Fusion-io Delivers Hybrid Storage Managed by Business Priorities

Fusion-io, Inc. announced its ioControl 3.0 hybrid storage solution (formerly NexGen Storage), which features software updates that enable SMEs to manage shared storage according to business priorities with simplicity at scale.

ioControl provides an entry point for SMEs seeking to add flash memory acceleration to their infrastructure. Combining intelligent software to leverage ioMemory flash products for performance and disk drives for capacity, ioControl enablee to provision, prioritize and control shared storage resources.

“No one wants to wait for data, especially if they’re an attorney working on a case,” said James Gunnarson,  Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL system administrator. “Fusion ioControl accelerates the systems we use to host our law firm’s applications, helping keep our staff efficient and our clients happy. Some data sets can become very large, so the ability to offload non-essential data to disk storage, with flash memory providing performance where it’s most needed, gives us all the power of flash without any waste.”

With the ability to control performance according to business priorities, ioControl 3.0 delivers QoS capabilities with application-level intelligence that ensures performance priority is always given to active data. Extending the intelligence of the ioControl QoS management platform, ioControl 3.0 differentiates between active data and data stored previously that has since changed in snapshots, replication, and clones. ioControl QoS maximizes system efficiency by ensuring that active data stays on flash while redundant copies are automatically migrated to disk without requiring administrator interaction.

“Flash storage is becoming an essential element in datacenters as we increasingly expect all information to be available in milliseconds – whether it’s email, analytics, or video, and whether it’s coming from Minneapolis, Munich or Mumbai,” said Mark Peters, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “The options for, and intricacies of adding flash can be especially overwhelming for busy IT professionals in small to medium enterprise datacenters that need to balance the inevitable performance demands with their invariably limited resources. Fusion ioControl 3.0 features the innovative and compelling ability to deliver intelligent, automated, parameter-driven control of flash in a hybrid system to ensure that the right applications – and the businesses they support – get the right performance at the right time.”

ioControl 3.0 introduces enhancements to Dynamic Data Placement with priority-driven caching, which adapts to changing business conditions by adjusting how quickly application data moves from disk into flash memory according to the priorities of individual enterprises. Combined with the raw performance achieved with ioMemory flash, priority-driven caching enables 3x more workloads to be consolidated into a smaller footprint while ensuring critical workloads get the resources they require. Comparative ioControl testing results conducted by an independent third party are available in the white paper, SSD to PCIe, the Evolution of Hybrid Caching (registration needed.)

“Flash memory offers powerful performance for enterprises, but every flash solution is not created equal, and one size does not fit all,” said John Spiers, Fusion-io GM of ioControl solutions. “Fusion ioControl features a revolutionary design that eliminates legacy SAN data bottlenecks to deliver a direct data path from the network to memory-attached flash on the PCIe bus. Going beyond just pure performance to enable SMEs to manage IT by business priorities, this unique architecture enables true QoS for enterprise applications by intelligently allocating Fusion-io flash resources on demand to meet the needs of individual enterprises.”

ioControl 3.0 also introduces a new policy-based user interface that simplifies performance management with a natural, search-driven architecture. The new user interface administers the system by business policies rather than legacy paradigms, such as tree view. The navigability of the interface is enhanced with search engine features that make it easy to access and update settings and priorities. This simplicity enables IT professionals to manage more storage on the same resources as business needs grow, with the ability to know how each application will perform.

Fusion ioControl was showcased at the IP Expo London trade show from October 16-17, and at VMworld Barcelona from October 15-17.

ioControl is available from Fusion-io resellers in North America and Europe.