Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile2023-24 DCIG TOP 5
HIGH-END STORAGE ARRAYS
By DCIG Lead Analyst Storage, Ken Clipperton

E M P O W E R I N G T H E I T I N D U S T R Y W I T H A C T I O N A B L E A N A LY S I S · W W W. D C I G . C O M

2023-24 DCIG TOP 5

Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile

High-End Storage Arrays

Table of Contents© 2023 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

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The Critical Need for High-End Storage Arrays

3

Reimagining High-End Storage

3

Benefits of an Effective High-End Storage Solution

3

Recent Advances in High-End Storage
3

Enhanced Cyber Resilience

4

Advances in Using Analytics

5

Storage as a Service (STaaS)

5

Object Storage

5

Cloud Integration

5

Sustainability Enhancements and Reporting

6

Distinguishing Features of the DCIG TOP 5
High-End Storage Arrays6

TOP 5 High-End Storage Array Solution Profiles

7

Infinidat InfiniBox® Series (InfiniBox SSA II/InfiniBox)

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2023-24 DCIG TOP 5

Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile

High-End Storage Arrays
The Critical Need for High-End Storage Arrays
Organizations that provide critical infrastructure to the rest of society must provide uninterrupted service availability—even in the event of a disaster. In hospitals, an interruption inservice could mean life or death for a patient. In financial institutions, a brief outage could
easily have multimillion-dollar ramifications; and an extended outage could affect a nation's
economy. Organizations in these and other critical industries—such as telecommunications, energy utilities, and transportation—depend on high-end storage arrays to provide
uninterrupted access to the world's most essential data. Many other organizations choose
high-end storage arrays for the data that is essential to their own business operations.

SOLUTION

Infinidat InfiniBox Series
COMPANY
Infinidat, Inc.
500 Totten Pond Road
Waltham, MA 02451+1 (855) 900-4634
infinidat.com

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF
INFINIDAT INFINIBOX ARRAYS• InfiniSafe cyber resilience features• Flexible acquisition options• AI inside and outside the storage system• Rapid deployment and instant capacity expansion• Infinidat white glove service
SOLUTION FEATURES EVALUATED:• Acquisition and deployment options• Workload consolidation features• Performance management• Efficiency features• Data protection and security features• Technical support

Reimagining High-End Storage
If your mental image of a high-end storage array is rack after rack full of blinking lights, you
would be right only 30% of the time. Today, half of all high-end storage arrays, including
some of the DCIG TOP 5 products in this report, fit into 8RU or less—just fourteen inchesof rack space. Thus, huge floor space requirements no longer define high-end storage.

Benefits of an Effective High-End Storage Solution
Performance and availability. An effective high-end storage solution provides consistenthigh performance and continuous availability for critical business workloads. To obtain thisresult, high-end storage must provide sufficient performance resources, storage capacity,and protocol support to serve the needs of these applications. High-end storage arrays
must also integrate into data center management and automation frameworks as well as
integrate with common enterprise software applications to secure and protect the data.
Consolidation. High-end storage arrays provide scalable capacity and storage densitythat complement the performance resources of the arrays, providing remarkable performance per floor tile and increasing the amount of work any data center can deliver.
Broad storage protocol support further enables high-end arrays to provide storage fornearly any workload.

Recent Advances in High-End Storage
This section of the report identifies some of the significant advances in high-end storage that have emerged since the publication of the 2020-21 DCIG TOP 5 High-End
Storage Arrays report.
These advances include new capabilities or enhancements around:• Cyber resilience• Advances in using analytics (AIOps)• Cloud integration• Provision of object storage• Storage as a Service (STaaS)• Sustainability enhancements and reporting

Enhanced Cyber Resilience
Every enterprise storage vendor is addressing customer concerns around data security
and cyber resilience, especially the threat of ransomware.

