Mellanox FDR 56Gb IB Adapters Accelerates X-IO ISE-2 Storage Solution

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. announced that its RDMA technology for IB running Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V enabled a new price/performance record for remote storage using X-IO’s ISE-2 Intelligent Storage Solution.

Benchmark results attained a sustainable rate of more than 15GB/s of throughput using a single-client server equipped with three ConnectX-3 FDR 56Gb/s IB adapters communicating to three storage servers with a total of storage capacities exceeding 100 terabytes.

This performance eliminates storage bottlenecks and drives data centers to operate closer to their theoretical performance. Using this solution will help IT managers to simplify deployment and to meet their performance goal at a much lower TCO. These performance results were achieved using the new Microsoft SMB Direct protocol implemented in Windows Server 2012 RC running over X-IO’s ISE-2 Intelligent Storage Solution.

"Windows Server 2012 SMB Direct enables impressive improvements in storage performance, as these benchmarks show," said Ian Carlson, director, product marketing, Windows Server and Virtualization, at Microsoft Corp. "At lower cost and with high performance, customers can significantly increase data center efficiency."

X-IO designed its Intelligent Storage Elements and architecture to accelerate enterprise applications and drive ‘Xcellent’ storage price/performance. It uses commodity servers that are connected by Mellanox’s FDR 56Gb/s IB adapters and switches.

"At X-IO we are driven to deliver very high performance storage solutions with Unmatched Performance with Unmatched Value," said X-IO VP Rick Nelson. "Incorporating interconnect solutions from Mellanox is consistent with that business perspective."

RDMA interconnect technology provides performance and reduced CPU overhead in enterprise data center applications. RDMA-based interconnect technologies deployed in the ISE-2 include ConnectX-3 IB adapters and SwitchX SX6036 managed switch, both running at FDR 56Gb/s IB speeds.

"Mellanox IB and Ethernet RDMA interconnect solutions, integrated with SMB Direct in Windows Server 2012, deliver an attractive, high performance and cost-effective solution for remote file server storage," said Gilad Shainer, VP of market development at Mellanox. "We are delighted to see X-IO, leveraging Mellanox interconnect solutions, be among the first to introduce a remote file server storage solution that delivers both performance and resiliency levels similar to local storage, enabling the ease of a file server with no performance limitations."