Fusion-io unveils ‘breakthrough’ Virtual Desktop performance

“With ioVDI software, enterprises can finally deliver a virtual desktop experience that is just as responsive as physical hardware,” said Vikram Joshi, Fusion-io Chief Technologist and Vice President. “Writing data creates a storage bottleneck in virtual desktop infrastructure that is uniquely solved by ioVDI software. Using highly optimized algorithms, ioVDI fetches data from server-side flash, intelligently offloading most reads and up to 80% of the writes from primary storage to ensure ample storage resources for applications delivered virtually. Making efficient use of CPU and I/O resources with ioVDI allows for hundreds of desktops to be hosted on a single server without compromising end-user experience, which is absolutely critical to the success of VDI.”

Historically, persistent desktops required significant storage resources that erode the cost savings sought by implementing virtual desktop infrastructure. Fusion ioVDI eliminates complicated VDI configurations with a simple server deployment model that delivers persistent desktop performance at a cost similar to stateless desktops. IT professionals can easily add ioVDI to their infrastructure to provide a responsive user experience with drop-in VDI acceleration for hundreds of users per server without the need for expensive storage sprawl. By scaling performance to deliver more virtual desktops on the same infrastructure, ioVDI reduces the hardware investment required to provide a responsive virtual desktop experience to users of even performance-sensitive applications.

“To ensure users can maintain seamless productivity, delivering responsive desktop performance is important for successfully deploying virtual desktop infrastructure,” said Mason Uyeda, senior director of technical marketing, End-User Computing, VMware. “Fusion ioVDI software can provide scalable, cost-effective VDI performance in VMware environments to meet user demands and business objectives even for the demanding environments found in finance, healthcare and the public sector.”

Optimized to leverage flash for peak performance, ioVDI software moves beyond the limitations of legacy storage infrastructure, enabling more data to be processed more quickly in the server, which reduces the amount of data traveling across the network. Fusion ioVDI software delivers VDI performance breakthroughs only possible by streamlining data requirements closest to the application at the VM level, consistently delivering less than 200 milliseconds of application latency and averaging at only 10 milliseconds. Without ioVDI, application latency can be as much as over 1800 milliseconds, with average latency at around 600 milliseconds.
“Consumer adoption of tablets and smartphones as windows to the cloud is driving wider acceptance of virtual desktops (VDI) in the workplace – but only when those virtual desktops match the performance and deliver the same experience as the physical desktops they replace,” said Tim Stammers, 451 Research Senior Analyst. “Fusion ioVDI is designed to combine the performance of server-side flash with the capacity and data protection provided by conventional back-end shared storage, using features that streamline the stack for intelligent, flash-optimized performance.”

Intelligent ioVDI software features such as Transparent File Sharing, Write Vectoring, and Dynamic Flash Allocation optimize VDI performance throughout even the most intensive boot storms. Through Transparent File Sharing, ioVDI delivers inline file deduplication to accelerate VDI responsiveness by reducing virtual machine disk reads over 95 percent. Transparent File Sharing significantly reduces boot times by 5x or more, enabling a fully loaded server with 200 running VMs to reboot in 8-12 seconds. Even if an entire server fails, all 200 users will be restarted automatically with no user intervention or scripting.

With its unique Write Vectoring feature, ioVDI eliminates latency and prolongs the life of shared storage resources by storing non-critical transient data on server-side flash rather than on shared storage. Unlike a write-back cache that sends all writes eventually to shared storage, write vectoring recognizes the existence of transient desktop writes that never need persistence, including page file I/O, temporary files, and browser temp data. Transient writes are written to server-side PCIe flash to reduce write workloads on shared storage by up to 80 percent. Essential desktop writes such as auto-saves and user data updates are directed to shared storage for protection and high availability.

Fusion ioVDI uniquely provides:

• Flash-Optimized VDI Performance: As a solution optimized for NAND flash, Fusion ioVDI enables enterprises to deliver persistent desktops at the price of stateless VDI, even for performance-sensitive workloads.

• Transparent File Sharing: Inline, file-level deduplication of all desktop data hosted on a server enables partial or complete common files to be simultaneously accessed by hundreds of virtual desktops, streamlining data performance through intelligent optimization.

• Write Vectoring: By intelligently directing transient desktop writes to server-side flash and directing only persistent desktop writes to shared storage, Write Vectoring reduces writes to shared storage by up to 80 percent. This accelerates VM performance by reducing traffic between the VM, the hypervisor, the server and the SAN.

• Dynamic Flash Allocation: As desktops are migrated across physical servers, ioVDI dynamically reallocates flash on both the primary and secondary server so that flash performance and capacity is always optimally delivered to applications.

• Flash-Aware HA and VMware Integration: Fusion ioVDI delivers high availability operations with transparent support for vSphere® vMotion®, vSphere High Availability, VMware Dynamic Resource Scheduler™ (DRS) and VMware Site Recovery Manager™ (SRM).

Fusion ioVDI can be deployed with industry-leading servers and ioMemory solutions from Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM. Fusion ioVDI integrates with existing VAAI-compliant shared storage back end storage as well as the Fusion ION Data Accelerator and the Fusion-io ioControl hybrid storage system. Fusion ioVDI software supports multiple guest operating systems, including Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8 running on vSphere 5.0 and 5.1 Virtual desktops are managed using VMware Horizon View™ and VMware vCenter™ Server, with event monitoring and customizable email alerts provided through vCenter.