LSI Nytro XD Flash Caching With Support of VMware

LSI Corporation announced its Nytro XD Application Acceleration Storage Solution features integrated support for VMware virtualisation software.

The solution with VMware support combines a PCIe flash card with intelligent, host-based caching software designed for virtualised environments.

Virtualisation is pervasive in the enterprise, but IT organisations are being limited in the number of VMs they can deploy due to the storage I/O bottleneck caused by slow HDD access. The Nytro XD solution helps to eliminate storage bottlenecks in virtualised environments by improving IO/s performance and VM density and does so with minimal impact to storage infrastructure.

The solution boosts the IO/s performance for applications running inside VMs by intelligently caching the most frequently accessed hot data on low-latency PCIe flash storage. It is designed to integrate with vSphere, vCentre and vMotion and is transparent to system administration through native VMware management.

Nytro XD solution customer benefits include:

• Cost-effective acceleration of existing SAN, DAS and NAS (VMware only) storage through automated and intelligent caching of hot data to PCIe flash storage
• Up to 3X greater VM density, allowing for server consolidation, reduced rack space requirements and lower power, cooling and licensing costs
• Improved CPU power utilisation, enabling idle CPUs to support additional business applications
• Reduced network storage load by removing frequent-read I/Os from network storage, leaving the storage free to devote a higher percentage of its IO/s to writes
• Non-disruptive IT operations by not requiring the installation of agents or drivers for each guest OS

“With a relatively small investment in PCIe flash storage, the Nytro XD solution delivers an incredibly cost-effective method for improving application performance and VM density for existing storage infrastructures,” said Robin Wagner, senior director of marketing, datacentre solutions group, LSI. “For key applications such as databases and virtual desktops, the ability to intelligently cache hot data in low-latency PCIe flash storage accelerates access to data and helps enable faster boot times and greater business productivity.”

VMware support is available as a free download for the currently available Nytro XD solutions in flash capacities of 400GB and 800GB, and will be offered on the newly introduced 1.6TB capacity point model.

The LSI Nytro XD solution is a part of the Nytro product portfolio of PCIe flash adapters, including the Nytro WarpDrive and Nytro MegaRAID product families. The products are available from select OEMs and through the company’s network of distributors, integrators and VARs.