Fusion-io Accelerates VMware Virtualized Solutions

At the VMware Partner Exchange event Fusion-io (FIO) announced comprehensive updates to its full portfolio of flash-fueled virtualization solutions based on Fusion ioMemory. The general availability of Fusion ioVDI software for VMware Horizon View hosted virtual desktop environments was announced, as well as Fusion ioVDI software for VMware Horizon View.

“Flash and virtualization technologies complement each other to maximize datacenter efficiency, performance, and cost savings,” said Lee Caswell, Fusion-io vice president, Virtualization Products Group. “By relieving the stress that virtualization places on conventional disk performance as users increase virtual server density, flash memory extends the performance of desktops and boosts the value of existing shared storage resources.”

A new VMware-validated VDI Reference Architecture with VMware Horizon View documents how companies implementing VDI can lower storage costs per desktop while delivering the predictable user experience necessary for VDI success with the Fusion ioControl hybrid flash appliance. It provides guidelines on maximizing consistent performance and reducing VDI implementation risks with ioControl Hybrid Storage, Cisco UCS and VMware Horizon View.

An update to the Fusion ioTurbine caching software now provides tighter integration with vCenter as well as new operating system support for vSphere 5.5, RHEL 6.5 and SLES 11.ioTurbine Profiler software can look at actual application workloads to assess the benefits of caching in particular data center environments.

“Companies of all sizes have adopted virtualization to make better use of IT resources and achieve economic savings," said David Floyer, Wikibon Chief Technology Officer. "However, virtualization brings an IO ‘tax’ that can adversely affect performance and user experience, especially with latency sensitive workloads such as database and VDI. Fusion-io provides a rich variety of storage products and software that easily integrate into the datacenter, enabling databases, virtual servers, VDI, and high performance applications to deliver cost-effective performance in virtual environments.”

Additionally, Fusion ioMemory flash products are now VMware-certified as optimized solutions for powerful flash performance for the VMware Virtual SAN converged virtual infrastructure. Currently in public testing, VMware Virtual SAN is a new software-defined storage solution that extends the hypervisor to pool CPUs, flash memory and locally attached disks to provide a converged compute and storage infrastructure.

ioVDI software accelerates VMware Horizon View virtual desktops

Fusion-io launched Fusion ioVDI software for VMware Horizon View hosted virtual desktop environments. Fusion ioVDI software speeds the deployment of VMware Horizon View virtual desktops by intelligently combining the stateless cost economics of server flash performance with the manageability benefits of installed shared storage required for persistent desktops. It is a virtual desktop solution that offers Write Vectoring, a patent-pending technology that monitors and directs session-based desktop writes uniquely to server-side flash. By limiting shared storage interaction to the small number of writes that persist between login sessions, Write Vectoring preserves the use of VMware value-added features such as vMotion, HA, DRS, and SRM that require shared storage while substantially reducing SAN or NAS performance dependencies.

"In many ways, virtual desktops are the litmus test of application acceleration expertise,” said Lee Caswell, Fusion-io vice president, Virtualization Products Group. “Every desktop user is a hypercritical judge of performance, and every desktop administrator is looking to simplify the scaling of centralized desktops to minimize both capital and operating expenses.”

With patent-pending Transparent File Sharing technology from Fusion-io, many hosted virtual desktops are able to simultaneously share common files. Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) testing of ioVDI found that caching further offloads shared storage by up to 87 percent so that VDI success no longer requires expensive storage or network upgrades. That research also reported that the solution delivered consistent microsecond response times for workloads of one thousand data-intensive VDI desktops, as well as fast, consistent boot times averaging less than ten seconds.