Fusion-io With Flexible Flash Solutions

Fusion-io, Inc. announced updates to its portfolio of flash-fueled virtualization solutions based on its ioMemory.

In addition to this announcement of the availability of its ioVDI for VDI acceleration, Fusion-io has also introduced updates to its ioTurbine virtualization caching software, a new VMware Reference Architecture for the Fusion ioControl hybrid flash array, and certification support for the VMware Virtual SAN.

“Flash and virtualization technologies complement each other to maximize datacenter efficiency, performance, and cost savings,” said Lee Caswell, Fusion-io VP, virtualization products group. “By relieving the stress that virtualization places on conventional disk performance as users increase virtual server density, flash memory extends the performance of desktops and boosts the value of existing shared storage resources.”

Fusion-io customers have reported performance gains of nearly 20x with flash-optimized acceleration for data-intensive virtualization workloads. With a portfolio of server and desktop virtualization acceleration solutions, the company offers flash solutions that maximize the efficiency of virtualization with flash that fits across a variety of datacenter architectures.

This availability introduction of ioVDI, a desktop-aware VDI solution, makes it possible to support persistent virtual desktops while maximizing performance and minimizing both capital and operating expenses. The software leverages ioMemory flash to deliver reliable, and cost-effective virtual desktop performance with low latency response times for even data-intensive application workloads.

A new VMware-validated VDI Reference Architecture with VMware Horizon View documents how companies implementing VDI can lower storage costs per desktop while delivering the predictable user experience necessary for VDI success with the ioControl hybrid flash appliance. With the software-defined ability to assign performance according to application priorities, ioControl simplifies performance management while ensuring that the right applications get the right performance at the right time.

The new Reference Architecture provides guidelines on maximizing consistent performance and reducing VDI implementation risks with ioControl Hybrid Storage, Cisco UCS and VMware Horizon View.

To maximize server-side flash economics within SAN-enabled datacenters, a newly released update for ioTurbine caching software now provides tighter integration with vCenter as well as new OS support for vSphere 5.5, RHEL 6.5 and SLES 11.

It offloads SANs by up to 96% with support for hypervisor and guest caching, dynamic reallocation of cache memory during vMotion, and unified management of caching across virtual and physical environments. To evaluate actual application workloads to assess the benefits of caching in their datacenter environments, IT professionals can download the ioTurbine Profiler software after registration. Enterprises can also receive complimentary performance evaluation consultations through the Fusion-io Fast Flash program.

“Companies of all sizes have adopted virtualization to make better use of IT resources and achieve economic savings,” said David Floyer, Wikibon CTO. “However, virtualization brings an IO ‘tax’ that can adversely affect performance and user experience, especially with latency sensitive workloads such as database and VDI. Fusion-io provides a rich variety of storage products and software that easily integrate into the datacenter, enabling databases, virtual servers, VDI, and high performance applications to deliver cost-effective performance in virtual environments.”

In addition, ioMemory flash products are now VMware-certified as optimized solutions for powerful flash performance for the VMware Virtual SAN converged virtual infrastructure. Currently in public testing, it is a new software-defined storage solution that extends the hypervisor to pool CPUs, flash memory and locally attached disks to provide a converged compute and storage infrastructure. Trusted by thousands of enterprises around the world, the architecture of Fusion-io flash memory maximizes performance in VMware Virtual SAN deployments.

“We are pleased to work with Fusion-io to provide our customers with solutions that enable simplicity and provide cost-effective performance,” said Sanjay Katyal, VP, VMware, Inc.‘s global strategic alliances organization. “From servers to shared flash appliances, Fusion-io provides performance for virtualized environments to accelerate business success with VMware solutions.”

Fusion-io was exhibiting during the VMware Partner Exchange Summit (PEX) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, from February 10 – 13, 2014.