Fusion-io Delivers Unified Virtualization Software ($3,900)

Fusion-io, Inc. has introduced an unified virtualization software solution with an upgrade of its ioTurbine software that provides performance, control and choice to enhance the value of virtualization investments.

With features that make virtualization viable for even data-intensive applications, ioTurbine delivers the option for hypervisor caching, virtualization-aware caching in the guest VM, dynamic reallocation of cache memory during live migration of VMs in VMware vMotion, and unified management of caching across virtual and physical environments.

"Just as Fusion-io revolutionized storage by integrating flash in the server to bring performance closer to enterprise applications, enabling virtualization-aware caching is a significant breakthrough in intelligent virtual performance acceleration," said Vikram Joshi, Fusion-io chief technologist and VP. "As adoption of virtualization is at different stages at different companies, ioTurbine provides customers with the option to cache in the guest VM or the hypervisor. Caching at the guest brings performance to the application where it is needed without costly and ineffective storage sprawl. Fusion ioTurbine makes it possible to further streamline the stack with optimized software to accelerate the adoption of flash in virtual environments, while giving customers flexibility and control over their infrastructure."

ioTurbine simplifies the deployment of virtualization performance through dynamic cache allocation during live migration of VMs, even across heterogeneous servers. With options for guest VM, hypervisor, and physical server caching, IT professionals can simplify their investment in virtualization, whether they are just starting to virtualize a traditional datacenter or are well on their way to a fully virtual infrastructure. Unified management of physical and virtual environments simplifies performance provisioning, enabling IT professionals to spend more time on strategic business requirements.

Unique to ioTurbine, virtualization-aware guest level caching delivers application performance by identifying the application’s most immediate data requirements. Guest VM caching optimizes the use of flash bandwidth by retaining and caching data critical to application performance.

"Fusion-io is extending the ioTurbine caching technology to include the option to cache on physical servers, in the hypervisor, and the guest VM, while preserving the ability to support native vMotion," said David Floyer, Wikibon CTO. "This unified approach gives leading deployment flexibility and control to enterprise users requiring high performance cache in the migration to total server virtualization."

As a flexible platform, ioTurbine software allows enterprises to work with the server and storage systems of their choice, including Fusion ION Data Accelerator and the Fusion-io NexGen hybrid storage system. ioTurbine supports multiple OSs, including VMware ESXi, Windows, and Linux. The software also includes Fusion ioSphere monitoring software for local monitoring of multiple deployments of the software throughout a datacenter, as well as a plug-in for vSphere to provide unified management across physical and virtual servers.

ioTurbine virtualization software provides:

• Application Performance: Terabytes of auto-tiered caching provide up to 40x faster database performance with maximum efficiency and minimal management, enabling IT professionals to easily control performance and spend more time on strategic business requirements;
• Options for Hypervisor or Virtualization-Aware Guest VM Caching: The option for intelligent caching in the guest VM brings performance closer to applications to streamline data requirements. The option to cache in the hypervisor enables enterprises and cloud service providers to deliver dynamic, performance caching while meeting SLAs;
• Unified Caching Across Disk, Volume, File and VMs: Unified choice in caching across virtual and physical servers, guest VMs, as well as in the hypervisor, simplifies the delivery of performance across environments in all stages of virtualization adoption;
• Transparent vMotion Support: Support for asymmetric server configurations further accelerates the software defined datacenter with transparent support for vMotion, HA, VMware snapshots, and vSphere dynamic resource scheduler (DRS) without the need for manual vMotion scripting or pre-allocating identical caches across servers;
• Dynamic Cache Allocation and Provisioning: Automatic rebalancing of cache capacity from live VMs accommodates newly deployed or migrated VMs, and dynamically provisions all available cache capacity to live VMs when VMs power off or migrate from the host, efficiently utilizing cache capacity;
• Maximize Hardware Investments, Reduce Storage Sprawl: Double VM density and offload SAN workloads up to 96% in environments with a variety of R/W mixes to maximize virtualization productivity while extending the lifespan of storage investments and offering choice in IT platforms.

ioTurbine is available as stand-alone software or bundled with the ioCache data accelerator platform for virtualization. The ioCache platform features 750GB of ioMemory capacity for low latency application acceleration. The ioTurbine software caches data to the ioCache platform for rapid processing of critical application data, while non-critical data moves across the network to slower, high capacity storage arrays.

ioTurbine is available from Fusion-io and its resellers for a manufacturer’s list price of $3,900. The bundled ioTurbine and ioCache solution is available for a suggested retail price of $7,500.