Amazon Web Services unveils new SSD-based storage option

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New SSD storage choice for top performance

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced its latest storage option called Dense Compute nodes, a new SSD-based node type for cost-effective scalable storage.

The new offering, open to Amazon Redshift customers, will let users start with smaller storage volume of 160GB for just $0.10 (£0.06, AU$0.11) per hour. This can scale to terabytes of SSD storage, with thousands of processor cores and terabytes of RAM.

Redshift previously only offered Dense Storage nodes, but the new Dense Compute nodes are targeted at customers who need less than 500GB of storage, or those with larger data loads who want improved performance.

The previous Dense Storage remains a cheaper option for those who are not as concerned about performance. Up to a petabyte of compressed data can be stored.

Flexible scalability

Amazon's Redshift platform, which launched in February 2013, offers customers a quick and easy way to alter their storage provisions as their needs change. Storage clusters can be opened, shut down, or recreated within minutes. It is used by firms like Pinterest and Nokia.

Customers can switch between the Dense Storage and Dense Compute nodes with one API call or through the AWS Management Console. Cluster sizes can also be scaled up or down in a similar fashion.

"We have been actively engaging with our customers using Amazon Redshift and watching them tap into insights that were previously out of reach to help grow their businesses," said Raju Gulabani, VP of Database Services at Amazon Web Services.

"Today, we are making Amazon Redshift even more accessible to customers, lowering the cost of a single node by as much as 56 percent while increasing the ratio of CPU, RAM, and I/O to storage to offer even higher performance."