Power Consumption is one of the major benefits of implementing an All Flash Array. Whilst performance is normally the main driver, the benefits associated with improved power consumption are real and compelling.
All Flash arrays are able to reduce power usage in a number of ways. In doing so all flash can realise actual cash savings for the business by reducing energy bills.
First, SSD memory simply consumes less power than traditional hard drives. This is largely due to the fact that a HDD is mechanical with moving parts that requires more energy to drive the process of spinning the platters and moving the heads in order to read or right data. Even at rest or when idle, an HDD consumes around 0.4 watts as opposed to 0.06 watts for an SSD in the same state. Multiply that into the 100s of drives that may populate an enterprise arrays and the impact on power savings are clear.
Because SSDs use less power and not mechanical they also create less heat, which by default means that less cooling is required. Cooling can be a large element of energy costs that a datacentre racks up. Therefore, the reduced cooling requirements for an all flash array leads to tangible savings in power consumption and energy bills.
The speed of flash arrays over HDD based arrays is also a factor in power savings. Disks and hence arrays, draw most power when they are in use. Accordingly, if a task or an operation takes longer to perform, then the associated higher power demand will also be required for longer. The following basic example spells this out clearly. If a large database report takes 10 hours to run and complete using an HDD based array and the same report takes 2 hours to run and complete using an all flash array, then clearly the active period where energy requirements are high has been reduced 5 times.
can you please rework this part -The explanation is the less power is because SSD is not mechanical anymore so using leass power and colling. It is not because they done the the task faster.
In addition, each individual SSD delivers more IOPs (performance) than a single HDD. This means where performance is required over capacity, less individual SSDs are required to deliver the same amount of IOPs. If one SSD can deliver the same IOPs as four HDDs, power savings will be derived.
Not all Flash arrays are designed in the same way. Some are built for performance while others place more focus on specifics such as power savings and efficiency. NetApp is an example of a company that offers several all flash ranges that deliver differences in functional design and focus such as power efficiency. More details on the NetApp Flash offerings are available at this link.
