FLAPE Storage: Optimizing Data Management in a World Where HDD and SSD Fall Short

This blog post is a refreshed version of articles we originally published around 2016 about FLAPE and how we foresaw the evolution of combining Flash/SSD storage with tape storage.

At that time, the goal was to understand whether these two technologies—which seemed very different and even opposed—could actually have a future together, instead of spending time positioning them against each other.

This question has resurfaced due to shortages first in HDDs and now in SSD technologies, pushing us to reconsider these kinds of solutions and what is required to start organizing and storing petabytes of data with only a few dozen SSDs in the overall architecture.

When analyzing the current storage market, we see that traditional solutions like HDDs and SSDs are increasingly showing their limitations. HDDs provide massive capacity but struggle with performance, while SSDs deliver high performance but become very expensive at large scale.

So the question becomes: can we balance speed, capacity, and cost by mixing flash and tape—an approach known as FLAPE (Flash + Tape)?

What is FLAPE?

FLAPE is a tiered storage architecture designed on top of HDDs or SSDs and Tape.

• Flash (SSD/NVMe): Handles hot data that requires low-latency access and high throughput.
• Tape storage: Stores cold data efficiently, providing high capacity at a low cost per terabyte.

FLAPE ensures the right data is in the right place at the right time, hiding tape’s latency behind flash performance.

Common FLAPE approaches:

1. Flash as a cache layer: All data ultimately resides on tape, but flash accelerates frequent read/write operations.
2. Multi-tier storage: Flash holds hot/warm data while tape stores colder data, with automatic tiering based on usage patterns.
   
   

Pros & Cons

Flash advantages:

• Extremely low latency and high throughput
• No moving parts → energy-efficient, reliable

Flash limitations:

• High cost per gigabyte for large-scale storage

Tape advantages:

• Very low cost per terabyte
• Energy-efficient for long-term storage

Tape limitations:

• Slower random access compared to SSDs

FLAPE combines the speed of flash with the capacity of tape, creating a hybrid storage solution that overcomes the limits of HDDs and SSDs.

Why Nodeum is Essential

FLAPE defines the tiers, but Nodeum manages them intelligently:

• Unified namespace & global metadata: Access all data seamlessly, regardless of storage tier.
• Intelligent data movement: Automatically migrate data based on access patterns, age, tags, or compliance requirements. This movement has to be well determined to allow minimal movement between flash and tape.
• Cache acceleration & automation: Keep flash responsive while Nodeum handles background migration to tape.
• Search & governance: Find data instantly in a indexed catalog, even if it’s on tape.

How FLAPE + Nodeum Works

1. Ingestion: New data is first written to flash for speed.
2. Policy evaluation: Nodeum monitors usage and metadata.
3. Migration: Infrequently accessed data moves to tape with metadata intact.
4. Recall: Cold data can be brought back to flash if needed.
5. Lifecycle management: Retention, compliance, and tier budgets are centrally managed.