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Press Release

Linode Goes All In on NVMe Block Storage

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Cloud Spectator benchmarks reveal Linode NVMe storage outperforms DigitalOcean, AWS and Azure

PHILADELPHIA, September 22, 2021 — Linode is rolling out faster, better performing, and more reliable NVMe (non-volatile memory express) storage across its entire block storage fleet. The rollout kicks off in the company’s Atlanta data center, with the remainder of its global network upgrading over the next quarter.

Linode’s NVMe rollout includes the company’s first erasure-coded block storage cluster, a method for storing data in Ceph that uses an algorithm to slice data into chunks, resulting in significant improvement in storage efficiency over replicated clusters.

“We put a lot of effort into making our block storage platform more performant and efficient,” said Chris Aker, founder and CEO at Linode. “Using erasure-coded clusters, we’re able to extract 160% more usable storage out of the same raw disk capacity. It’s an incredible increase in storage efficiency done in a way that allows us to deliver high performance without creating a premium tier like most other providers would.”

NVMe is the hardware interface for next-generation SSDs (solid-state devices). The technology represents a significant improvement over traditional spinning hard disk drives, with a 10-20x increase in throughput and up to 2000x improvement in IOPS. Linode is one of the first hyperscale cloud providers to deploy NVMe at scale.

NVMe Block Storage makes attaching highly available and scalable storage volumes to cloud instances easy and ultra-fast. With NVMe-backed block storage, customers can experience a significant performance upgrade to power use-cases such as database storage and other tasks where high storage speeds and consistency are critical.

“Making things faster is good. Making them faster, more resilient, and more reliable is even better. And doing it in a way that doesn’t cost customers more is what developers have come to expect from us,” said Aker.

Early research by Cloud Spectator research shows that Linode Dedicated and Shared plans outfitted with the new NVMe block storage outperform comparable plans from fellow alternative cloud provider DigitalOcean, as well as premium tiers from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Linode, already a price-performance leader in overall CPU benchmarks from earlier this year, will release a full report featuring its new block storage offering in early Q4.

The performance upgrade is provided free to all Linode customers. Linode Block Storage rates will remain at $0.10/GB per month. Customers with existing block storage volumes in Linode’s 10 other global data centers will be able to migrate their block storage volumes when NVMe becomes available. 

For more, visit Linode’s block storage product documentation at https://www.linode.com/docs/products/storage/block-storage/ 

About Linode

Linode accelerates innovation by making cloud computing simple, accessible, and affordable to all. Linode is part of a select group of hyperscale cloud infrastructure providers giving individual developers, small business owners and enterprise innovation teams an alternative to the costly, complex, and competitive choices they currently have in the market. Founded in 2003, Linode helped pioneer the cloud computing industry and is today the largest independent cloud provider in the world. More than a million developers and businesses across 196 countries served by a global network of 11 data centers trust Linode with their cloud computing business.

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