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HPE debuts hybrid storage configs: Rising SSD costs hit supercomputing

What happened

HPE is pitching high performance compute customers with new hybrid configurations of its Cray Supercomputing Storage Systems E2000, combining SSDs with new 32 TB SAS-4 (24 Gb/s SAS) HDDs and new enclosures supporting 74 or 100 drives; the latest combination offers up to 41 percent more data throughput per storage rack, with HPE saying it will deliver up to 116 GB/s of read throughput and 92 GB/s of write throughput per rack and up to 32 percent more usable storage capacity per rack. The E2000 line embeds the Lustre open-source parallel file system and generally fits NVMe Gen 5 SSD building blocks. The source cites a possible reason for the new hybrid configurations: ballooning storage costs, as relentless demand for AI infrastructure skews the price of components such as memory; prices for silicon-based NAND flash SSDs are growing faster than those of hard drives (as Blocks & Files reported), and HPE says that as demand for data-intensive workloads grows, prices for large SSDs have soared, so the hybrid configurations let research institutions and national laboratories spend less on storage and put that money toward compute node purchases. The latest hybrid configurations are expected to go on sale in early 2027. HPE is also introducing a Rack Management Controller providing what HPE calls "intelligent liquid cooling" via real-time monitoring, leak detection and automated control; support launches with HPE's own Cray Supercomputing GX5000 infrastructure, with versions for Nvidia's NVL72 and AMD's Helion and Helios kit to follow. The Rack Management Controller will be available for HPE's kit in March 2027, with support for AMD and Nvidia expected in June.