If you’re in the market for a dependable enterprise NVMe SSD – something that keeps up with modern demands without over-complicating deployment – Kioxia’s dSSD‑CD8‑R‑U2 and dSSD‑CD8P‑R‑U2 are worth a serious look. These are read-intensive drives, tuned for cloud scalability, high availability, and reliable, long-term use in real-world setups.
NVMe Architecture That Does the Job
The CD8‑R leans on PCIe Gen4 ×4, with NVMe 1.4 compliance and Kioxia’s proven 112-layer BiCS FLASH™ TLC NAND. It’s got the kind of balance most enterprise workloads thrive on – stable read throughput, consistent latency, and low thermal drift even when under pressure.
CD8P‑R, meanwhile, is aimed at future-facing infrastructure. Built around PCIe Gen5 and NVMe 2.0, it brings lower latency and much higher IOPS potential. If you’re already running modern CPUs with wider PCIe lanes, this one taps into that performance beautifully.
Not Just Fast – Consistent
These drives aren’t chasing headlines – they’re engineered to perform day in, day out. The CD8‑R delivers steady read throughput and strong IOPS, which makes it great for high-volume, read-heavy apps like content platforms or big-data clusters.
The CD8P‑R takes things up a notch. It’s snappier on latency, handles higher IOPS, and scales better across larger data sets. It’s a great fit if your workloads are stretching the limits of Gen4 and you want room to grow.
Write performance is modest, but that’s expected – these are built for reading, after all. Still, they hold up nicely for logging, metadata, or lightweight transactional writes.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Here’s a quick look at how they stack up, feature for feature:
| Feature | Kioxia CD8‑R‑U2 | Kioxia CD8P‑R‑U2 |
|---|---|---|
| PCIe Interface | Gen4 ×4 (NVMe 1.4) | Gen5 ×4 (NVMe 2.0) |
| NAND | BiCS FLASH™ TLC | BiCS FLASH™ Gen5 |
| Max Capacity | Up to 15.36 TB | Up to 30.72 TB |
| Random Read IOPS | Around 1.25 million | Up to 2 million |
| Write IOPS | Approx. 200K | Approx. 200K |
| Sequential Performance | ~7,000 MB/s read, 6,000 MB/s write | Up to 60-80% faster |
| Endurance | 1 DWPD | 1 DWPD |
| Security Options | SED / SIE | SED / SIE |
| Power Loss Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Form Factor | U.2 (2.5″) | U.2 and E3.S |
Capacity and Form Factor That Scale With You
Capacity-wise, CD8‑R models go from just under 1 TB right up to around 15 TB. That’s plenty for most storage layers, especially where cost-per-gigabyte matters.
CD8P‑R is more ambitious. It stretches to 30 TB in some models and offers the flexibility of U.2 and E3.S form factors. If you’re building for density or looking at hyperscale expansion, this one ticks a lot of boxes.
Both drives are rated at 1 drive write per day – exactly what you’d want for read-optimised infrastructure where writes are less frequent but reliability’s still non-negotiable.
Built-in Protection and Security
Kioxia doesn’t mess around when it comes to enterprise features. Power loss protection is standard, so you don’t risk data loss during a blackout. There’s also full-path ECC for silent error handling, plus optional SED and SIE encryption models for secure environments.
You get exactly the kind of features sysadmins expect without needing to bolt on extras or fudge firmware settings to meet compliance.
What They’re Really Made For
The CD8‑R feels at home in cloud storage, content delivery networks, long-term object stores – places where reads dominate and consistency matters more than speed peaks.
CD8P‑R, on the other hand, is better suited for setups where the demand curve is rising – things like real-time analytics, vector database layers, or AI inference systems where latency adds up fast.
Whether you’re dealing with hundreds of small reads or scanning huge datasets in parallel, these drives keep their cool and don’t falter under load.
Deployment Perks That Don’t Make the Headlines
They’re not always front and centre in the spec sheet, but Kioxia’s attention to detail pays off in other ways too. Power draw is predictable – no weird spikes or idle burn – and firmware support is clean and stable. You can monitor drive health easily via standard tools without worrying about vendor quirks.
That might seem small, but when you’re running dozens – or hundreds – of drives across a fleet, those things start to matter.
Thinking Ahead
Investing in enterprise NVMe isn’t just about now. You’ve got to plan for what’s around the corner. CD8P‑R gives you the option to do that, with Gen5 bandwidth, larger capacities, and future CPU support. It’ll save you a second upgrade in 18 months.
If you’re not quite there yet, no worries. CD8‑R still packs a punch within Gen4 systems and does so without the extra heat or cost overhead.
Finding the right enterprise NVMe SSD means balancing performance, durability, power use, and deployment ease. Kioxia’s CD8‑R and CD8P‑R models deliver on all of that, without getting flashy or complicated. They’re reliable, efficient, and purpose-built for enterprise use – whether you’re building out a modern cloud architecture or scaling storage in a busy edge node.
Contact our experts today to discuss Kioxia Solutions: https://exertisenterprise.com/kioxia/
