Global cloud hosting provider Linode is rolling out NVMe (non-volatile memory express) storage across its whole block storage fleet. The upgrade will begin at the company’s Atlanta data center and spread throughout their worldwide network over the course of the next quarter.
Linode’s NVMe deployment includes the company’s first erasure-coded block storage cluster, a method for storing data in Ceph that employs an algorithm to divide data into pieces. This would result in substantial improvements in storage efficiency over replicated clusters.
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“We put a lot of effort into making our block storage platform more performant and efficient,” said Chris Aker, founder and CEO at Linode. “Using erasure-coded clusters, we’re able to extract 160% more usable storage out of the same raw disk capacity. It’s an incredible increase in storage efficiency done in a way that allows us to deliver high performance without creating a premium tier like most other providers would.”
NVMe is the next-generation solid-state drive’s hardware interface (SSDs). According to Linode, the technology has a 10-20x boost in throughput over standard spinning hard disk drives and an IOPS gain of up to 2000x. Linode claims it is one of the first hyperscale cloud providers to deploy NVMe at scale.
Performance Upgrade
Attaching highly accessible and scalable storage volumes to cloud instances would be quite simple and fast using NVMe Block Storage. When using NVMe-backed block storage, users may expect substantial performance improvements in areas like database storage and other workloads that require fast storage and high consistency.
“Making things faster is good,” added Mr. Aker. “Making them faster, more resilient, and more reliable is even better. And doing it in a way that doesn’t cost customers more is what developers have come to expect from us.”
The performance upgrade is provided for free to all Linode clients. Customers with existing block storage volumes in Linode’s 10 other global data centers will be able to migrate their block storage volumes when NVMe becomes available.
