LSI Nytro Combines PCIe SSD With Caching Software …

LSI Corporation introduced the Nytro portfolio, a family of solutions that combines PCIe flash technology with intelligent caching and management software to achieve accelerated application performance in datacentres and cloud environments.

          
Nytro WarpDrive Application Acceleration Card

The amount of data being stored and accessed worldwide is growing at an exponential rate, outpacing the ability of traditional storage architectures to keep up. This creates bottlenecks, throttling application performance and making it harder for companies to extract the full value from data. Nytro solutions allow datacentres to contend with massive data growth and speed the ability of databases and other applications to access data and provide real-time analytics and reporting.

"The integration of flash technology in enterprise system architectures is one of the most significant changes in recent computing history based on its ability to close the gap between compute and storage performance," said Gary Smerdon, SVP and GM, Accelerated Solutions Division, LSI. "From cloud providers in mega datacentres to traditional enterprise and small-to-medium businesses, the Nytro portfolio brings the value of flash to the masses by offering customers the flexibility to choose the right solution to meet their specific application and budget requirements."

Nytro products help customers achieve:

• Up to 30x faster database transaction performance
• Over 4.0GB per second sustained throughput to perform high-speed big data analysis (Performance based on PCIe Generation 3 version of Nytro WarpDrive Application Acceleration Card with expected availability in Q3 2012)
• Automatic, intelligent read and write caching of hot data to high-performance flash storage
• Power, cooling and physical footprint savings, reducing TCO
• Enterprise-class flash performance and reliability from LSI SandForce flash storage processors with DuraClass technology
• Compatibility with existing infrastructure through use of LSI SAS and MegaRAID drivers featuring extensive operating system and management support

The Nytro product portfolio includes:

• Nytro WarpDrive Application Acceleration Cards – second-generation family of PCIe flash adapters for drop-in high performance and low latency to accelerate transactional application performance and response time. Cards range in capacity from 200GB to 3.2TB of MLC or SLC flash memory, and combine the performance, reliability and energy efficiency of LSI SandForce flash storage processors with LSI SAS controller ICs. A card delivers the I/O performance of hundreds of hard disk drives while requiring less power, cooling and physical space for a reduced total cost of ownership.
• Nytro XD Application Acceleration Storage Solution – combines the Nytro WarpDrive card with Nytro XD intelligent caching software for out-of-the-box application acceleration for SAN) and DAS environments. The solution automatically and transparently caches frequently accessed data reads and writes to high-performance PCIe flash storage, reducing latency and delivering up to a 30x performance improvement over HDD-only storage systems. The result is optimised data I/O rates and faster system and application performance while using existing IT infrastructure for investment protection.
• Nytro MegaRAID Application Acceleration Cards – provide simple and cost-effective acceleration of SAS-connected DAS storage by combining the proven RAID performance and data protection capabilities of LSI MegaRAID controllers with on-board flash and intelligent caching software. They automatically move data between integrated flash storage and hard drives to blend high-performance and high-capacity storage without requiring expensive software tuning or rewrites.
• Nytro Predictor Software Tool – provides an intelligent guide for choosing the right Nytro application acceleration solution. It helps IT managers and database administrators identify and analyse application ‘hot spots’ of frequently used data to determine which applications can be accelerated and make recommendations on which Nytro product is best-suited for their specific application requirements.

Nytro in the industry
Nytro portfolio of flash storage products is capable of helping IBM System x servers deliver compelling application acceleration and intelligent data placement solutions for clients with IO-intensive workloads. The breadth of the LSI Nytro product portfolio covers a range of deployment scenarios to intelligently and accelerate business applications and complement MegaRAID storage products offered by IBM Corp.

According to Claude Lorenson, Director, SQL Server Product Management, Microsoft Corporation, "Through many technology generations, LSI and Microsoft have collaborated to bring the best storage solutions to the marketplace. Flash storage technologies such as the LSI Nytro portfolio of application acceleration products can be used to accelerate key business applications such as SQL Server 2012. The importance of these technologies will continue to grow with the enhancements that Microsoft will deliver with Windows Server 8."

Pricing and availability
Nytro solutions are currently sampling with OEM customers, and are expected to be generally available beginning in the second quarter. Pricing for Nytro WarpDrive cards starts at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $6,600 MSRP (based on Nytro WarpDrive Application Acceleration Card WLP4-200), pricing for Nytro XD solutions starts at $9,400 MSRP (based on Nytro XD Application Acceleration Storage Solution with Nytro WarpDrive BLP4-400), and pricing for Nytro MegaRAID cards starts at $1,799 MSRP (based on Nytro MegaRAID 8100-4i Application Acceleration Card).