Western Digital and Ingrasys, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, announced a strategic collaboration to deliver a new flagship Top-of-Rack (TOR) switch with embedded storage. This new TOR EBOF (Ethernet Bunch of Flash) will provide distributed storage at the network edge for lower latency storage access, reducing the need for separate storage networks and avoiding trips to centralized storage arrays. In this joint effort, Ingrasys will manufacture the high-density TOR EBOF, leveraging Western Digital’s RapidFlex NVMe-oF bridge technology. Western Digital will collaborate with Ingrasys on the architecture and lead the go-to-market efforts to promote NVMe-oF disaggregated storage solutions for cloud service providers (CSPs) and storage OEMs.
This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the rapidly expanding AI market, accelerating the adoption of fabric-attached disaggregated storage to meet the ever-growing demands of AI workflows.
By combining Ingrasys’ world-class manufacturing capabilities expertise in GPU servers, and Western Digital’s expertise in NVMe-oF and fabric-attached storage, the two companies are enabling more flexible disaggregated infrastructure that unlocks new levels of efficiency, scalability, and performance for data centers tackling the challenges of AI at scale.
The Ingrasys TOR EBOF, targeted for 2027 availability, represents a cutting-edge integration of networking and storage technologies. This innovative TOR switch features embedded storage capabilities enabled by Western Digital’s next-generation RapidFlex Fabric bridge device supporting 100G Ethernet and NVMe/PCIe Gen6 drive slots for E3.S/L SSD devices. At its core, the TOR switch is powered by the NVIDIA Spectrum-4 switch ASIC, ensuring high-performance switching. The switch also offers flexibility with 400/800GbE cabling options making it a robust solution for future data center needs.
Western Digital’s RapidFlex NVMe-oF fabric bridge device is a pioneering solution in fabric-attached storage, offering low-power, extreme performance and flexibility for modern data centers. As the only NVMe-oF bridge device that is based on extensive levels of hardware acceleration and removes firmware from the performance path, the I/O read and write payload flows through the adapter with minimal latency and direct Ethernet connectivity. This differentiated approach facilitates seamless, high-performance integration of NVMe SSDs into disaggregated architectures, allowing for efficient scaling of storage resources independently from compute.
“Together with Ingrasys, we continue to accelerate the shift toward disaggregated infrastructure by co-developing cutting-edge, fabric-attached solutions designed for the data demands of AI and modern workloads. This collaboration brings together two leaders in storage infrastructure modernization to deliver flexible, scalable architectures that unlock new levels of efficiency and performance for our customers,” said Kurt Chan, vice president and general manager, Western Digital Platforms Business.
“Our collaboration with Western Digital reflects a shared commitment to long-term innovation and customer-centric design. By combining our expertise in scalable system integration with Western Digital’s leadership in storage technologies, we’re building a foundation for future-ready, fabric-attached solutions that will meet the evolving demands of AI and disaggregated infrastructure. This partnership is just the beginning of what we believe will be a lasting journey of co-innovation,” said Benjamin Ting, president of Ingrasys.
“The collaboration between Western Digital and Ingrasys brings together the high-performance storage and scalable system transformation needed to fully unlock the potential of accelerated computing. As AI and data-intensive workloads push infrastructure limits, this joint effort is set to deliver the performance, low latency, and disaggregated scalability that next-generation data centers require,” said Gilad Shainer, senior vice president of networking at NVIDIA.
Meet Western Digital at Computex: Experience the Future of Data Infrastructure
Visit Western Digital’s at Computex in Taipei. Find us at booth J1303a in Hall 1 Storage and Management Solutions at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center from May 2023.
