Technology is evolving fast, and almost every day, we experience something new and amazing. Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is indeed one that belongs to this list of upgraded technologies. This one can replace any storage media that has been quite popular.
How Did NVMe Come Into Existence?
NVMe storage comprises excellent speed and response that makes it as efficient as RAM. Let us take a close look at the Linode NVMe Block Storage. Its recent launch has significantly impacted the expectations of the tech-pro people in the market.
So far, when it was about connecting a computer with a storage device, SATA has always been one of the most accepted technologies. Since its appearance in the market in 2000, SATA (The Serial AT Attachment) has experienced a welcoming response from the market. After all, it was a considerable improvement over the prevalent varieties of technologies of a similar kind.
SATA has a smooth and dependable communication format that is efficient enough to match the speed of spinning hard disks. Just about the time when SATA was getting integrated with the process, SSDs appeared in the market.
It was then that the experts realized that serial SATA interface can be a shortcoming for faster functioning SSDs. Besides the popularity of the next-generation SATA, some continued using the SATA technology for first-generation drives. However, with the gradual progress of technology, reputed storage vendors began to create unique solutions to reap better performance from the SSD.
Some of these vendors chose Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) – a serial expansion bus for their unique solutions. Operational delays remain associated with storage device connection and communication processes. However, PCIe supported a parallel process, which in turn made accessing data a seamless process. Irrespective of the efficacy of these solutions, these often lacked uniformity.
Consequently, the vendors found it hard to use those solutions equally effectively for all devices. Hence, they had to formulate unique wheels for each device. This took care of the problems separately but made the entire process a little complicated in terms of application and sustainability.
This is when NVMe stepped in as a savior. It provided uniform solutions which dealt with the speed and affinity of the flash media simultaneously. Headed by Intel, the NVMe Express Working group came into being consisting of 90 companies. In 2011, this group released version 1 of NVMe.
This one turned out to be way more efficient and upgraded than the other storage standards associated with SSDs. One of the features that distinctively marked the superiority of NVMe was its built-in microcontroller. This part enables the NVMe to coordinate with the CPU over the PCIe bus. Consequently, the user experiences faster and smoother operations.
Related: What Is The Significance Of NVME Technology? A Technical Information Guide
NVMe and Conventional Storage- A Comparison
Regardless of the milestones chosen, NVMe is always a better choice than conventional storage. Depending on the configuration and hardware specification, the outputs may vary from one NVMe to another. So far as the illustration is concerned, NVMe drives offer throughput gauged in gigabytes. On the other hand, conventional storages deliver throughputs of 250MB/Second.
IOPS is another parameter for measuring speed. NVMe steals the deal here as well. It typically delivers 10 to 100 times more IOPS than a conventional hard drive contributing to the overwhelming speed rendered by NVMe.
SATA’s limitation regarding supporting the serial command queues was one. On the flip side, NVMe can support up to 64K command queues of size 64K each. With faster performance, the possibility of latency reduces considerably. Compared to the latency of a spinning disk, NVMEe’s latency is considerably low.
For a handful of applications, this amazing speed of NVMe makes all the difference. Especially when it comes to the functioning of eCommerce websites or database services, speed can help businesses perform better.
Services that receive many connections at a time might find NVMe a faster and more efficient solution at any point in time due to its excellent functionality. Be it the performance density or IOPS per Gigabyte, NVMe is always a superior choice over traditional storage.
What Are The Odds?
Nothing comes without its odds and evens. For NVMe, it is the cost associated. If you have multiple devices, choose NVMe for those for which low latency can be beneficial. On the other hand, you can keep using traditional storage for applications and devices that do not get impacted by latency. If you find making the choice difficult, consult our team to get the best storage alternatives for your devices.
Conclusion
The significant speed-up available with the use of NVMe is a game-changer!
In particular, a transactional service like a database or online store website can be empowered with a faster NVMe interface. If you have a service that receives many simultaneous connections, then it is beneficial to consider the massive parallelism provided by NVMe. This is because the NVMe storage provides a greater performance density or IO gigabyte as compared to the international storage.
Every choice indeed has its trade-offs and one of the major trade-off here is the cost. The NVMe storage is more expensive per megabyte than object storage. One practical option is to use the NVMe storage to archive and for the other activities that need less-frequent access.
