SanDisk® introduces all-Flash reference architectures

“SanDisk is addressing the challenges of latency and cost efficiency in the data center with our all-flash VMware Virtual SAN reference architectures, which allow customers to expand the workloads they can run on all-flash and hybrid-flash storage at significantly lower costs,” said John Scaramuzzo, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Storage Solutions, SanDisk. “These new solutions are prime examples of how SanDisk continues to collaborate with VMware. We look forward to working with our mutual partners to help customers experience the significant benefits of the flash-transformed, software-defined data center.”

By using SanDisk flash-based offerings with VMware solutions, customers are able to consolidate IT footprint, while increasing application quality of service (QoS), deriving huge benefits from server virtualisation and virtual desktops. For example, SanDisk customers have already been able to: increase support for concurrent users by 3X[2]; increase virtual desktop density by 4X[3]; reduce power and cooling by 16X1; and, achieve 40X[4] faster report generation.
Now with software-defined storage, according to Gartner, by 2017 one-third of midmarket organisations will deploy VMware Virtual SAN for at least 30 percent of their total storage capacity[5]. Businesses cannot afford for mission-critical applications to be sluggish. These VMware validated reference architectures for business critical applications, databases and desktop virtualisation will allow customers to deploy with confidence, while lowering storage TCO by up to 50 percent[6].

“Flash is a key enabler for software-defined storage, allowing customers to get high performance and reliability out of their IT infrastructure,” said Charles Fan, senior vice president and general manager, Storage and Availability, VMware. “Together, VMware and SanDisk are making it easier for customers to accelerate the performance of their applications and fully experience the benefits of software-defined storage.”

The new reference architectures utilising SanDisk SATA, SAS and PCIe application accelerator solutions with VMware Virtual SAN to be demonstrated at VMworld® 2015 include:

· Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) Solution with All-Flash Virtual SAN
This new 4-node reference architecture utilizes SanDisk’s 4TB Optimus MAX™ - the industry’s highest capacity SSD that is certified for Virtual SAN 6[7] - on a Lenovo System x3650 M5 server platform. In a performance test conducted by SanDisk, Lenovo, VMware, and Avago, all-flash 4-node configuration delivered 3.08 million New Orders per Minute (NOPMs) and 14.1 million transactions per minute (TPMs) using eight virtual machines executing Microsoft SQL Server Standard Edition. The HammerDB performance tuning and benchmarking tool was used to run a 5000 Warehouse TPC-C like workload.[8]

· VMware Horizon® Virtual Desktop and Applications Solution with All-Flash Virtual SAN
SanDisk co-led the development of this virtual desktop infrastructure reference architecture utilising SanDisk’s Lightning® Gen. II SSDs and Dell R730 G13 servers. This solution was tested to run 800 Horizon 6 Desktops on a starter 4-node cluster with VMware, Avago and Brocade. The solution fuels VMware Horizon® 6 virtual desktops and applications at a significantly lower TCO when compared to traditional HDD-based storage solutions. Similarly, when tested, a starter 4-node configuration deployed 24 desktops per minute in a boot storm situation, bringing up 850 desktops in 35 minutes. This is the industry’s first 800 virtual desktop solution running on an end-to-end 12G all-flash VSAN Cluster.[9]

· Horizon Virtual Desktop Solution with Hybrid VMware Virtual SAN
This is a reference architecture tested in conjunction with HP and VMware, utilising HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers and SanDisk’s high performance Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators for caching in a hybrid VMware Virtual SAN cluster. In a performance test conducted using VMware Horizon 6.1, the View Planner benchmarking and workload generator with a 3-node cluster, the solution delivered fast application performance and response times to support the maximum number of virtual desktops with all responses under the recommended performance thresholds.