Nowadays, innovation isn’t just a luxury—it’s a necessity. As hyperscalers, cloud service providers (CSPs), and enterprises push the boundaries of what’s possible with data, the underlying infrastructure must keep up. VAST Data has consistently stayed ahead of the curve and, with the introduction of the EBox, we’re setting even higher standards for scalability, resilience, and performance.
The EBox offers a compact, powerful hardware platform that integrates seamlessly into existing data center environments. But it’s more than just a hardware upgrade; it introduces a critical new component called metadata triplication, which will redefine how data resilience is managed in large-scale deployments. In this blog post, we’ll explore how the EBox and metadata triplication are poised to make a real impact on organizations.
Evolution of Data Center Infrastructure
Since 2019, VAST’s Disaggregated, Shared Everything (DASE) architecture has become the backbone of many modern data centers. By separating compute from storage, DASE enables greater flexibility and scalability. With the introduction of the EBox, VAST can take this architecture to the next level by integrating the capabilities of our CBoxes and DBoxes into a single, more efficient hardware platform.
The EBox is designed to address the growing needs of hyperscalers and CSPs that require infrastructure capable of handling massive data volumes and complex workloads. By combining the best features of its predecessors into a more compact form factor, the EBox not only saves valuable rack space but also enhances the overall performance and resilience of the data center.
Compact and Powerful Hardware Integration
The EBox packs a significant amount of power into a small footprint. It features two PCI Express (PCIe) slots for front-end and back-end connectivity, utilizing NVIDIA CX-7 interface cards for high-speed data transfer. A single AMD Genoa 48-core processor is at its heart, supported by 384GB of memory, three storage-class memory (SCM) drives, and nine 30TB NVMe SSDs.
This level of hardware integration allows the EBox to deliver the same high performance and resilience as previous VAST Data implementations in a more compact, infrastructure friendly package, without compromising on space or power efficiency. Built for demanding workloads, the EBox is an ideal choice for enterprises optimizing their data center infrastructure.
Minimum Cluster Size and Data Resilience
One of the most significant changes introduced with the EBox is the minimum cluster size of 11 units. While this may sound like a lot, it’s essential for maintaining VAST’s high standards for data resilience and rapid recovery. The architecture keeps data secure with minimal downtime, even in the event of hardware failures.
Metadata triplication reinforces this resilience by ensuring every read or write operation is replicated across three EBoxes within the cluster. This design minimizes the risk of data loss and accelerates recovery, ensuring data operations can continue with minimal disruption.
Enhanced Metadata Management with Metadata Triplication → Enhanced Resilience with Metadata Triplication
Metadata triplication is one of the most critical advancements introduced with the EBox. In traditional storage architectures, metadata is often a single point of failure, leading to costly downtime and data loss. With metadata triplication, VAST addresses this vulnerability by ensuring metadata is replicated across multiple EBoxes.
This approach ensures sustained performance and rapid recovery, even during failures. By distributing metadata across three different EBoxes, the system can continue to operate even if one or two units fail, preserving data integrity and keeping applications running. While metadata triplication adds overhead to metadata writes and a small dent to metadata capacity, it ends up being an efficient solution for boosting resilience at scale.
For hyperscalers, CSPs, and enterprises, metadata triplication marks a significant advancement in data management. It provides the peace of mind that comes with knowing data is protected against hardware failures, while also enabling faster recovery times and sustained performance—even in demanding environments.
Strengthened Industry Partnerships and Future-Proofing
The EBox launch also signals a deeper integration with key industry partners like Cisco. Built to support Cisco’s Hyperfabric for AI solutions, the EBox enhances the collaboration between these two companies and underscores VAST’s commitment to providing resilient, scalable, and high-performance infrastructure solutions for today’s data centers.
By aligning with industry leaders, VAST ensures its solutions are compatible with the latest technologies and can integrate seamlessly into existing infrastructures. This is critical for organizations that need to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving market.
Pulling It All Together
The EBox redefines data center infrastructure, combining compact and powerful hardware with innovative features like metadata triplication for unmatched resilience, performance, and scalability. For hyperscalers, CSPs, and enterprises, the EBox offers a pathway to optimized infrastructure, meeting the demands of today’s workloads and preparing for tomorrow’s challenges.
As data volumes continue to grow and workloads become more complex, having an infrastructure that can keep up is essential. VAST’s EBox leads the way here, equipping organizations with the tools necessary to thrive in the era of big data and AI.
For more information, see the VAST Data White Paper and the section on “The VAST Data Platform” here.
