve.

One of the main problems with storage devices is the possibility of losing them. It is often not even the fact of loss that worries, how much the realization that the information is stored without any encryption, and access to it will not be difficult. Specialized software can solve this problem only in cases where they do not forget to use it.

In such a situation, “embedded” encryption is much preferable. The IronKey device not only uses 256-bit AES hardware encryption, but is designed to cope with powerful attacks, and a waterproof and extremely rugged case will help reduce the risks of adverse physical impact.

PS We try to share not only our own experience in the service of providing virtual infrastructure 1cloud , but also to talk about various research and news in related fields of knowledge.

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