Architectural and Interior Design Firm BLDD Chooses Proximal Data

Proximal Data, Inc., a provider of hypervisor I/O intelligence software solutions, announced that BLDD Architects, Inc., an architectural and interior design firm with five offices across Illinois and Iowa, has selected its AutoCache to increase the speed and efficiency of its virtualized desktop environment.

Using AutoCache’s server-side caching, BLDD was able to ease the burden on its main storage that resulted from users constantly accessing design applications and files. By doing so, BLDD enabled users to work faster and increase productivity, and also to serve clients more quickly and help boost the business’ bottom line.

“By combining AutoCache with a small amount of Flash, we took the burden off main memory and optimized disk access,” said Dan Reynolds, senior system administrator, BLDD. “With AutoCache, we can get a 90 to 100% hit rate on the cache, meaning that 90 to 100% of the time, users can get their data from the cache and don’t have to access the SAN. AutoCache helps smooth out those spikes that occur during the day when every desktop is hitting the disk the hardest.“

By being able to get their data faster and their machines and applications responding faster, users save time completing client projects. By caching as frequently as they are now with AutoCache, BLDD was surprised to find an additional benefit – reclaiming CPU resources.

“It takes CPU cycles to go get data from the SAN and bring it back, so when the data is already there in the cache, you gain back some of the CPU cycles that otherwise would have been used to retrieve the source from storage,” explained Reynolds. “Recovering CPU capacity or memory, on top of gaining speed from caching the data, is a huge plus. For me, it’s a double benefit.“

As a result of these benefits, BLDD rates AutoCache’s value-to-cost proposition as extremely high.

“With AutoCache, I can just get a reasonably priced solid state disk, tell AutoCache to use it, and then I’m off and running,” said Reynolds. “The numbers I’m seeing are phenomenal. Pulling data from the cache is so much faster and saves CPU cycles; it’s saving us both time and money.“

AutoCache is a server-side caching solution with I/O intelligence that removes I/O bottlenecks and increases VM density by up to three times to attain maximum performance for business-critical applications.

To view the BLDD case study