PernixData recently announced that SEGA has chosen PernixData FVP to accelerate storage performance of its gaming service platform.  According to the announcement, by removing storage performance bottlenecks, PernixData FVP is enabling SEGA to better handle player information and support playing devices like smart phones and tablets.  To find out more about this news, and to better understand the procurement process, deployment process, and the benefits seen, I spoke with Kyosuke Watanabe, general manager of the IT management department at SEGA Networks. 

VMblog:  What issue were you having that led to you searching for a new storage performance solution?

Kyosuke Watanabe:  Our gaming platform required extraordinary performance, and we had previously been using Fusion-IO cards as a method of storing data on physical servers for our database systems.

We were unable to support operational efficiency on virtualized platforms, and also experienced excessive use of Fusion-IO cards for a single database. These were consistent issues that we wanted to overcome.

VMblog:  What was the procurement process for selecting a solution?

Watanabe:  Our database receives 80% write traffic, so a read-only solution was unsuitable for our environment. We needed a solution that could accelerate both read and write performance.

VMblog:  And was there a test or trial that formed part of this?

Watanabe:  Yes. We did a performance test both before and after deploying PernixData FVP.

VMblog:  So have you seen any benefits since implementation?

Watanabe:  We expect to migrate at least 80% of the MySQL databases from a physical to virtual environment. We also improved our read/write latency and overall database performance by 50%. Additionally, we now use vSphere HA/vMotion for our databases, and improved our infrastructure operations.

VMblog:  How simple was the solution to install?  And what was the support from PernixData like?

Watanabe:  Yes, it was easy to install PernixData FVP. However, our technology partner Networld did not say, "You only have to wait just 3 minutes." Networld was very helpful, and the PernixData team also supported Networld throughout the process. Networld constructed a similar testing environment at their HQ and helped us carry out some tests with PernixData FVP. PernixData was also quick to respond when we had any issues.

VMblog:  Has PernixData FVP cut costs?

Watanabe:  Yes. By combining PernixData FVP and low-end storage, we achieved performance that was three to four times better than low-end storage, and better than middle range storage.

Instead of dedicating one database with Fusion-IO, our performance is now shared with the VMs within the PernixData FVP cluster.

VMblog:  Finally, what extra benefits do you expect it to provide going forward?

Watanabe:  We don't expect to buy high performance storage any more. Since PernixData FVP provides the storage performance, we can now focus on scaling storage capacity and we can control future storage investments.

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Once again, thanks to Kyosuke Watanabe, GM of the IT Management Department at SEGA Networks.