HyVE Systems Selects OCZ SAS SSDs

OCZ Technology Group, Inc.
announced that its SAS-based Talos 2 SSDs have been selected by HyVE Systems LLC (Hybrid Virtualization
Engine) Systems for implementation within three high-compute platforms targeted
for VDI academic and corporate end user
compute solutions.

Providing read/write IOPS
performance, reliability and availability of stored data and desktop
applications, the ability to grow with the HyVE Systems platforms, and
cost-effectiveness were the key attributes that aided in the selection of Talos 2 drives.

Combining virtualization solutions with hardware products
that support next-generation cloud requirements, the HyVE System VDI platform
provides a performance environment that scales to the needs of their customers
while providing a low cost per desktop without jeopardizing quality,
reliability or performance. A typical HyVE System VDI solution has a fixed cost
of approximately $200 per desktop which is lower than traditional virtual
solutions that typically start at $1,500 per desktop, and scale down cost to
approximately $700 per desktop, depending on infrastructure costs.

HyVE Systems’ VDI solutions are smaller, less expensive high-compute
platforms that can run either 100+ or 200+ VDI desktops on a single node. For
example, many K-12 school districts do not have the budgets to purchase, deploy
and maintain brand new computing equipment for their student population and
must leverage the existing network infrastructure to cost-effectively extend
its life while enabling students and teachers to use their own computing
devices regardless of age, OS or hardware architecture. This
approach enables VDI solutions to be stored as a virtualized desktop on the
HyVE central server platform so that students and teachers can work from
whatever local computing device they have while the system programs,
applications, processes and data are kept on the remote server and run
centrally.

Supporting a 6Gb/s SAS interface, capacities up to 1TB, and 2.5-inch
and 3.5-inch form factors, Talos 2 SSDs are designed for mixed
workloads in enterprise environments. HyVE Systems leverages OCZ’s Virtualized
Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0 technology which implements an intelligent
complex command queuing structure with queue balancing algorithms that
improves performance further. As a result, Talos 2 SSDs deliver fast random transactional performance supporting up to 70,000
random 4K read IOPS and 54,000 IOPS for mixed 4K workloads representing 75
percent reads and 25 percent writes.

Unlike many competitive SAS-based SSDs, Talos 2 SSDs are dual-ported
to provide two redundant data paths, and support OCZ’s DataWrite Assurance
data protection in case of a sudden power loss adding to the product’s superior
data integrity. Increased security and encryption features (such as AES-256
support and ATA Secure Erase support) coupled with high endurance MLC features (such as advanced ECC protection and recovery, minimal
write amplification, intelligent block management and wear-leveling) help
extend drive life.

"We extensively tested a
range of solid-state storage solutions running an intense variety of IO traffic
on each and the OCZ Talos 2 SSDs significantly outperformed all other solutions
while providing a 10x improvement in performance when compared to a traditional
SAN solution with SSD fast cache capabilities," said David Harmon, president of HyVE Systems. "But what
really impressed us was the drives ability to consistently recover from forced
failures that we initiated as part of the testing that most of the other SSDs
tested could not match. With the industry’s best IOPS performance, high
enterprise reliability and availability, and a product roadmap that enables
this SSD to grow and scale with our HyVE high-compute platforms, positioned the
Talos 2 as a best-of-breed product."

"We are very pleased
to have been selected by HyVE Systems as part of this highly optimized virtual
desktop platform empowering academia with leading-edge cloud solutions that fit
within a fixed school budget, meet performance objectives and scale to the
needs of the school district and its students,"
said Alex Mei, CMO of OCZ. "We feel that HyVE’s concept of building simple and reliable
high-compute servers that can run VDI desktops efficiently and cost-effectively
will literally provide a VDI hotspot for students that will enhance their user
experience."

HyVE Systems has developed three VDI high-compute servers
that include a standalone VDI-in-a-box solution that supports 8 Talos 2 SSDs
and is for SMBs applications; a clustered VDI solution that supports 12
Talos 2 SSDs and can scale from 100 to 10,000 VDI desktops; and a tethered VDI
solution that supports 16 Talos 2 SSDs and expands the capabilities of the
existing VMWare infrastructure without expensive overhead costs. The first of
these VDI-specific HyVE Systems have been delivered to school districts in the
Dallas/Fort Worth area and are scheduled to go live later this month.