Fusion ioTurbine Caching Software for Linux Guest OS In Addition to Windows

Fusion-io, Inc. announced that its ioTurbine virtualization caching software now offers intelligent application caching for the Linux guest OS, in addition to support for the Windows guest OS.

ioTurbine software delivers improved VM density and cost savings in VMware environments, including those that require vMotion, enabling customers to virtualize even data-intensive applications with significant performance improvements.

With this update, ioTurbine offers complete cross-platform OS support while providing VMware vMotion compatibility for virtualized servers. It offers dynamic rebalancing of flash capacity as VMs come and go to optimize use of resources, while supporting vMotion and the movement of VMs from host to host. By coupling with the file system I/O routines in the guest OS, ioTurbine transparently redirects I/O patterns so flash storage is shared across all hosted VMs. It ioTurbine also works with Fusion ION Data Accelerator software to enable customers to architect shared software defined virtualization platforms using the servers best suited to their enterprise needs.

"Fusion ioTurbine is the only open server-side caching software on the market today that supports both Linux and Windows guests simultaneously while maintaining seamless vMotion operation," said Neil Carson, CTO, Fusion-io. "Software defined virtualization solutions like Fusion ioTurbine and Fusion ION Data Acceleration are designed to allow IT experts to affordably build virtualization platforms customized to their enterprise, making it possible to scale infrastructure without compromising on performance."

Power sports Polaris Industries, Inc. integrated ioTurbine software to support its online infrastructure, which is crucial to its worldwide dealership channel. In addition, Polaris also accelerates its Microsoft Dynamics CRM system with the Fusion ioDrive. The Polaris IT team needed to power performance in a virtualized infrastructure that could scale and support a web-based rich media customer experience, including video, high resolution photos, order details, and customer info, all without requiring a major overhaul of its existing network and NetApp storage infrastructure. Polaris achieved a 5x performance improvement in webpage load times, in addition to other improvements.

"Once we started using ioTurbine for our virtualized web servers, we noticed that the associated storage systems worked faster as well. Since the read I/O was being satisfied from cache, my storage systems could process write I/O much, much faster. I hadn’t anticipated this, but I’ll take all the performance I can get, especially when it comes at a fraction of the cost of traditional disk-based solutions," said Adam Knutson, Polaris infrastructure manager. "We run pretty high density, anywhere from 20 to 30 VMs per host. With ioTurbine, we were able to increase performance even with these high densities and exceed users’ expectations."

ioTurbine also features a new plug-in for vCenter Server, the scalable and extensible VMware virtualization management platform, enabling tighter integration and ease of use within VMware environments. With the vCenter Server plug-in, IT administrators can centrally and transparently manage ioMemory in VMware environments for improved control over the virtual environment.

Compatible with ioTurbine, Fusion ION Data Accelerator software transforms server platforms into powerful network shared flash data acceleration appliances. With ioTurbine and ION integration, data cached on ioTurbine can be supported by a ION Data Accelerator enabled server to provide an open virtualization platform built on the systems customers know and trust. These combined software solutions enable enterprises to virtualize even data-intensive applications in VMware environments.

Additional enterprise features of ioTurbine include:

• Support for thousands of VMs per cluster allows for greater VM density, efficiency  and ROI
• Enterprise reliability and fault tolerance through Fusion ioMemory features including Wear Leveling to extend flash endurance, as well as Adaptive Flashback, which provides intelligent self-healing through chip-level fault tolerance
• Native support for VM snapshots provides simplicity and integration with existing enterprise operations
• New Caching Analytics offer customers the ability to preview ROI and performance improvements possible in ioTurbine environments
• Support for ESX 4.0 (starting with update1), ESX 4.1 and ESXi 4.1, 5.0 and 5.0 Update 1