SanDisk released today its latest FlashSoft server-side caching software, set to improve usability and compatibility with Windows, Linux and VMware environments.
The updated software will be sold together with other solutions from SanDisk’s array of enterprise flash hardware devices, including the Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators, the Optimus Ascend SAS drive (SSD), and the CloudSpeed Ascend SATA SSD.
The move will give customers the opportunity to select the flash storage capacity and performance that best meet their data centre needs.
Following a recent Gartner report indicating that input/output (I/O) optimisation software alleviates the I/O blender problem that often plagues dense virtual machine environments, SanDisk’s FlashSoft software reduces I/O latency in VMware vSphere, Windows Server and Linux environments.
The solution enhances performance levels in both virtualised and non-virtualised computing settings by using server-side, flash-based storage caching.
The data is therefore read and written with more efficiency as the FlashSoft software utilises server-attached flash storage as an intermediate cache for an application’s most frequently accessed data, also known as "hot data".
While reducing storage area network (SAN) overhead, the solution assigns hot data to the solid-state cache, increasing performance levels and prolonging the useful life of current server and storage systems.
It also delivers greater computing power reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) for data centre owners increasing ROI.
Online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads, online analytical processing (OLAP) applications and high performance computing (HPC) have all been found to benefit from server-side solid-state caching FlashSoft deployments.
Most typical line-of-business applications — such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint and applications based on databases, including MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle — are expected to experience better performance rates through the use of the FlashSoft software.
SanDisk’s performance tests found the new version of FlashSoft software’s application performance to be 14 times better when compared to a baseline storage array comprised of HDDs. Application response times were also improved, decreasing storage latency by more than 22 times.
The FlashSoft software offers improved support for Microsoft Hyper-V with Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV) providing caching for Hyper-V hosts sharing storage volumes and native support for hard disk drive and SSDs formatted with 4K sector size as well as 512K.
For the VMware vSphere, SanDisk’s solution received certification by VMware as a Partner Verified & Supported Product (PVSP), providing customers with continued support and compatibility with VMware vSphere as new patches and updates are released.
In addition, Linux users will gain from broad support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) & SUSE kernels with native support for HDDs and SSDs formatted with 4K sector size as well as 512K.
Ravi Swaminathan, vice president and general manager of Systems and Software Solutions at SanDisk, said: "We have built our enterprise flash business to offer the broadest range of storage acceleration solutions to address customers’ changing needs.
"The new hardware-software bundles offer the best of both our hardware and software portfolios in a single solution. We are excited to be able to offer customers a complete solution that provides the performance and cost benefits of flash technology, while at the same time making it easier for our channel partners to support their customers."
Al Bibergall, senior vice president sales at Sayers Technologies, said: "SanDisk is an expert in solid-state storage and flash technology with a decades-long history of delivering innovation in this market.
"We’re excited to partner with SanDisk to deliver solid-state server-side caching that enables all the benefits of flash in an easy to acquire, easy to support and easy to adopt package."
