Flash memory on the server is too expensive not to share. That’s the thinking that went into the development of the FlashMAX Connect suite of software from Virident Systems that allows multiple applications and servers to access server-side FlashMAX II Flash memory cards.
According to Virident Systems CEO Mike Gustafson, FlashMAX Connect software essentially turns storage-class Flash memory on a server into a cluster that multiple applications can share.
With the rise of increasingly less expensive Flash memory on the server, application performance is improving by orders of magnitude. But rather than having to dedicate Flash memory to a specific application or server, the FlashMAX Connect software from Virident, which counts Seagate Technology among its strategic partners, allows IT organizations to treat Flash memory on the server into another tier of storage that can be shared like any other.
Gustafson says that in time storage vendors will collectively standardize the interfaces for accessing Flash memory to make it easier for developers to create applications that transparently access Flash memory on the server as just another system resource.
In the meantime, developers are racing to create a new generation of applications that are anywhere from five to 50 times faster than existing legacy applications that are designed with disk-based systems as the primary storage tier. In effect, those new applications will render entire classes of existing applications obsolete. The challenge facing IT organizations at this point is not whether to deploy Flash memory technology, but rather what mission-critical applications are going to be able to take advantage of a limited resource first.
