LSI and NetApp ally on server-based flash acceleration solutions for cloud and enterprise datacenters

USA: LSI Corp. announced that the LSI Nytro WarpDrive family of application acceleration PCIe flash cards has been validated for use with NetApp Flash Accel software.

LSI and NetApp are offering complete server flash caching solutions that speed application performance by converting server-based flash into “hot” data cache for critical business applications. LSI Nytro WarpDrive cards are among the first PCIe flash devices to be fully tested and qualified with NetApp’s intelligent server caching software.

“Flash memory adoption in the enterprise is a powerful complement to hard-disk-based network storage,” said Tim Russell, VP, Data Lifecycle Ecosystem Group, NetApp. “Deploying flash as a high-speed cache in the server is a simple and cost-effective way to significantly reduce latency and I/O bottlenecks, while providing enterprise-level data protection and manageability for the entire infrastructure. Working with our server cache partners, we’re able to offer customers a complete end-to-end, high-speed solution.”

LSI and NetApp server caching solutions deliver:
* Automated and intelligent caching of hot data to PCIe flash storage.
* Increased application responsiveness and reduced latency.
* Optimized cost per IOPS and cost per gigabyte across flash and HDDs.
* Significant power, cooling and physical footprint savings, reducing total cost of ownership.
* A fully tested, end-to-end solution that is simple to use.

LSI Nytro WarpDrive cards deployed in conjunction with Flash Accel software intelligently place the most frequently accessed or “hot” data on ultra-low latency, high-performance PCIe flash storage. Test results have shown a reduction in application and server latency by up to 90 percent while increasing throughput by up to 80 percent.

By allowing infrequently accessed data to remain on HDD storage, organizations can deploy an economical mix of flash and hard-disk storage, optimizing both cost per IOPS and cost per gigabyte of storage capacity.

The combined solution helps to reduce datacenter footprint and overall IT costs by delivering the equivalent I/O performance of hundreds of hard drives, while using significantly less power, cooling and physical space. Storage efficiency is also improved by minimizing the number of input/output operations between servers and back-end storage systems, which frees up shared storage resources to handle additional workloads.

In addition, the Nytro WarpDrive card’s advanced “off-loaded” multiprocessor architecture uses up to four times less CPU and memory resources than competing solutions, providing high performance over the life of the product and freeing up these costly resources for other critical applications and workloads.