P61185-001 HPE 7.68TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 Read Intensive SSD

HPE P61185-001 7.68TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 Read Intensive SSD

Next-Generation Enterprise Storage Performance

The HPE P61185-001 represents a significant leap forward in enterprise solid-state storage technology, combining massive 7.68TB capacity with the unprecedented bandwidth of PCIe 5.0 interface. Designed specifically for read-intensive workloads, this E3.S form factor drive delivers exceptional performance for data centers requiring high-throughput, low-latency storage solutions. As organizations increasingly depend on real-time analytics, AI/ML workloads, and high-transaction databases, the P61185-001 provides the foundational storage performance necessary to power these demanding applications.

Technical Specifications Overview

Capacity and Form Factor

With 7.68TB of usable capacity, the HPE P61185-001 offers substantial storage density in the compact E3.S form factor. This balance of high capacity and space efficiency makes it ideal for storage-constrained environments where maximizing TB per rack unit is critical. The E3.S form factor (formerly known as EDSFF E3.S) represents the evolution beyond traditional 2.5" drives, offering improved thermal management, signal integrity, and scalability for next-generation server platforms.

Interface and Protocol

Leveraging the PCI Express 5.0 interface, this NVMe SSD doubles the bandwidth compared to previous-generation PCIe 4.0 drives, supporting theoretical transfer speeds of up to 32GT/s per lane. The implementation of NVMe 1.4 protocol ensures optimized command processing, enhanced queue depths, and improved quality of service—critical for maintaining consistent performance in multi-tenant environments and consolidated workloads.

PCIe 5.0 Advantages

The transition to PCIe 5.0 technology represents more than just a speed improvement. This interface enables reduced latency, improved power efficiency per transferred bit, and backward compatibility with PCIe 4.0 systems (though at reduced speeds). For enterprise applications, this means the ability to support more virtual machines, database instances, or containerized applications per drive while maintaining service level agreements.

NVMe Protocol Benefits

Unlike legacy storage protocols that were designed for mechanical hard drives, NVMe was developed specifically for flash memory. The protocol reduces command overhead, supports parallel processing with up to 64K command queues, and enables significantly lower latency compared to SAS or SATA interfaces. These characteristics make the P61185-001 particularly well-suited for random I/O intensive applications common in modern enterprise environments.

Performance Characteristics

Read-Intensive Workload Optimization

The HPE P61185-001 is engineered specifically for read-intensive applications, typically characterized by workload distributions of 70% read operations or higher. This design focus allows HPE to optimize the NAND flash configuration, controller algorithms, and firmware specifically for scenarios where data retrieval performance takes precedence over write endurance. Despite this read-focused optimization, the drive maintains respectable write performance for balanced enterprise workloads.

Sequential Performance Metrics

With PCIe 5.0 bandwidth, the P61185-001 delivers exceptional sequential read performance exceeding 10,000 MB/s and sequential write performance surpassing 6,000 MB/s under optimal conditions. These transfer rates enable rapid data ingestion, backup operations, and large file processing that would bottleneck previous-generation storage technologies.

Random I/O Performance

For random operations—the most common access pattern in database and virtualization environments—the drive achieves impressive IOPS figures exceeding 1.5 million read IOPS and 250,000 write IOPS at low queue depths. This random performance ensures responsive application behavior even under heavy concurrent access patterns from multiple applications or users.

Latency and Quality of Service

Consistent low latency is a critical differentiator for enterprise SSDs, and the P61185-001 delivers read latencies typically below 100 microseconds. The drive implements sophisticated QoS mechanisms to maintain predictable performance even during garbage collection, wear leveling, and other background maintenance operations that can impact user-experienced latency in lesser drives.

Endurance and Reliability

Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) and TBW

As a read-intensive drive, the HPE P61185-001 is rated for approximately 1 Drive Write Per Day (DWPD) over its 5-year warranty period, translating to a Total Bytes Written (TBW) rating of approximately 14,000 terabytes. This endurance specification makes it suitable for applications with moderate write requirements such as web serving, content delivery networks, virtual desktop infrastructure, and database read replicas.

