Kaminario announced the release of its fifth-generation K2 (K2 v5) all-flash primary storage array. K2 v5 is the industry’s most cost-effective, all software-inclusive storage solution, with average pricing $2/GB usable and guaranteed effective capacity. In addition to consistent and predictable performance across single or multiple  workload environments, K2 v5 delivers on all three critical needs of enterprise storage; resiliency (guarantees 24/7/365 demand), macro efficiency (reduces CAPEX and OPEX by more than 50 percent) and business agility (drives 10 times more productivity).

In order to keep up with modern data center trends and evolving business needs, organizations must harness the power of solid-state (SSD) technology to increase the flexibility, performance and consistency in their storage solutions. According to Valdis Filks, research director with Gartner Inc., in the November 12, 2013 report, Use SSDs Rather Than Disk Striping to Improve Storage Performance and Cut Costs, “Lower-cost solid-state drive (SSD) arrays with higher levels of availability, primary deduplication and manageability have matured, and can be cost-effectively used to replace disk-striping configurations.” With K2 v5, Kaminario provides enterprises with the most affordable, all software-inclusive solution on the market that encompasses these features.The fifth-generation K2 is the only true, all-flash storage solution that can be implemented in data centers as primary storage at a lower cost than HDD based or hybrid storage arrays. With the most efficient architecture in the industry, highest capacity utilization and lowest metadata footprint, K2’s differentiators translate into tangible customer benefits, including:

• Flexible, Consistent and Predictable Scale of Performance and Capacity: The only all-flash array that supports both scale-up and scale-out architectures, allowing organizations to start small (and only pay for what they need), and grow capacity and performance based on their needs. Patent pending global variable block size algorithms automatically adapt to single or mixed workloads, thus simplifying the customers’ combined OLTP, OLAP, big data and virtual infrastructure and saving on server hardware and software licensing costs.
• Most Flexible and Scalable Data Reduction: Also the only all-flash array to support selectable global inline deduplication, an advantage for virtual environments and ability to turn it off which is a significant advantage for database environments. Global inline deduplication, inline compression, thin provisioning and 87.5% utilization K-RAIDTM lead to the highest capacity utilization within an organization.
• Comprehensive Enterprise Resiliency: Native application-aware, high performance, space efficient and scalable snapshots, native asynchronous snapshots-based replication, non-disruptive hardware and software upgrades, built-in redundancy and dual parity K-RAID provide the highest levels of availability.
• Proactive and Comprehensive HealthShieldTM: Cloud-based call-home, analytics and events-based alerts are preventive, predictive, insightful and actionable, allowing organizations to avoid unexpected downtime, increase overall productivity and reduce costs. Automated capacity management improves uptime, while comprehensive dashboards and alerts enable capacity forecasting and performance planning.
• Manageability/Tight Ecosystem Integration: Unlike legacy storage arrays, K2 v5 is extremely simple to use and does not require a dedicated storage administrator or special training and certifications. Fully automated operations with no setup or tuning required – including a rich and intuitive GUI, a full set of RESTful APIs, and support for Microsoft VSS, Oracle RMAN, vCenter plug-in and VAAI – greatly simplify the day-to-day operations and reduce OPEX.