Adaptec MaxIQ SSD Cache Accelerates Performance of MySQL

Adaptec, Inc. released the results of third-party performance testing of its new MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance Solution in MySQL environments. AppLabs, an independent testing and quality management company, found that Adaptec MaxIQ (with MaxIQ SSD cache enabled) improved read and write throughput by eight times and increased transactions per second by 6.9 times when compared with a non-cached environment.

Adaptec’s MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance Solution integrates up to four tuned 32GB Intel X25-E Extreme SATA SSDs, with Adaptec’s MaxIQ SSD caching software and its Series 5Z, Series 5 or Series 2 Storage Controllers to provide I/O intensive data center and cloud computing customers with cost-effective scalability and increased performance without disrupting existing operations. It is the first solution for building and managing High-Performance Hybrid Arrays (HPHAs) – storage arrays using both solid-state drives and hard disk drives – which dramatically increase I/O performance, reduce capital and operating expenses by as much as 50 percent, and can deliver significant savings in power consumption over hard disk drive-only arrays. MaxIQ can be deployed using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, requiring no modification of existing storage architectures, application software or operating systems for easy integration.

AppLabs evaluated the performance of MaxIQ in its MySQL Testing Environment and found that read and write throughput increased eight times with MaxIQ SSD cache enabled. Transactions per second improved 6.9 times, going from 346 transactions per second with SSD cache disabled to 2374 transactions per second with SSD cache enabled. A total of 1.6 million transactions were executed during each test run. These increases result in higher levels of performance, allowing data center managers to increase the number of users hosted per IT dollar, reduce the need for additional equipment acquisition and significantly cut data center energy costs.

"Data centers running applications with high ‘read’ demands such as databases running MySQL are continuing to grow at an exponential pace," said Marc Lowe, Adaptec vice president of marketing and business development. "The testing results from AppLabs’ MySQL environment demonstrate that Adaptec’s MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance Solution is ideal for cost-effectively addressing the I/O bottleneck and maximizing performance for data centers in today’s economy. AppLabs’ testing expertise and experience allowed us to ensure everything met the highest standards."

"This is a testimony of the best-in-class performance testing services offered by AppLabs. We help our clients identify performance bottlenecks early to ensure that their applications have near-zero defects," said John Carmody, senior vice president and head of Americas, AppLabs. "Through AppLabs rigorous Performance Testing procedures with MySQL server, Adaptec’s MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance Solution demonstrated that throughput increased significantly when SSD caching was enabled."

The Adaptec MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance Solution is the latest product within Adaptec’s Data Conditioning Platform strategy, an innovative approach delivering business value to data center managers by intelligently routing, optimizing and protecting data as it moves through the I/O path. The Data Conditioning Platform is at the core of the company’s strategic goal of lowering costs, maximizing performance and achieving Green IT objectives in next generation enterprise and cloud data centers. Adaptec customer solutions built on the Data Conditioning Platform provide data center managers, system integrators, and storage and server OEMs with improved hardware and software utilization, along with non-intrusive technology integration to lower the risks traditionally associated with adopting new data center technologies.