Many of the apps and services we use every day depend on the high-performance data access characteristics of block storage to support modern technologies like lightning-fast transactions, near-real-time analytics, and seamless virtual environments, among many others. Now that cloud providers offer block storage options, companies that are currently using on-premises arrays may be interested in seeing whether a move to the cloud could open new levels of flexibility and scalability—without sacrificing the operational consistency that keeps their business-critical workloads running smoothly.
To bolster the benefits of cloud-based block storage solutions, some vendors offer virtual storage solutions that seek to combine the agility of the cloud with the simplified data management of familiar enterprise storage management tools. We compared the performance of two such services: Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS and a competing service from a leading storage company we called Vendor A. We tested both solutions in two different configurations—Elastic Block Store (EBS) only and local NVMe SSDs. To gauge the performance of each solution, we used the Vdbench I/O workload utility to measure storage performance and performance stability over the course of several runs.
Our tests showed that the Dell APEX solution offered much stronger storage performance than the Vendor A solution in both the NVMe-supported and EBS-backed configurations. The Dell APEX solution also demonstrated greater performance consistency, achieving similar results across 10 runs, while the performance of the Vendor A solution declined over time to a lower steady state on some configurations.
On the Dell APEX solution, we also tested the scalability of the NVMe-supported configuration at 12-node and 24-node counts. The Vendor A solution does not scale beyond two nodes. Dell reports that their solution can scale to 512 nodes, a capability that could help to ensure that your team has plenty of capacity for future growth.
For companies considering a shift to the flexibility and convenience of block storage in the cloud, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS can provide a highly scalable, fast-performing solution that’s paired with the familiarity and proven value of the types of enterprise storage management features that often accompany on-premises infrastructure.
To learn more about our cloud-based block storage performance comparison tests, check out the report and infographic below.
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