© 2023 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

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2023-24 DCIG TOP 5

Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile

High-End Storage Arrays
As the chart below shows, most high-end storage arrays have improved their security
posture by implementing multiple technologies, including FIPS 140-2, T10 PI, and multifactor authentication. Some have also gone through Common Criteria Certification and
STIG hardening as part of qualifying for US Department of Defense (DoD) approval.

Some high-end storage arrays
have implemented ransomware
anomaly detection so they can
detect ransomware attacks
promptly and then minimize
the impact of the attack.

N=14

Immutable snapshots. Snapshots are a fundamental part of the backup and recovery
process, and as such, these snapshots are a prime target of cybercriminals. In response,
almost all high-end storage arrays now provide immutable snapshot capabilities. Most
also incorporate backup to the cloud capabilities to provide the “different media” portionof the data protection puzzle.
Secure vault on array for rapid recovery. Some of the arrays now provide a secure vault
that is inaccessible to application hosts. The arrays direct snapshots to the secure vault.
This approach enhances both security and rapid recovery.
Ransomware anomaly detection. For some time, DCIG has been asserting that it is only
a matter of when, not if, an organization experiences a ransomware attack. Every businessleader should operate on the assumption that a cyber-attack will make it through the outerdefenses and begin to encrypt data on the array. Some high-end storage arrays have
implemented ransomware anomaly detection so they can detect ransomware attacks
promptly and then minimize the impact of the attack by:• Intercepting the writes of files infected by known ransomware, preventing the ransomware-encrypted file from being stored• Analyzing I/O logs for ransomware-like behaviors and creating a secure snapshot• Using intelligent ransomware detection algorithms to compare each new snapshotwith an existing secure snapshot
Any of the above scenarios triggers protective actions and notifies infrastructure administrators of a suspected ransomware infection.

Advances in Using Analytics
Dynamic application performance optimization. In addition to using analytics toenhance cyber resilience, some high-end storage arrays use analytics to dynamically tune
application performance in real-time based on quality of service (QoS) settings. This
dynamic tuning helps the organization honor its service level agreements (SLAs), keeps
application owners and end users happy, reduces IT help desk calls, and enables theinfrastructure to deliver the most bang for the buck.
Optimal data placement for performance vs. cost. Some high-end storage arrays use
analytics to determine the optimal placement and movement of data to achieve the best
possible balance between performance and cost. This benefits businesses by delivering
the maximum benefit from their infrastructure investments.

© 2023 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

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2023-24 DCIG TOP 5

Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile

High-End Storage Arrays
Proactive support. All the high-end storage vendors use analytics to enable some levelof proactive support, starting with automated case creation based on fault data. Most
have moved beyond that basic use case to include cross-stack analytics for faster root
cause analysis, capacity forecasting with an upgrade advisor function, and workload
modeling. These benefit businesses by enhancing uptime and agility.

Storage as a Service (STaaS)

Four of the five TOP 5 arrayfamilies now provide
S3-compatible object storage.
None of them did sothree years ago.

Maturing infrastructure automation tools and the application of artificial intelligence andmachine learning to the management of storage has created an opportunity for storage
vendors to offer their storage solutions as a service.
DCIG defines storage as a service (STaaS) as a storage consumption model where enterprises purchase storage as a subscription with billing based on storage usage, whether
deployed on-premises or in the cloud. Storage vendors bill for usage based on various
metrics, generally some combination of capacity and performance.
STaaS offers new acquisition and deployment options that give organizations greater agility and flexibility in deploying storage capacity when and where it is needed, without sacrificing the enterprise data services they rely on to store and protect vital corporate data.
STaaS solutions offer multiple business benefits, including:• Align costs more closely with revenue• Agility and flexibility to support changing business requirements• Expert management and support• Reduced staffing risks• Enhanced sustainability

Object Storage
Four of the five DCIG TOP 5 array families now provide S3-compatible object storage.
None did so three years ago. This is a testimony to the rising importance of cloud-native
applications to the enterprise. In combination with block and file protocol support, object
protocol support means that these high-end storage arrays can provide storage for nearly
any application an enterprise may run.

