Fusion ioControl Hybrid Flash Array Outperformed Conventional NVRAM+SSD+Disk Architecture

Fusion-io, Inc. announced the ioControl hybrid flash array has outperformed other hybrid storage arrays by up to 7x in testing conducted by The Tolly Group.

In its testing, The Tolly Group found that Fusion ioControl delivers leading performance and scalability for VMs and VDI, as well as application I/O requests.

“Conventional SSD hybrid storage arrays offer acceptable performance for small datasets, but they are ultimately limited by SSD architectures,” said Kevin Tolly, founder, The Tolly Group. “From raw performance to VDI and VM testing, the Fusion ioControl hybrid flash array delivered higher performance and scalability than the hybrid SSD array, showcasing that ioControl provides an excellent choice for companies evaluating hybrid flash solutions for their datacenter.”

The ioControl hybrid flash array combines ioMemory enterprise flash with disk capacity to deliver performance that can be provisioned to meet a variety of different application requirements. Unlike other hybrid flash arrays, ioControl provides the ability to prioritize and control shared storage resources by assigning performance policies to each application independently. Featuring automated policies that define I/O operations, throughput and latency performance minimums for each application, the ioControl hybrid flash array is a flash solution for SMEs adding flash to an IT infrastructure for the first time.

The Tolly Group tested ioControl performance for VDI, where boot storms caused by users logging on at the same time can overload storage resources. To accelerate VDI workloads, the testing found that ioControl provides greater read throughput than a SSD hybrid array. In VM environments, ioControl provided higher VM density with 60% lower latency than SSD hybrid arrays.

“In addition to maximizing the efficiency of flash for peak performance, ioControl also adds unique value for IT professionals through features that make it easy to automate performance across a variety of applications,” said Chris McCall, Fusion-io senior director of ioControl marketing. “With ioControl, SMEs get the best of both flash performance and disk capacity in a solution that simplifies storage management.“

Financial services company Orangefield Columbus adopted the ioControl hybrid flash array to boost performance and capacity while reducing storage management headaches. With ioControl, the IT team decreased time spent on storage management from five hours per week to just one hour per month.

“Since we deployed Fusion ioControl, we have seen massive improvements in performance, capacity and efficiency,” said Anthony Hill, Orangefield Columbus director of IT. “But the real beauty of the system is that we haven’t had to touch it once we got it up and running, which was an easy process in itself. We just haven’t had to worry about it at all. It’s definitely exceeded our expectations.“

To access Tolly Group report (registration needed).