We are reinventing the storage system.

Kalista IO is building intelligent compute and storage systems designed for software-defined environments and next generation storage devices.

HAMR time

It's the hot new way to store data. Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) uses lasers attached to recording heads to heat areas on the disk while writing — enabling higher data densities. However, it comes with several challenges.

Endurance: Heads have a limited lifetime, intense workload may exceed device data write limit.

Performance: Increased capacity with no increase in performance creates stranded capacity.

Reliability: Uneven access pattern can lead to uneven head wear and contention, resulting in reduced performance and write capacity.

Kalista Phalanx storage system is the answer to these challenges. Using a revolutionary row & column architecture, Phalanx evenly distributes workloads across devices and capacity — eliminating uneven wear, reducing contention, and maximizing concurrency. It's HAMR time.




Use SMR with
Kubernetes Hadoop Nginx Crypto MongoDB Ceph Docker everything



Phalanx storage system overview

Drachma crypto-storage system overview

Storage.
Reinvented.

Scalability, reliability, and simplicity. Phalanx has it all. A revolutionary row & column architecture that scales performance with capacity. An intelligent stack that streamlines every I/O. And a software-defined operating model that fits every workflow and environment. Phalanx is the ultimate combination of design and engineering.


Ahead of the curve



Up to
26 TB
per device1

Up to
524 MB/s
throughput per device2

Every device fits just right. Phalanx is designed for new devices such as SMR, HAMR, and multi-actuator. It automatically optimizes access patterns to match device capability — enabling them to perform at their best. So you can too.


One for all, all in one. Now you have the power to run conventional, shingled, hybrid, energy-assisted, multi-actuator, and variable capacity devices — all under one system. Say goodbye to storage silos.


Up to
25 %
capacity gain with SMR3

Up to
2 X
IOPS gain with dual-actuator4

Just works

Plays well with others. No application or kernel changes — works seamlessly with your apps, workflows, and environment. Easily deploy on bare metal or with Kubernetes® and vSphere®. Phalanx makes storage effortlessly simple.

Let it rip


Performance is built in. Every I/O is intelligently prioritized and streamlined to reduce contention and eliminate hot spots — this means consistent, predictable performance at every scale. So you can store and access data faster than ever.

Up to
16 X
more IOPS5

Up to
4.8 X
lower latency6

CFO approved

Up to
35 %
lower CapEx7

Up to
18 %
higher storage density1

Doing more with less. Phalanx pairs ultra-high capacity devices with blazing I/O performance — drastically reduces operating and capital expenses. Intuitive design and AI-enhanced stack further minimize operating complexity and cost.


  1. Western Digital Unleashes New Era of Growth for Cloud Market With World's First 22TB CMR and 26TB UltraSMR HDDs
  2. Seagate Exos 2X14 - DATA SHEET
  3. Toshiba Technical Review - Large-Capacity HDDs Applying SMR Technology for Data Centers
  4. Seagate Mach.2 - Technology paper
  5. Testing conducted by Kalista IO in August 2019 using preproduction Olympus (Phalanx) software with Linux kernel 4.18.0-25-generic, and Intel® Core™ i7-4771 CPU 3.50GHz with 16GiB DDR3 Synchronous 2400 MHz RAM, and Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC620 host managed SMR and Ultrastar DC HC530 CMR drives connected through SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s interface. Tested with Flexible I/O tester (fio) version 3.14-11-g308a. Random write bench ran for 1800 seconds with 4KB block and 200GB file size, 64 concurrent threads each with queue depth of 1. Executed 3 times to capture average and standard deviation IOPS values.
  6. At 99.99th percentile latency. Testing conducted by Kalista IO in July 2020 using preproduction Olympus (Phalanx) software and XFS file system with Linux kernel 5.4.0-42-generic, and Intel® Core™ i7-4771 CPU 3.50GHz with 16GiB DDR3 Synchronous 2400 MHz RAM, and Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC620 host managed SMR and Ultrastar DC HC530 CMR drives connected through SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s interface. Write bench created a single 1GB file and executed 600,000 write commands each overwriting the first 64KB region of the file capture latency values.
  7. Testing conducted by Kalista IO in May 2021 using production Phalanx software with Linux kernel 5.4.0-73-generic, and Intel Core i7-4771 CPU 3.50GHz with 16GiB DDR3 Synchronous 2400 MHz RAM, and HM-SMR/CMR drives connected through SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s interface. Tested with Minio RELEASE.2021-04-18T19-26-29Z, and S3-benchmark version 3.0. HM-SMR drive with Phalanx resulted in 60% more average write IOPS and 35% more average read IOPS than CMR drive with XFS. This means potential CapEx saving of up to 35% for a system provisioned for IOPS.
  8. Ceph is a trademark or registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Apache®, Apache Hadoop, Hadoop®, and the yellow elephant logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Intel and Intel Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Oracle, Java, and MySQL are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Docker and the Docker logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Docker, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Docker, Inc. and other parties may also have trademark rights in other terms used herein. MongoDB® is a registered trademark of MongoDB, Inc. VMware, ESX, ESXi, vSphere, vCenter, and vCloud are trademarks or registered trademarks of VMware Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Kubernetes® is a registered trademark of the Linux Foundation in the United States and other countries, and is used pursuant to a license from the Linux Foundation. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.