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

With an MTBF rating of 2 million hours, the P61185-001 demonstrates the exceptional reliability expected from HPE enterprise storage components. This reliability stems from rigorous component selection, comprehensive testing, and sophisticated error correction technologies that ensure data integrity throughout the drive's operational lifespan.

Advanced Error Correction and Data Protection

The drive incorporates multiple layers of data protection including end-to-end data path protection, advanced ECC algorithms, and redundant controller architecture. These features work in concert to detect and correct errors, prevent data corruption, and maintain data integrity even in the presence of component degradation or transient electrical issues.

Use Cases and Applications

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

The high sequential read performance of the P61185-001 makes it ideal for data analytics platforms where large datasets must be scanned rapidly. Business intelligence applications, data warehouses, and Hadoop implementations benefit significantly from the drive's ability to quickly serve query results, reducing time-to-insight for decision-makers.

OLAP Workloads

Online Analytical Processing systems, characterized by complex queries across large datasets, achieve substantial performance improvements when deployed on the P61185-001. The drive's ability to sustain high read bandwidth enables faster cube processing, report generation, and interactive data exploration.

Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure

In virtualized environments, storage performance directly impacts VM density and responsiveness. The P61185-001 supports higher consolidation ratios by delivering the low-latency, high-IOPS performance necessary to host multiple active virtual machines without storage contention issues.

Hyperconverged Infrastructure

For HCI deployments, the drive provides the balanced performance needed for both compute and storage nodes. The high read performance accelerates VM boot storms, application launches, and user data access while maintaining sufficient write performance for logging and system operations.

Content Delivery and Media Streaming

Media companies and content delivery networks benefit from the drive's capacity and read performance when serving high-resolution video, images, and other digital assets. The P61185-001 can efficiently handle numerous concurrent streams while maintaining low access latency for an optimal viewer experience.

E3.S Form Factor Advantages

Thermal Management

The E3.S form factor was specifically designed to address thermal challenges in high-performance NVMe drives. With a larger surface area compared to traditional 2.5" drives and optimized airflow characteristics, the P61185-001 can maintain peak performance without thermal throttling—a common limitation in densely populated NVMe deployments.

Signal Integrity at PCIe 5.0 Speeds

At PCIe 5.0 data rates, signal integrity becomes increasingly challenging. The E3.S connector and physical specification include enhancements that preserve signal quality at these higher frequencies, ensuring reliable operation without bit errors or performance degradation that can occur with adapter-based solutions.

Compatibility and Integration

HPE Server Compatibility

The P61185-001 is validated and certified for use in HPE ProLiant, HPE Apollo, and HPE Synergy systems with appropriate E3.S backplanes and controllers. This comprehensive validation ensures optimal performance, management integration, and firmware compatibility within the HPE ecosystem.

HPE Infosight Integration

When deployed in HPE servers, the drive benefits from integration with HPE Infosight—an AI-powered operations platform that provides predictive analytics, health monitoring, and proactive support recommendations. This integration can identify potential issues before they impact operations and optimize performance based on actual usage patterns.

Comparative Analysis

Against PCIe 4.0 Alternatives

Compared to previous-generation PCIe 4.0 SSDs, the P61185-001 delivers approximately double the sequential performance while reducing latency. This performance uplift translates to tangible application benefits, particularly for data-intensive workloads where storage has traditionally been a bottleneck.

Against SAS and SATA SSDs

The performance differential between the P61185-001 and SAS/SATA SSDs is even more pronounced, with NVMe PCIe 5.0 delivering up to 10x higher IOPS and significantly lower latency. For organizations modernizing legacy storage infrastructure, this represents a transformative improvement in application responsiveness and infrastructure efficiency.