Fusion-io optimises virtualisation

“Flash and virtualisation technologies complement each other to maximise datacentre efficiency, performance, and cost savings,” said Lee Caswell, Fusion-io vice president, Virtualisation Products Group. “By relieving the stress that virtualisation 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-optimised acceleration for data-intensive workloads. With a full portfolio of server and desktop virtualisation acceleration solutions, Fusion-io offers flash solutions that maximise the efficiency of virtualisation with flash that fits across a wide variety of existing datacentre architectures.

This week’s general availability introduction of Fusion ioVDI, the industry’s first desktop-aware VDI solution finally makes it possible to support persistent virtual desktops while maximising performance and minimising both capital and operating expenses. Fusion ioVDI software leverages Fusion ioMemory flash to deliver seamless, reliable, and cost-effective virtual desktop performance with consistent 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 Fusion ioControl hybrid flash appliance. With the unique, 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 maximising consistent performance and reducing VDI implementation risks with ioControl Hybrid Storage, Cisco UCS and VMware Horizon View.

To maximise server-side flash economics within SAN-enabled datacentres, a newly released update for Fusion ioTurbine caching software now provides tighter integration with vCenter as well as new operating system support for vSphere 5.5, RHEL 6.5 and SLES 11. Fusion ioTurbine offloads SANs by up to 96 percent 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 unique datacentre environments, IT professionals can download the ioTurbine Profiler software after a quick registration. Enterprises can also receive complimentary performance evaluation consultations through the Fusion-io Fast Flash program.

“Companies of all sizes have adopted virtualisation to make better use of IT resources and achieve economic savings," said David Floyer, Wikibon Chief Technology Officer. "However, virtualisation 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 datacentre, enabling databases, virtual servers, VDI, and high performance applications to deliver cost-effective performance in virtual environments.”

In addition, Fusion ioMemory flash products are now VMware-certified as optimised solutions for powerful flash performance for the VMware Virtual SAN converged virtual infrastructure. Currently in public testing, VMware Virtual SAN 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 unique architecture of Fusion-io flash memory maximises 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, vice president, VMware Global Strategic Alliances Organisation. “From servers to shared flash appliances, Fusion-io provides performance for virtualised environments to accelerate business success with VMware solutions.”