SanDisk Introduces All-Flash Virtual SAN 6

SanDisk Corporation‘s three new reference architectures for VMWare, Inc.’s Virtual SAN 6 utilize SSDs and Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators to enable customers to cost effectively deploy business critical applications, databases, virtual desktops and other IT workloads with less effort and performance on  Virtual SAN 6 software-defined storage infrastructure.

These three reference architectures for Virtual SAN 6 utilize SSDs and Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators to enable customers to cost effectively deploy business critical applications, databases, virtual desktops and other IT workloads with less effort and performance on Virtual SAN 6 software-defined storage infrastructure.

Fusion ioMemory SX300 PCIe

When coupled with Virtual SAN 6, company’s PCIe and SSD-based solutions allow customers to deploy business critical applications, databases, virtual desktops and other IT workloads with less effort, while gaining performance on VMware’s hyper-converged and cost-effective Virtual SAN software-defined storage infrastructure.

“SanDisk is addressing the challenges of latency and cost efficiency in the data center with our all-flash VMware Virtual SAN reference architectures, which allow customers to expand the workloads they can run on all-flash and hybrid-flash storage at lower costs,” said John Scaramuzzo, SVP and GM, enterprise storage solutions, SanDisk. “These new solutions are prime examples of how SanDisk continues to collaborate with VMware. We look forward to working with our mutual partners to help customers experience the significant benefits of the flash-transformed, software-defined data center.“

By using company’s flash-based offerings with VMware solutions, customers are able to consolidate IT footprint, while increasing application QoS, deriving benefits from server virtualization and virtual desktops.

For example, company’s customers have already been able to: increase support for concurrent users by 3X ⁽²⁾; increase virtual desktop density by 4X ⁽³⁾; reduce power and cooling by 16X ⁽¹⁾; and, achieve 40X ⁽⁴⁾ faster report generation. With software-defined storage, according to Gartner, by 2017 one-third of midmarket organizations will deploy Virtual SAN for at least 30% of their total storage capacity ⁽⁵⁾. Businesses cannot afford for mission-critical applications to be sluggish. These VMware validated reference architectures for business critical applications, databases and desktop virtualization will allow customers to deploy with confidence, while lowering storage TCO by up to 50% ⁽⁶⁾.

“Flash is a key enabler for software-defined storage, allowing customers to get high performance and reliability out of their IT infrastructure,” said Charles Fan, SVP and GM, storage and availability, Vmware, Inc. “Together, VMware and SanDisk are making it easier for customers to accelerate the performance of their applications and fully experience the benefits of software-defined storage.“

The reference architectures utilizing company’s SATA, SAS and PCIe application accelerator solutions with Virtual SAN was demonstrated at VMworld 2015 include:

Optimus MAX SAS SSD

Online transaction processing (OLTP) solution with all-flash Virtual SAN

Click to enlarge

• This four-node reference architecture utilizes company’s 4TB Optimus MAX – an high capacity SSD that is certified for Virtual SAN 6 ⁽⁷⁾ – on a Lenovo System x3650 M5 server platform. In a performance test conducted by SanDisk, Lenovo, VMware, and Avago, all-flash four-node configuration delivered 3.08 million New Orders per Minute (NOPMs) and 14.1 million transactions per minute (TPMs) using eight VMs executing SQL Server Standard Edition. The HammerDB performance tuning and benchmarking tool was used to run a 5,000 Warehouse TPC-C like workload. ⁽⁸⁾

Lightning Ascend Gen. II-SAS SSD

VMware Horizon Virtual desktop and applications solution with all-flash Virtual SAN

• The company co-led the development of this VDI reference architecture utilizing Lightning Gen. II SSDs and Dell R730 G13 servers. This solution was tested to run 800 Horizon 6 desktops on a starter four-node cluster with VMware, Avago and Brocade. The solution fuels Horizon 6 virtual desktops and applications at a lower TCO when compared to traditional HDD-based storage solutions. Similarly, when tested, a starter four-node configuration deployed 24 desktops per minute in a boot storm situation, bringing up 850 desktops in 35 minutes. This is the industry’s first 800 virtual desktop solution running on an end-to-end 12G all-flash VSAN Cluster.⁽⁹⁾

Horizon Virtual desktop solution with hybrid VMware Virtual SAN

• This is a reference architecture tested in conjunction with HP and VMware, utilizing HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers and Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators for caching in a hybrid Virtual SAN cluster. In a performance test conducted using VMware Horizon 6.1, the View Planner benchmarking and workload generator with a three-node cluster, the solution delivered fast application performance and response times to support the maximum number of virtual desktops with all responses under the recommended performance thresholds.

A video by SanDisk and VMware executives on these solutions is available . Further details on these reference architectures are also provided in a series of blogs by the company, VMware and other partners’ site. Additional details on company’s solutions for virtualization and VDIs can be found on company’s website or enterprise blog.

For information on Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators, Optimus MAX 4TB SSDs and Lightning Gen. II 12Gb SAS SSD

⁽¹⁾ Based on performance tests conducted by SanDisk, Lenovo, VMware and Avago using HammerDB and SQL Server Database. Performance results may vary according to system architecture, configurations and applications.
⁽²⁾ TekSouth – USAF Data Warehouse case study
⁽³⁾ VMware Fast Track 2.0 Validated Reference Architecture: White paper
⁽⁴⁾ Quaker Maid customer case study
⁽⁵⁾ Gartner Predicts 2015: Midmarket CIOs Must Shed IT Debt to Invest in Strategic Initiatives, Gartner Research, October 2014.
⁽⁶⁾ VMware Virtual SAN 6.0 data sheet
⁽⁷⁾ Capacity verified using VMware HCL for Virtual SAN 6.
⁽⁸⁾ Performance results may vary according to system architecture, configurations and applications.
⁽⁹⁾ VMware Horizon View and All Flash Virtual SAN reference architecture document