Software-defined specialist StorPool claims its version 8 of its block storage solution offers 6x lower effective price per GB or up to 6x more capacity. The latest version of its homonymous solution features upgrades such as advanced data reduction features, improved storage write operations and enhanced reporting functions.
 
The latest upgrade brings increased performance (up to 10x on hybrid systems), seamless scalability and up to 80% lower TCO – across the IT stack. To do so the software relies on a cluster of servers in a distributed shared nothing architecture, and all functions are performed by all the servers on an equal peer basis. The solution runs on standard, off-the-shelf servers running Linux.
 
Designed for streamlining data storage, version 8 brings space-saving features, such as TRIM and zeroes elimination, that allow the operating system to identify data blocks that are no longer in use and that can be deleted thus freeing up capacity in the storage system. Its write back cache significantly increases the performance of storage write operations on notoriously slow hard disk drives. It enables write operations to be stored in memory, immediately acknowledged by the storage system, and then flushed to the hard disk at a later stage. This feature enables StorPool to provide exceptional performance on cost-optimized storage server configurations, without a RAID controller.
 
Reporting and usability have also been further enhanced, with changes including simplified templates and snapshot creation, a variety of space reporting options and others, to make StorPool even more user friendly and transparent.