The promise of NVMe capability
NVMe’s power essentially lies in its ability to enhance the communication between the IT system and storage solutions. Traditional communication protocols used with HDDs are based on a single queue with 32 commands; however flash and SSDs have the capacity to process much more than this. NVMe was built specifically for use with flash and SSDs, and flaunts 64,000 queues and 64,000 commands per queue. Thus, NVMe provides a performance injection for already-fast flash, enabling instant connection across thousands of parallel command queues. The performance and hence productivity gains are undeniable.
The NVMe protocol was designed to enhance the low latency and high performance of NVM storage media. It reduces the former by making the commands much more efficient, smartly streamlining them so that the flash technology only needs to read the commands required for data storage and retrieval, thus, substantially increasing performance.
In terms of cost, utilising NVMe also results in lower power consumption and smaller data footprints, lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
NVMe development and growth
The development of NVMe technology has been underway for over a decade, even before flash was fully embraced. As the price of flash storage devices continues to fall, adoption rates are rising: NVMe is the next logical step. It is poised to replace the less cost-effective and reliable existing interface standards such as SAS and SATA controller interfaces for disk used for transferring data between host systems and storage devices in datacentres today.
With its innate low latency capability perfect for handling M&E, supercomputing and enterprise workloads, NVMe technology has reached a level of maturity now placing it in a leading position. As we move closer towards an all-flash datacentre, new solutions are stepping in to exploit NVMe drives and protocols.
Innovative solutions leveraging NVMe
Cutting edge storage solutions offer software that can enable companies to maximise utilisation of NVMe flash drives that are 'pooled' across the network, providing editing workstations access to distributed high performance and low latency storage. This new approach provides centralised storage at high speeds, removing the need to copy or move data between workstations and arrays, preserving workflows.
For the M&E industry, solutions leveraging NVMe in this way could be the holy grail to future-proofing data storage. NVMe can empower organisations to scale, increase capacity, and achieve optimum data performance with workflow protection, enabling the production of high-quality content and increasingly impressive viewer experiences.
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