The Micron 7400 SSD: SSD storage for demanding data centers

Data center workloads are constantly changing. In just a few short years, we have seen Artificial Intelligence (AI) rapidly move from research topics to integration into high-value data center workloads, with 5x the growth of projects from IA planned over the past two years.¹

We have seen a heterogeneous computational scale used on a larger class of workloads. The IEEE noted in a recent article that “… heterogeneous computer architectures have been powering the world’s best supercomputers for many years and are now finding wider adoption in industry.²

Capacity per SSD continues to grow. Forward Insights noted that the average capacity of enterprise PCIe SSDs is expected to increase by over 70% over the next five years to 6,403 GB (2020 to 2025).³

In the same report, they also predicted that Flash Optimized Enterprise and Data Center SSD (EDSFF) E1 and E3 form factors will become an important part of the overall enterprise SSD form factors. (around 16% by 2025). While the demand for conventional form factors, such as M.2 and U.2, decreases in the same time frame, they still make up the majority of this SSD mix. This means that data center architects will need flexibility during the transition period from M.2 and U.2 form factors to EDSFF.

The smart advantage grows⁴, businesses capturing and analyzing data closer to the origin, while leveraging the benefits of cloud architectures⁵ including efficiency, cost reduction, flexibility, mobility and many more. These trends require flexible SSDs that can scale from edge to cloud.

With these advances, we still face challenges. For example, security is a priority for businesses. Data breaches in the first half of 2021 exposed 18.8 billion records.⁶Securing infrastructure from the edge to the cloud throughout the product lifecycle requires a new, simple, scalable, and cost-effective approach.

To meet the growing demands of today and the demands of tomorrow, storage must evolve. To thrive in these harsh conditions, you need three things: flexibility, performance, and security of storage solutions.

To help answer all three, we built the Micron® 7400 SSD with NVM Express â„¢ (NVMe â„¢). It is state-of-the-art storage that meets the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s servers with performance to match the workload and enhanced data security.

Flexibility to adapt to your designs

Micron 7400 SSD Offers World’s Largest SSD Portfolio⁷ for the data center. With U.3, M.2 and E1.S form factors, it is designed to meet changing energy and thermal needs. It offers a wide capacity range from 400GB to 7.68TB, supporting booting through high capacity storage applications. It’s the only one⁸ PCIe Gen4 U.3 form factor with 7mm and 15mm z heights. And this is the only one⁸ PCIe Gen4 M.2 22 x 80mm with power failure protection specially designed for server startup.

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Scalable PCIe Gen4 performance

The Micron 7400 SSD is native PCIe Gen4 with PCIe Gen3 backward compatibility, so it can be used in PCIe Gen3 and PCIe Gen4 servers. The Micron 7400 SSD uses this backward and forward compatibility to ease your transition to Gen4. All Micron 7400 SSDs can run on Gen4 and Gen3 platforms, making sourcing and support easy.

The Micron 7400 delivers the performance and scalability you need:

2X The throughput of our previous generation data center SSD with NVMe (Micron 7300 SSD)
128 NVMe namespaces to maximize configurability
Gen4 Native PCIe with full PCIe Gen3 backward compatibility for an easier data center transition

Security⁹ for your most precious possessions

The Micron 7400 SSD is at the forefront of security, leveraging Micron’s security expertise to deliver a comprehensive set of features to help ensure data security, all with hardware-based performance.

Micron’s first SSD with OCP support

The Open Compute Project (OCP) has developed and published specifications that have built a thriving and standardized ecosystem. This ecosystem helps reduce the complexity of deployment and accelerate the time to market of the latest technologies, from the cloud to the distributed edge.

Micron has supported industry standards like this for decades and continues to support them as the foundation for rapid innovation around the world. Micron 7400 SSD is Micron’s first SSD designed for select OCP deployments^ten and is available in EDSFF form factors.

Summary

With our release of the Micron 7400 SSD, we bring all the benefits of our NAND leadership, controller design, DRAM expertise, global customer labs, world-class supply chain, and manufacturing organizations into the development of our data center SSDs.

Building on Micron’s history of innovation and technological leadership, our version of the Micron 7400 SSD delivers the industry-leading flexibility, performance and security to meet the needs of ever-changing data center workloads.

Ready to learn more?

Visit micron.com/7400

¹ Gartner AI and ML Development Strategy, Gartner, July 2019. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-07-15-gartner-survey-reveals-leading-organizations-expect-t

² Heterogeneous computer systems for complex scientific discovery workflows: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9474061

³ Forward Insights Report “SSD Q3 / 21 Update”

⁴What is advanced computing? Here’s why the perk matters and where it’s heading https://www.zdnet.com/article/where-the-edge-is-in-edge-computing-why-it-matters-and-how-we-use-it/

⁵ 14 incredible benefits of cloud computing for businesses: https://www.techfunnel.com/information-technology/benefits-of-cloud-computing/

⁶ Data breaches in the first half of 2021 exposed 18.8 billion records https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/95793-data-breaches-in-the-first-half-of-2021-exposed-188-billion-records

⁷ Statement based on comparison of Micron 7400 SSD and other commercially available data center SSDs with NVMe â„¢. The Micron 7400 supports seven form factors, has a capacity ranging from 400GB to 7.68TB, is available in U.3 with z heights of 7mm and 15mm, and is the only PCIe Gen4 M.2 22 x 80mm with power loss protection specifically for server startup use.

⁸ Statement based on comparison of the Micron 7400 SSD and other readily available open market data center SSDs with NVMe â„¢ at the time of product launch.

⁹ No hardware, software or system can provide absolute security under all conditions. Micron assumes no responsibility for any lost, stolen, or corrupted data resulting from the use of any Micron product, including products that incorporate any of the security features mentioned. Not all features are available on all products.

^ten The Micron 7400 SSD meets most, but not all, of the Open Compute Project NVMe Cloud SSD 1.0a specification requirements. Contact your account manager for more details.

All complaints are valid from the date of posting.