Intel Launches High-Endurance SSDs for Maximum I/O Operation

One week after Intel Developer Forum 2011 and we’re still getting news from the event. Intel has been steadily growing its solid state storage offerings, and its latest iteration of SSDs have been outfitted with features that Intel believes will meet the most demanding data center requirements. Storage VARs serving massive data centers might want to read on. Intel’s platter-less drives are starting to make The VAR Guy’s head spin …

Intel’s new SSDs come with everything but pinstripes and a spoiler. Uniquely designed for extremely demanding environments, the SSD 710 series comes in 100GB, 200GB and 300GB sizes, with 25nm MLC NAND flash, complimented by 4K random write speeds that redline at 2,700 IOPS while random read speeds top out at 38,500 IOPS. Added bonus? Intel had the foresight to include surplus NAND flash inside each SSD unit.  Our resident blogger translates: If you’re running any sort of high I/O operation, Intel has the bases covered with with power-friendly, super-speed drives with failover flash chips, should any of the internal SSD components die.

Of course, these drives come with Intel’s High Endurance Technology, which helps the drives achieve enterprise-ready reliability when deployed in data centers. The 710 series also allows for 128-bit preconfigured encryption and built-in temperature monitoring. For paranoid IT admins, these new drives can also be “overprovisioned,” meaning, IT admins can shrink the size of a drive and use the unused flash chips for redundant failover or operating-specific tasks such as garbage collection to ensure optimal SSD speed and efficiency.

Intel is positioning these drives as perfect for financial data centers, search engine servers, large-scale storage services and other “I/O-starved” applications. But getting your hands on them isn’t exactly cheap — these heavy-duty SSDs clock in at $649 for the initial 100GB version (and that’s per 1,000-unit package). For the 200GB and 300GB versions, the price tag is set at $1,289 and $1,929 respectively.

If you feel the need for speed and don’t need to spare a penny, Intel’s hot ticket SSDS are out now and waiting to populate your data center.