Adaptec MaxIQ SSD Caching Solution Demos With Microsoft Technology

Adaptec, Inc. revealed benchmarking results for its MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance Solution.

Integrating an advanced solid state storage control technology developed by Microsoft Corp., the solution is licensed and has been further enhanced by Adaptec. Using a simulation of a dynamic brokerage application environment, Adaptec consistently demonstrated a 3.2 times increase in system I/O (input/output) performance over the best results of a similar system without SSD caching. An increase in performance of 3.2 times can translate into a savings in capital and operating costs of up to 70 percent.

"These benchmark tests provide data center managers working with high-traffic transactional workloads with quantifiable evidence that storage controllers utilizing SSD caching in SSD/HDD High-Performance Hybrid Arrays can dramatically increase system performance," said Jon Flower, vice president of Advanced Technology, Adaptec. "Accelerating throughput, particularly during peak transactional periods, along with reducing capital and operating costs, minimizing system footprint, and consuming less energy are critical issues for data center managers today.  Adaptec MaxIQ SSD Caching solutions were designed to address all of these issues."

This application is a database application benchmark which models a brokerage firm with customers who generate transactions related to trades, account inquiries, and market research. The brokerage firm in turn interacts with financial markets to execute orders on behalf of the customers and updates relevant account information. Simulating a 50,000 user environment, Adaptec MaxIQ consistently achieved system I/O performance that was 3.2 times greater than the best results for a hard disk drive-only system without SSD caching.

"When our datacenter team came up with some innovative ideas around using solid state devices as read caching devices, we determined it made good sense to license these advances to Adaptec because Microsoft itself doesn’t sell these types of products," said David Kaefer, general manager of Intellectual Property Licensing at Microsoft. "By collaborating through licensing, Adaptec customers benefit from a product that delivers impressive performance and cost savings over alternatives in the market."

Adaptec’s MaxIQ SSD Cache Performance Solution creates High-Performance Hybrid Arrays (HPHAs) by pairing tuned 32GB Intel X25-E Extreme Solid-State Drives, used as high-performance cache, with Adaptec’s MaxIQ SSD caching software and standard hard disk drives. The hybrid SSD/HDD solution provides I/O intensive data center and cloud computing customers with maximum I/O performance, up to 70 percent savings in capital and operating costs and cost-effective scalability, all without disrupting existing operations.