Virident Flash Storage and NEC Server Set Oracle Database Performance

Virident Systems, Inc. and NEC Corporation of America (NEC) have achieved high performance for Oracle applications.

The integrated solution from Virident and NEC delivers 1.2 Million random IOPS and a bandwidth of 9.4 GB/s in real-world Oracle 8k block-size workloads with eight 1.4TB FlashMAX SCM devices deployed on a single Intel Xeon family based 80-core NEC Express5800/A1080a GX server.

The solution packs 11TB of flash storage and delivers per server performance that is at least twice the level of the competing solutions.

Evaluation by ESG Labs has revealed the Virident/NEC solution delivers unmatched performance in terms of transactions per second and improved infrastructure efficiency with higher storage and server utilization. "Our evaluations of Virident FlashMAX and NEC Express5800/A1080a (GX) server have revealed that they can eliminate the performance issues common to real-world workloads and deliver extremely high levels of sustained and predictable performance for mixed-application workloads," said Brian Garrett, vice president at ESG Lab. "Virident has addressed the challenges associated with many first-generation PCIe flash devices with the multi-dimensional performance capabilities of its FlashMAX SCM. Most notably, the Virident solution delivers extremely high levels of performance for reads, writes, and a mix of reads and writes."

As a result of this combined solution, datacenters can now expect better performance from their Oracle database infrastructure than previously possible in terms of latency, bandwidth, capacity, utilization and cost. The solution is positioned to drive increased server performance and lower overall storage hardware costs for Oracle deployments. The joint solution targets high-performance data warehousing, data analytics and OLTP workloads on the Oracle Database, a $4.7 billion market opportunity.

"NEC designed the (GX) server to deliver exceptional configuration flexibility, capacity, reliability and availability, all with record-breaking performance," said Mike Mitsch, vice president, IT platform group at NEC. "The Virident FlashMAX SCM adds even greater heights of performance to our solution for datacenter customers who are looking to maximize the value they receive from their computing and storage resources."

"This integrated solution is a significant milestone that will be of compelling interest for customers who rely on high-performance Oracle environments to run their business," said Shridar Subramanian, vice president, product marketing, Virident Systems. "The performance achieved is a clear testament to the power of our joint solution as well as to our ability to raise customers’ expectations about the ROI on high-performance flash storage investments in the datacenter."

Virident FlashMAX
It combines the performance (1.4 million IOPS from a single PCIe device) and storage capacity (1.4 TB) in small footprint, thus driving higher server consolidations. Aimed at enterprise datacenters, FlashMAX offers predictable, consistent performance over time, across a variety of dataset sizes and under diverse workloads, allowing users to gain benefit from their flash-storage investment. In addition, the Virident solution’s built-in flash-aware RAID ensures the high reliability and availability.

Virident FlashMAX MLC is offered in 1TB and 1.4TB and is available.