Global shortage of Hard Drives fueled by new cryptocurrencies [VPS almost SOLD OUT]

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Ninja Mobile Trader VPS, Apr 26, 2021.

  1. If you haven't heard by now, there's a global shortage of NVMe SSD hard drives. Google "ssd shortage" to read more about it, but the impact is that enterprise storage is becoming a lot more expensive.

    Instead of bitcoin, which uses specialized CPU, or Ethereum using graphics cards, this new wave of "proof of space" coins use NVMe SSD for mining. Demand for NVMe SSD through China has left suppliers completely sold out.

    What is NVMe SSD?
    A brief history, decades ago everyone used spinning hard drives. About 10 years ago, most people switched over to solid state drives. Within the solid state drive category, there are different levels of drives. NVMe SSD are the enterprise storage format for high performance computing operations.

    Why does this matter to me?
    SSDs using NVMe can be used in high-performance computing applications such as high-frequency trading, where the low latency of the technology is critical. Cutting down the time a processor waits to read data from storage results in faster calculations.

    How does this impact my trading servers?
    All of our Chicago VPS use NVMe SSD, coupled with AMD Ryzen CPUs. Our hardware configuration has enabled traders to trade over remote desktop without the slowness feeling of typical Intel Xeon setups. Currently we are almost sold out of all VPS availability, and due to the shortage, unfortunately do not have an ETA as we are working on securing additional hardware.

    What purpose does a VPS have in trading?
    1. Located in Chicago- allowing for faster fills in automated trading
    2. Redundant network- never lose internet connection
    3. Always On- run your trading software 24/7
    4. Mobile Trading- connect to the VPS with Android, iPhone, Tablets, etc. for trading away from home computer. Here's an example
     
  2. Western Union hard drives handle overclocking better than Maxtor ones.
     
  3. I know there is a lot of discussion of cryptocurrencies on these boards, so thought an update on Chia Coin would be interesting to many here.

    Chia Coin is here to stay, and the global shortage of SSD in sales channels is very real.

    Background on the company:
    Chia Coin impact on hard drives:
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2021
  4. UPDATE 5/18/2021

    Chicago VPS are back in stock today! Gobble them up - while they're fresh and while you still can. We have a limited batch and NVMe shortage is not helping either, so we won't have stock for a while once these are gone.

    If anyone has tried a VPS before, you will be blown away by the performance difference of our servers versus other providers. We configured the machines so that they are specialized for lag free chart trading and can be left on to run 24/7. There has been zero downtime this year.

    So if you have any internet connection problems at home, power outages, or want to run Windows only applications on Mac, iPhone, Android, tablets, etc., then VPS is your answer.

    Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!
     
  5. UPDATE 6/2/2021

    Chicago VPS are almost sold out again! At the current rate of ~10 new VPS per day, reserve a VPS before they go on back order again due to Chia Coin NVMe SSD shortage.

    Chia Coin update:
    • Chia was using 1.5 Exabytes 1 month ago.
    • Today it is using 15 Exabyters (15 Trillion Gigabytes)
    • 10x increase is expected to continue monthly because there is several weeks lag time from when drives are ordered to when they go online for mining. Usage is expected to be over 100 trillion gigabytes by the end of June.
    Article from The Guardian on Chia Coin's impact on the availability of SSDs: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...currency-chia-blamed-for-hard-drive-shortages

    See daily hard drive usage here: https://www.chiaexplorer.com/charts/netspace?period=3m

    upload_2021-6-1_15-5-54.png
     
  6. Brand new Chicago server parts have just arrived by Fedex! We're working on getting them online as soon as possible for you all to enjoy.
     
  7. Server reservations are filling up quick! There is only enough space left for about 2 more Large VPS and 7 Medium VPS. The highest performance servers are totally sold out until we get the next shipment of parts.

    A common question is which size server should I get for my style of trading (couple of charts, some indicators, etc)? The easiest way to answer this question is to look at your trading setup resource usage in task manager while your entire setup is running. Most people will be surprised by the low amount of resources you actually need for live trading.

    For example, if you're using price action to scalp on a couple of charts with indicators, you'll still have excess memory with the smallest VPS. A server will always run more lean than a personal home Windows 10 computer because it doesn't have all the extra bloatware running in the background.

    For example here is the resource usage for live trading on ES chart with Order Flow+ indicators, and a bunch of other custom indicators all calculating on each tick change. NinjaTrader needs less than 400mb RAM

    upload_2021-6-14_8-49-33.png

    The only time you really need a powerful machine is when running strategy optimizations because they are brute force operations and use all of the CPU and memory resources they can. However for this, a popular option is to use the server for live trading and run another simultaneous instance connected to the same brokerage account on your local PC for testing new strategies. This way if the backtest locks up, your live trading is not affected.
     
  8. Chia Coin continues it's exponential growth, now at 25 Exabytes

    upload_2021-6-17_8-34-41.png
     
  9. Brand new Ryzen servers have been added to the Chicago infrastructure today.

    Please note that due to the ongoing global hardware component shortage, this is a limited restock, and we do not anticipate this inventory to last long before we have to mark Chicago as sold out again.
     
  10. As a heads up, we are down to our last 20 or so trading servers Chicago.
    We are still working to build more machines to ship out to Chicago, but there is no firm ETA due to our hardware vendors not having available stock.
     
    #10     Jun 28, 2021