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    PernixData Ties Flash Storage to VMware Hypervisor

    By now, just about any organization running virtual machines is familiar with the I/O management challenges that can have a substantial impact on application performance. The challenge, of course, is that because the I/O requests that tend to create these bottlenecks are random, traditional storage systems often don’t adequately address the problem.

    Fortunately, a new generation of Flash storage systems should go a very long way toward taking I/O issues relating to virtual storage off the table. This week, PernixData began shipping version 1.0 of PernixData FVP, a server-side Flash storage system that is actually embedded in a hypervisor.

    According to PernixData CEO Poojan Kumar, this approach turns Flash storage running on a server into a resource that can be shared by multiple applications residing with the same cluster.

    Currently compatible with VMware virtual machines, Kumar says PernixData FVP is capable of supporting over 100,000 IOPs. At those performance levels, Kumar says, PernixData FVP can support mission-critical applications that are increasingly being deployed on top of virtual machines.

    Designed to be deployed in 20 minutes, PernixData FVP gives application owners or virtual machine administrators an option to deploy server-side storage without necessarily having to work directly with storage administrators.

    While Flash storage will eventually come under the purview of traditional storage administrators, a lot of organizations are looking to accelerate the performance of specific applications. In those instances, many of them are opting to accomplish that goal by installing Flash storage on servers that they can directly deploy and manage.

    Regardless of who actually drives Flash storage adoption in the enterprise, it’s pretty clear at this point that a massive migration is under way. Not as clear is the length of time that journey will take and what role magnetic storage will continue to play in the enterprise. The good news from a performance perspective is that I/O bottlenecks at the storage level should soon be a thing of the past.

    Mike Vizard
    Mike Vizard
    Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a contributor to publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

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