Cloud Integration
Most high-end storage arrays DCIG researched now support AWS S3 as a storage target.
In some cases, the S3 storage may be a snapshot destination. In other cases, arrays use
S3 as a tier for cold data to free up more expensive primary storage capacity on the array.

Sustainability Enhancements and Reporting
Sustainability is an emerging concern. Many businesses are establishing sustainability
goals and beginning to evaluate their operations in light of those goals. The recent spikein energy costs brought additional awareness to sustainability.
Data centers are a significant consumer of electricity, and storage accounts for as much as
30% of a data center's total power consumption. According to analyst Steve McDowell, “Themath works out to storage consuming about 1% of total global energy consumption.”¹

1. https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/feature/Storage-vendors-look-to-make-case-for-sustainability© 2023 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

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2023-24 DCIG TOP 5

Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile

High-End Storage Arrays
Many providers of high-end storage arrays are beginning to address both the sustainabilityof their storage systems and the sustainability reporting requirements of their customers.
However, much work remains to be done before businesses have sustainability data thatcan reliably inform acquisition decisions.

Providers of high-end storagearrays are beginning to address
sustainability. However, muchwork remains to be done before
businesses have sustainability
data that can reliably inform
acquisition decisions.

Some vendors have adopted the Product Attribute to Impact Algorithm (PAIA) streamlined
life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the carbon footprint of their products. Unfortunately,“The PAIA tools were not developed to support comparisons.”2 And, “Because of theimportance of assumptions and the prevalence of correlation, accurate comparisons of
LCA results require that all alternatives be simultaneously simulated. Because the PAIA
tools are not configured to allow for simultaneous simulation, it is not recommended that
PAIA results be used in comparisons.”3Distinguishing Features of the DCIG TOP 5
High-End Storage Arrays
Performance resources. The DCIG TOP 5 High-end Storage Arrays generally feature
more performance resources than other arrays, from CPU cores to DRAM caches andstorage network connectivity. These performance resources provide the foundation forconsolidating many workloads onto the array.
All five arrays, except the InfiniBox, support 12 or more controllers. The InfiniBox has aunique three-controller architecture that also supports non-disruptive workload migrations
among InfiniBox storage arrays.
All five arrays extend NVMe to application hosts via NVMe/FC, NVMe/TCP, or NVMe-oF(RDMA.) The reduced protocol overhead of NVMe frees up CPU cycles on the application
host while reducing storage latency.
Broader protocol support. All DCIG TOP 5 arrays offer unified storage through Fibre
Channel and iSCSI block protocol support as well as NFS and SMB file access. Several
also offer mainframe connectivity through FICON protocol support. Among the more
recent developments, four provide S3 object storage.
The combination of these capabilities means that storage for nearly any application can besupplied by, and consolidated onto, these high-end storage arrays.

TOP 5 High-End Storage Array Solution Profiles
The following solution profile identifies some of the outstanding or distinctive featuresthat helped the Infinidat InfiniBox Series earn a spot in the 2023-24 DCIG TOP 5 HighEnd Storage Arrays report.

2. https://p1-ofp.static.pub/ShareResource/social_responsibility/PAIA_Intended_Use/PAIA_Intended_Use.pdf
3. https://p1-ofp.static.pub/ShareResource/social_responsibility/PAIA_Intended_Use/PAIA_Intended_Use.pdf© 2023 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

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2023-24 DCIG TOP 5

Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile

High-End Storage Arrays
Infinidat InfiniBox® Series (InfiniBox SSA II/InfiniBox)
The all-flash InfiniBox® SSA II and hybrid InfiniBox arrays showcase Infinidat's thoroughunderstanding of enterprise high-end storage requirements. Some of the features that
helped Infinidat's InfiniBox® SSA II/InfiniBox® earn a spot in the 2023-24 DCIG TOP 5
High-End Storage Arrays report include:“The all-flash InfiniBox® SSA II
and hybrid InfiniBox arrays
showcase Infinidat’s thoroughunderstanding of enterprisehigh-end storage requirements,
including guaranteed recoveriesin less than 1 minute.”

