WHITE PAPER
Placing Data Center Storage Technology at the Tactical Edge
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RUGGED DATA STORAGE (RDS) SYSTEM AS A SOLUTION
RDS is an all-flash network-attached storage (NAS) system from Mercury Systems that is ruggedized for mission-critical aerospace,
defense and commercial edge applications. Designed for speed and versatility, it puts low-latency processing, scalability and data security
at the edge. Designed in collaboration with VAST Data Federal, it provides end users with a universal storage and flash-based cloud for all
their data, eliminating the bottlenecks and complex storage tiering that is traditionally required with hard disk drives and other media. This
approach, combined with a modular and disaggregated design, gives customers the ability to deploy multiple petabytes of data storage
in the harshest of environments and to securely access big data and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications.
RUGGED DATA STORAGE (RDS) SYSTEM INFOGRAPHIC
RDS comprises three major rugged subcomponents (C-Box, D-Box and Switch Box) and is deployable star ting in standard 5U
19-inch rack mount fixtures. To save space, the D-Box in RDS is 2U high, taller than the 1U high D-Boxes used in data centers but
just 22 inches deep as compared to the 38-inch depth of its data center cousin used in commercial, non-rugged applications.
The use of ruler-based E.1L flash storage, a slim rectangular and front-loadable memory stick, also saves space as compared to
traditional 2.5-inch U.2 SSDs.
Switch Box
D-Box
C-Box
Container/Computer Server Box (C-Box)
▪ High-performance computing power from four nodes,
each containing dual-socket Intel® Xeon® processors for
a total of 128 cores and 1 terabyte of processor memory.
▪ C-node protocol servers handle all file system-related
logic, such as listening for requests, interpreting them
and then accessing drives over high-speed NVMe.
Data Storage Box (D-Box)
▪ Array of 22 removable high-speed flash/
solid state drive (SSD) memory E1.L rulers can
be ejected and replaced individually.
▪ Four integrated NVIDIA Bluefield data processing
units (DPUs) move and parse data via use
of programmable acceleration algorithms
for data compression and security.
▪ NVMe-to-Ethernet connections achieve read speeds
up to 40 GB/s and write speeds up to 5 GB/s.
Switch Box
▪ Dual Mellanox 16-port 100G Ethernet switches
configured to support communications between the
D-Boxes and C-Boxes and access by end users.
Rugged
▪ RDS is designed to meet U.S. military standards,
such as MIL-STD-167, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-810 and
MIL-S-901 when used in shock-isolated cabinets.
Features
▪ Hyperscalable all-flash data infrastructure
at the cost of disk storage
▪ Low-latency access to all data (up to 100x faster than HDD)
▪ Disaggregated commodity Ethernet fabric
▪ Multi-petabyte-scale NAS and object
storage and composable flash cloud
▪ Artificial intelligence/machine
learning-ready infrastructure
▪ Advanced data compression and short-depth chassis
