A hybrid array is a form of

hierarchical storage management Hierarchical storage management (HSM), also known as Tiered storage, is a data storage and Data management technique that automatically moves data between high-cost and low-cost storage media. HSM systems exist because high-speed storage devices, ...

that combines

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...

s (HDDs) with

solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is a ...

s (SSDs) for I/O speed improvements. Hybrid storage arrays aim to mitigate the ever increasing price-performance gap between HDDs and DRAM by adding a non-volatile flash level to the memory hierarchy. Hybrid arrays thus aim to lower the cost per I/O, compared to using only SSDs for storage. Hybrid architectures can be as simple as involving a single SSD

cache Cache, caching, or caché may refer to: Places United States * Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County * Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah * Cache County ...

for desktop or laptop computers, or can be more complex as configurations for data centers and

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

Implementations

Some commercial products for building hybrid arrays include: *

Adaptec Adaptec was a computer storage company and remains a brand for computer storage products. The company was an independent firm from 1981 to 2010, at which point it was acquired by PMC-Sierra, which itself was later acquired by Microsemi, which itse ...

demonstrated the MaxIQ series in 2009. * Apple's

Fusion Drive Fusion Drive is a type of hybrid drive technology created by Apple Inc. It combines a hard disk drive with a NAND flash storage (solid-state drive of 24 GB or more) and presents it as a single Core Storage managed logical volume with the sp ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

software includes

bcache bcache (abbreviated from ''block cache'') is a cache in the Linux kernel's block layer, which is used for accessing secondary storage devices. It allows one or more fast storage devices, such as flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs), to act as ...

dm-cache dm-cache is a component (more specifically, a target) of the Linux kernel's device mapper, which is a framework for mapping block devices onto higher-level virtual block devices. It allows one or more fast storage devices, such as flash-base ...

, and

Flashcache Flashcache is a disk cache component for the Linux kernel, initially developed by Facebook since April 2010, and released as open source in 2011. Since January 2013, there is a fork of Flashcache, named EnhanceIO and developed by sTec, Inc. Si ...

(and its fork

EnhanceIO EnhanceIO is a disk cache module for the Linux kernel. Its goal is to use fast but relatively small SSD drives to improve the performance of large but slow hard drives. Overview EnhanceIO makes it possible to add an SSD or other fast disk device ...

). * Condusive's

ExpressCache ExpressCache is a Microsoft Windows, Windows-based SSD caching technology developed by Condusiv Technologies and licensed to a number of laptop manufacturers including Acer Inc., Acer, ASUS, Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, and Fujitsu. ExpressCache is also ...

is marketed for laptops. *

EMC Corporation Dell EMC (EMC Corporation until 2016) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and Round Rock, Texas, United States. Dell EMC sells data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, clo ...

VFcache was announced in 2012. *

Fusion-io Fusion-io, Inc. was a computer hardware and software systems company (acquired by SanDisk Corporation in 2014) based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, that designed and manufactured products using flash memory technology. The Fusion was marketed ...

acquired ioTurbine in 2011, and the product line it acquired by buying NexGen in 2013. *

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Accelerated Flash Storage (HAFS) used together with the Hitachi Dynamic Tiering software * IBM Flash Cache Storage Accelerator (FCSA) server software * Intel's

Smart Response Technology In computer data storage, Smart Response Technology (SRT, also called SSD Caching before it was launched) is a proprietary caching mechanism introduced in 2011 by Intel for their Z68 chipset (for the Sandy Bridge–series processors), whic ...

for desktop * Intel's

Cache Acceleration Software The Intel Cache Acceleration Software (CAS) is a computer data storage product for solid-state drive (SSD) caching. Description CAS manages using the SSD storage as a cache layer for slower storage data (e.g. spinning hard drives). A cached copy of ...

for servers and workstations * LSI CacheCade software for their controllers * Marvell's HyperDuo controllers * Microsoft's Automated Tiering (since Windows 2012 R2) *

NetApp NetApp, Inc. is an American hybrid cloud data services and data management company headquartered in San Jose, California. It has ranked in the Fortune 500 from 2012–2021. Founded in 1992 with an IPO in 1995, NetApp offers cloud data service ...

's Flash Cache, Flash Pool, Flash Accel * Oracle Corporation markets products such as

Exadata The Oracle Exadata Database Machine (Exadata) is a computing platform optimized for running Oracle Databases. Exadata is a combined hardware and software platform that includes scale-out Intel x86-64 compute and storage servers, RoCE or Infini ...

Smart Cache Flash, and the FS1 flash storage system. * Microsoft

ReadyBoost ReadyBoost (codenamed EMD) is a disk caching software component developed by Microsoft for Windows Vista and included in later versions of Windows. ReadyBoost enables NAND memory mass storage CompactFlash, SD card, and USB flash drive devices t ...

allows personal computers to

USB flash drive Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply ( interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A bro ...

s as cache. * Nvelo DataPlex SSD caching software was announced in 2011, and was acquired by

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

in 2012. *

SanDisk SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquir ...

FlashSoft for Windows, Linux, and

vSphere VMware vSphere (formerly VMware Infrastructure 4) is VMware's cloud computing virtualization platform. It includes an updated vCenter Configuration Manager, as well as vCenter Application Discovery Manager, and the ability of vMotion to move m ...

* Products are offered by vendors like AMI StorTrends, Tegile Systems, Reduxio, and Tintri. *

ZFS ZFS (previously: Zettabyte File System) is a file system with volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris – including ZFS – were published under an ope ...

using hybrid storage pools, are used for example in some Oracle Corporation products.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Data management Solid-state caching Memory management software

Implementations

See also

References