InfiniSafe cyber resilience (no additional cost) features.
• Guaranteed recovery from the InfiniSafe repository in less than 1 minute• Immutable Snapshots• Remote Logical Air Gap• Fenced Forensic Network Environment
Flexible acquisition options. Infinidat offers two STaaS consumption and deployment
models for its InfiniBox®, InfiniBox™ SSA, and InfiniGuard® enterprise storage platforms
with a 100% availability guarantee. Infinidat also earned DCIG TOP 5 honors in theEnterprise STaaS report in July 2022.
• Elastic Pricing is a hybrid CAPEX/OPEX approach where the enterprise purchases a
percentage of the storage capacity up-front. Expansion can either be purchased or
burst month-to-month. Businesses only pay for purchased capacity but benefit fromall the devices in the system from day one.
• Infinidat FLX is a true cloud-like OPEX-based all-inclusive enterprise STaaS subscription. FLX provides pay-as-you-go scalability (up or down), with support and hardware
included for the life of the agreement.
AI inside and outside the storage system. InfiniOps AIOps includes Infinidat's
patented Neural Cache data distribution and placement engine. It uses machine learning to optimize data placement without tuning, ensuring maximum performance andreducing operational costs.
Infinidat's InfiniVerse leverages InfiniMetrics telemetry for cloud-based monitoring,
AI-based predictive analytics, and AIOps support software, enabling Infinidat support
engineers to take preventative actions before the customer is impacted.
Infinidat also leverages its comprehensive API to integrate with other enterprise AIOps vendors,such as ServiceNow and VMware. Its Host Power Tools automate many configuration tasks.
Rapid deployment and instant capacity expansion. Infinidat's fully configured, rackbased approach facilitates rapid deployment at a customer location and instant capacity
expansion. Businesses simply turn on new capacity when needed, without the risks orefforts associated with conventional upgrades.

InfiniBox SSA II

Usable/Raw

Effective

Capacity

1.3PB

3.25PB

Density

50.5TB/RU

126TB/RU

Power Efficiency*

3.65W/TB

1.46W/TB*These numbers include storage, processors, and networking.
© 2023 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

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2023-24 DCIG TOP 5

Infinidat InfiniBox Series Solution Profile

High-End Storage Arrays
For organizations requiring more high-end storage than a single InfiniBox provides, InfiniBox Online Data Mobility (ODM) enables non-disruptive workload movement between
InfiniBox systems.
Infinidat white glove service. Infinidat assigns a named engineer to each customer for theduration of the storage as a service agreement, as a Technical Advisor. The Technical Advisor is an experienced Storage Systems Engineer who provides a full spectrum of services,
including non-disruptive in-family data migrations, and acts as a customer advisor. Infinidat's
comprehensive service and support include its AIOps-based support software, 24x7x365
technical support with rapid SLA response times, and its Technical Advisor program.

About DCIGThe Data Center Intelligence Group (DCIG) empowers the IT industry with actionable analysis. DCIG analysts provide informed third-party analysis of various
cloud, data protection, and data storage technologies. DCIG independently develops licensed content in the form of DCIG TOP 5 Reports and Solution Profiles.
Please visit www.dcig.com.

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dcig.com© 2023 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. Other trademarks appearing in this document are the property of their respective owners. This DCIG report is a product of DCIG, LLC. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of theirrespective holders and should be treated as such. Product information was compiled from both publicly available and vendor-provided resources. While DCIG has attempted to verify that product information is correct and complete, feature support canchange and is subject to interpretation. All features represent the opinion of DCIG. DCIG cannot be held responsible for any errors that may appear.

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February 2023

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