Nimble Storage announced the results of benchmark tests demonstrating that Nimble arrays deliver unparalleled performance and capacity for storage supporting users of Microsoft Exchange email. In Microsoft Exchange 2010 Jetstress tests validated by Microsoft, Nimble arrays supported up to 12 times the number of Microsoft Exchange mailboxes per disk as competitive storage offerings. The benchmark test requires storage system providers to architect an Exchange Mailbox Resiliency solution and demonstrate how their storage arrays support typical Exchange workloads in an enterprise environment.

In the testing, Nimble targeted 20,000 mailboxes, each averaging 150 emails per day. Among the final documented figures, a single 3U Nimble array with 12 spindles delivered performance above that of arrays with up to 128 spindles from other leading storage vendors. These benchmark comparisons validate Nimble's ability to provide significantly higher performance, capacity, density and efficiency than competitive storage offerings.

Nimble Storage arrays are designed to deliver high IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second) and highly efficient data compression, enabling a single array to simultaneously support major enterprise applications such as Microsoft Exchange and SQL server, custom applications, and hundreds of virtual desktops.

The Microsoft Exchange 2010 Jetstress benchmark test comprises four tests designed to measure effectiveness of the storage solution in typical enterprise environments. The benchmarking consists of a two-hour performance test, a 24-hour performance test, a backup test, and a soft recovery test. In the tests, Nimble's hybrid approach to storage, patented Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout (CASL) architecture, and efficient inline compression combined to demonstrate the superior performance and capacity of the Nimble array.

"These benchmarking results validate the potential for real business impact from Nimble's hybrid storage architecture," said Mark Peters, senior analyst at Enterprise Storage Group. "By designing its architecture from the ground up to integrate SSDs with high-capacity disks, Nimble effectively disconnects attainable performance from a reliance on acquiring high spindle counts, an approach that can not only significantly improve the $/IOPS of its system compared to all-spinning-disk platforms, but can also contribute to dramatically better overall $/GB as well as reduced backup times."

The benefits of performance and capacity efficiency as demonstrated by Nimble during Microsoft benchmark testing also allow Nimble arrays to provide demonstrable energy savings. Nimble's CASL file system maximizes storage rack density for both performance and capacity, which allows enterprises to save 75 percent on floor space for data storage. In addition, Nimble arrays' high performance per spindle greatly reduces the amount of power required in comparison with legacy SAN solutions. Nimble arrays require 500 watts, in comparison with an average of 2,300 watts to achieve similar performance on legacy storage platforms.