Proximal Data, the leading provider of server-side caching solutions specifically designed for virtualized environments, today announced the availability of a Technology Insight Paper from the Evaluator Group on AutoCache, Proximal Data’s fast virtual cache software that eliminates I/O bottlenecks in virtualized servers to increase virtual machine (VM) density, efficiency and performance. Written by Leah Schoeb, a senior partner at the IT analyst firm, the paper explains how AutoCache addresses the challenges of IT departments with optimizing storage environments and achieving virtual machine efficiencies to meet operational and business needs.
The paper, titled “Proximal Data: Increasing Virtual Machine Density and Performance,” points out that “demands for storing and retrieving information in virtualized environments are based on serving the requirements of many virtual machines and their applications.” However, addressing the needs of virtualized infrastructures has led to what is termed “technology sprawl” — using several single-purpose storage systems per application or deploying less-than-optimal storage systems. The standard approach of increasing virtual machine density by consolidating current hosts into a larger host creates conflicts from the higher number of diverse applications that are consolidated and raises demands on storage investments. Enterprises need a more effective and efficient solution.
The paper turns to Proximal Data and its recently announced virtual cache software, AutoCache, “An innovative new caching technology that supports higher virtual machine densities by getting the most out of a standard PCIe flash card or solid-state drive (SSD). AutoCache meets the requirements to provide performance and scalability of virtual machines while enabling higher virtual machine density ratios on existing physical hosts.” AutoCache works within the hypervisor, taking advantage of flash cards or SSDs to change the way virtual machines access the underlying storage by providing a fast layer of read cache with write-through storage for the hypervisor.
The Evaluator Group describes AutoCache software as “the next phase in performance virtualization and efficiency … aimed at improving virtual machine density and performance without increasing latency, [and] with no impact to IT operations.”
Randy Kerns, senior strategist at the Evaluator Group, stated, “Proximal Data has met a real customer need with performance improvements for server virtualization. Accomplished with a software implementation that does not require agents or sophisticated setup, the caching improvements for storage access will allow users to increase their virtual machine density and virtualization of critical applications with minimal cost and complexity.”
To download the Evaluator Group Technology Insight Paper, go to http://www.proximaldata.com/product/resources/Increasing_Virtual_Machine_Density_and_Performance.php.