SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced a new addition to its FlashSoft software product line that is designed to increase application performance and the number of virtual machines available in virtual computing environments. Already available for servers running Windows Server and Linux operating systems, the FlashSoft software brings solid-state storage benefits to virtual computing by installing as a module within the operating system of leading virtual computing platforms.

Key Benefits of the New FlashSoft Software:

• an increase of two-to-four times the application performance on virtual machines;
• an increase of two-to-three times the number of virtual machines available on a single platform (increased VM density); and,
• the ability to run transparently within the hypervisor (a hardware virtualization technique allowing multiple operating systems, to run concurrently on a host computer) providing native operating system support for key functions within a single server and in clusters.

“The release of our new FlashSoft software underscores SanDisk’s commitment to serving enterprise customers with high-performance solutions,” said Greg Goelz, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Storage Solutions. “Today’s enterprise customer looks to solid state technology to relieve I/O constraints and deliver greater benefits from virtual computing. FlashSoft software works with enterprise solid-state devices from all vendors to reduce I/O latency for improved VM density and application performance.”

FlashSoft technology caches frequently accessed (or “hot”) data, on very fast solid-state devices installed directly in the server. By caching hot data on flash memory in the server, the FlashSoft software reduces I/O latency that can slow application performance, especially in virtual servers. FlashSoft software is compatible with any enterprise flash device, including PCIe, SAS or SATA, from all vendors. The software runs in any enterprise server, working efficiently with both storage area network (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) configurations.

Increased Performance for Key Applications

Slow application performance frequently prevents the migration of “tier-one” applications from physical servers to virtual environments. FlashSoft caching technology reduces latency to significantly increase application performance in virtual servers. The performance boost of two-to-four times increases opportunities to move applications to virtual servers. In addition, by increasing virtual machine density, the software helps IT organizations realize greater value from hardware and software investments, while reducing power consumption and space requirements in data centers.

Precisely Targeted Performance

Unlike flash memory-based storage systems that accelerate storage I/O broadly, FlashSoft software targets I/O acceleration capabilities directly to the servers that require performance acceleration. For each virtual machine, the system administrator can select specific virtual disks for acceleration, delivering I/O acceleration directly to the data and compute resources that need it most.

Increased Virtual Machine Density

FlashSoft enables two-to-three times greater VM density without diminished performance. Because the host-based cache does not redundantly cache virtual desktop data, FlashSoft software is particularly well-suited to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments.

Works Seamlessly within the Hypervisor

FlashSoft software provides full support for all standard virtualization features, including high availability, virtual machine migration, snapshot clones and linked clones. With the software installed in the hypervisor, no additional components or external management modules are required, and no additional software agents are installed in the guest VMs. Configuration and administration are performed through the hypervisor’s native user interface, making system management simple and convenient.

FlashSoft software requires no changes to virtual machines, applications or storage infrastructure. With no VM-resident agent software, virtual machines can run Linux, Windows, or any other supported operating system. Since the software is transparent to both the virtual machines, their applications and to the storage infrastructure, no policy changes are required for VM management, backup or compliance.

Product Specifications

The solid-state cache used with FlashSoft software can be up to 2 terabytes (TB) in size, and multiple solid-state devices can be combined in any RAID configuration or logical volume manager. FlashSoft requires only 140 megabytes (MB) of system memory, and FlashSoft memory requirements do not increase with the acceleration of additional VMs.

Pricing and Availability

The new FlashSoft product for use in virtual machine environments is available now and may be purchased for $3,900 MSRP (USD) per server from SanDisk. FlashSoft for Linux ($3,500) and Windows ($3,000) are currently available from SanDisk. For more information, please visit www.sandisk.com/flashsoft.