Huawei Launches OceanStor Dorado Storage Arrays, Setting New Performance Standard

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OceanStor Dorado

Huawei has launched its latest, seventh generation of OceanStor Dorado storage systems, specifically engineered to tackle critical and demanding workloads, such as AI applications, with heightened efficiency and reliability. These newly released OceanStor Dorado storage arrays feature substantial performance enhancements and robust data protection capabilities, making them ideal for organizations that require top-tier solutions for mission-critical tasks.

Different Product Groups

The new OceanStor Dorado product line is segmented into three primary categories to address various enterprise requirements:

  1. High-End Models: The 8000 and 18000 series offer the most advanced performance and capacity.
  2. Mid-Range Models: The 5000 and 6000 series strike a balance between performance and affordability.
  3. Entry-Level Models: The 3000 series caters to businesses needing reliable storage at a lower capacity and cost.

Among these, the Dorado 18000 stands out as a flagship offering, demonstrating a remarkable performance leap. According to Huawei, the Dorado 18000 series is capable of delivering up to three times the speed of its predecessor, made possible by innovative technological advancements like DPU-based SmartNICs. These specialized network interface cards optimize system operations by effectively managing the data flow separate from control processes, resulting in smoother and more efficient data handling.

Boost in Performance with New Technology

The Dorado 18000 series achieves its impressive performance through integrated CPU offload hardware, allowing the central processing unit (CPU) to delegate specific tasks to specialized components. This offloading strategy frees up CPU resources for other critical functions, enhancing overall system performance. Additionally, the Dorado 18000 series employs an improved FLASHLINK algorithm, optimizing the synergy between disk controllers and Data Processing Units (DPUs). This intelligent collaboration enables the system to deliver over 100 million IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second), highlighting its capability to process vast amounts of data swiftly.

Moreover, the Dorado 18000 system is designed for extremely low latency, achieving an impressive 0.03 milliseconds of delay. This near-instantaneous data request and transfer capability ensure faster response times in critical applications. Scalability is another highlight, with configurations supporting up to 32 controllers and a substantial storage capacity of up to 500 petabytes (PB), making it perfect for businesses with extensive data storage requirements.

Data Protection and Efficiency

In addition to performance enhancements, the seventh-generation OceanStor Dorado products come equipped with various offload engines that boost data management and protection. These engines handle tasks such as deduplication and compression, helping organizations optimize storage, save space, and reduce operational costs.

Furthermore, the Dorado systems include integrated ransomware detection features, crucial in today’s evolving digital landscape where cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated. Huawei claims that the Dorado series is built for high reliability, boasting an uptime rating of 99.99999 percent. This remarkable reliability is facilitated by the SmartMatrix full-mesh architecture, allowing the system to operate smoothly even amidst multiple hardware failures. For instance, the system can withstand the failure of up to seven out of eight controllers without any service interruptions, ensuring continuous data and application availability.

Ransomware Protection and Recovery with OceanStor Dorado

Huawei’s Dorado series takes data protection further with advanced ransomware defenses across both SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network-Attached Storage) environments. The system’s ransomware detection capabilities reportedly achieve a detection rate of up to 99.99 percent, effectively identifying and mitigating potential threats before they escalate.

In the event of a ransomware attack or data compromise, the Dorado systems leverage intelligent snapshot correlation analysis and synthesis technologies for rapid data restoration, ensuring that 100 percent of critical information can be recovered post-incident. Continuous data protection at the I/O level further ensures that data can be restored to any specific point in time, a vital feature for businesses requiring real-time recovery to minimize downtime and data loss.

Load Balancing for Various Workloads

One of the standout features of the OceanStor Dorado systems is their active-active system design, adept at handling various workloads, including SAN, NAS, and S3 (object storage). This configuration ensures tasks are evenly distributed across multiple storage nodes, enabling optimized load balancing and system performance. Additionally, the active-active setup includes failover capabilities, ensuring automatic switching to backup nodes in case of issues, which makes the Dorado arrays particularly resilient and reliable for enterprises demanding high availability and uninterrupted service.

AI-Driven Operations Management

Huawei has also embedded advanced AI-driven technologies within the OceanStor Dorado series through a Data Management Engine (DME). This DME utilizes large language models and AI technologies to facilitate dialog-based operations and maintenance (O&M), allowing IT administrators to interact with the system intuitively. The integration of AI enhances proactive anomaly detection and system monitoring, significantly improving O&M efficiency by five times, allowing for more effective management with less manual intervention.

In addition to enhanced management capabilities, the Dorado systems are designed for improved energy efficiency. Huawei reports that the Dorado 18000 delivers 30 percent higher IOPS per watt and TB per watt compared to similar competitor products, contributing to reduced energy consumption—a key factor for organizations aiming to lower their environmental footprint while maintaining high-performance storage systems.

Future-Ready Design of OceanStor Dorado

The seventh-generation OceanStor Dorado 18000 series features a native parallel architecture that supports blocks, files, and objects concurrently, ensuring versatility for a wide array of data types and applications. The system is fully backward-compatible with existing v6 clusters, allowing current Huawei customers to seamlessly integrate the new Dorado systems into their existing infrastructure without requiring a complete overhaul. Furthermore, the system is future-proof, compatible with upcoming v8 clusters, ensuring organizations can adapt their storage needs over time.

Overcoming Political Challenges

At the Huawei Connect 2024 event in Shanghai, Yang Chaobin, Huawei’s president of ICT products and solutions, addressed the political challenges faced by the company, particularly due to American sanctions affecting its access to certain technologies and markets. Despite these obstacles, Huawei is committed to innovation and overcoming challenges. Chaobin noted that many existing customers reliant on the v6 Dorado systems have been eagerly anticipating the launch of this seventh-generation line. He expressed confidence that the v7 Dorado series represents a significant advancement, underscoring Huawei’s commitment to recovery and progress amid external limitations.

The launch of the seventh-generation OceanStor Dorado storage arrays signifies a major milestone for Huawei, offering significant advancements in performance, reliability, and security, especially for enterprises demanding robust solutions for mission-critical AI workloads. With a range of models tailored to different business needs, the new Dorado series incorporates cutting-edge technologies such as hardware offloading, DPU-based SmartNICs, and AI-driven management, delivering three times the performance of its predecessor while ensuring exceptional reliability.

Beyond performance improvements, the new Dorado arrays provide advanced ransomware protection, deduplication, and continuous data protection, crucial for businesses that cannot afford data loss or downtime. Their capacity to handle diverse workloads, alongside a future-ready design, positions the OceanStor Dorado as a long-term, scalable solution for organizations seeking to modernize their storage infrastructure.

With a strong emphasis on energy efficiency and a determination to navigate political and technological challenges, Huawei’s OceanStor Dorado 18000 series emerges as a premier choice in the competitive enterprise storage landscape.

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