HPE's new Persistent Memory servers are designed to help you make 'faster business decisions' - with help from Intel
HPE believes its new technology can differentiate it from others in the server space.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has launched 'persistent memory' that can hold on to data in the event of a power failure.
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The technology is designed to provide servers with storage that operates at the speed of memory while retaining data when the machine is switched off.
Richard Slyfield, server options category manager for EMEA at HPE, said the technology offers "significant gains" from a performance and resiliency standpoint compared to similar persistent memory options available today, such as attached a Solid State Drive (SSD) attached via PCIe.
HPE's persistent memory NVDIMMs (Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules) combine 8GB of DRAM with 8GB of flash storage. In the event of a power outage, the contents of the DRAM are backed up to the flash.
HP servers with these 8GB NVDIMMs will also include a HPE Smart Storage Battery to provide backup power.
Persistent memory will become HPE's fastest tier of ProLiant server storage. According to HPE benchmarks, NVDIMMs offer 34-times the IOPs, 16-times the bandwidth of SAS SSDs.
"Because it resides in DIMM form factor and sits on the memory bus, customers get the performance and the endurance of DRAM," said HPE's Slyfield.
Slyfield argued that firms that move to HPE's persistent memory will be able to make "faster business decisions" as they try to tap into increasing amounts of data.
"It's no secret that data is exploding and more and more customers are finding it challenging to manage that data, mine that data, and get better business results from looking at the data they have," he said.
However, HPE isn't working alone. The company has spent time working with operating system providers to ensure the technology is compatible with as many users as possible.
"What we've been doing as a company for the past 18 months is partnering with our OS partners, particularly Microsoft -- and our Linux based partners in RedHat and Hortonworks -- to get to a point where this NVDIMM technology is really going to be suited towards the market," said Slyfield.
The launch of persistent memory coincides with new additions to HPE's ProLiant Gen9 server portfolio. These include a server based on an Intel Xeon E5-2600 v41 processor, designed to offer performance gains of up to 25 percent for Gen9 servers, along with improved security.
HPE ProLiant Gen9 servers and persistent memory options are available now through HPE's channel partners, with pricing based upon server models and customer configurations. HPE 8GB NVDIMM will be available in May 2016 for initial support on HPE ProLiant DL360 and DL380 Gen9 servers with Intel E5-2600 v4 processors.