Total Cost of Ownership in Computational Storage Compression

This technical report examines the impact of compression on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in computational storage systems. It begins by defining computational storage and its role in enhancing data processing efficiency. The report outlines how compression increases effective capacity, thereby reducing the physical hardware requirements and overall TCO. By offloading compression tasks from the host CPU to the storage hardware, significant savings in hardware procurement and power utilization can be achieved. The report includes a case study of Ceph, a distributed storage system, demonstrating its capabilities and various compression options. It also discusses the ScaleFlux CSD-3000 device, which utilizes a custom System-on-Chip to perform in-line computations without latency impact. The findings indicate that compression not only lowers costs but also enhances performance and endurance by reducing the number of NAND writes. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive analysis of how compression strategies can optimize storage solutions.