OCZ has issued a new whitepaper written by Scott Harlin and Allon Cohen, PhD, which focuses on the flash delivery in the software-defined data center and how OCZ VXL software addresses the SDDC vision of the future with software-defined flash delivery.
According to the whitepaper, the last decade has seen the enterprise data center transformed into a more dynamic and efficient platform in order to meet the changing needs of business application due to server virtualization. This technology has enabled multiple virtual server loads to run concurrently on a single physical host thus increasing server CPU and memory resource utilization as well as simplifying the deployment, high availability and maintenance of the server loads.

The same server virtualization, which delivers impressive data center productivity gains for enterprise servers also impacts storage and network facilities causing performance bottlenecks and sharp increases in IT administrations and infrastructure investments. While physical storage systems were designed for static allocations the today's software defined data center (SDDC) requires dynamic networking and storage capabilities beyond server virtualization in order to improve IT asset utilization and operational efficiencies. In order to realize the SDDC vision, storage hardware and software architectures must be adapted so that storage can be provisioned and responsive to the dynamically changing requirements of the SDDC. The enterprise flash is positioned as a key enabler for those new storage architectures and with the right combination of hardware and software, it is possible to enable efficient, cost-effective and high-performance storage services delivery.

The new whitepaper aims to show the key requirements for the SDDC vision and how OCZ delivers and manages flash in this platform as a dynamic, connected and simple-to-manage component providing all of the benefits of flash without any compromise. OCZ's VXL Cache and Virtualization Software combined with flash-based Z-Drive R4 PCI-Express SSD deliver a complete virtual performance system.

Via OCZ StoragePro XL flash management system, it is possible to monitor and manage OCZ enterprise drives connected to network servers, storage arrays or appliances and thus provides IT managers with a cross-platform view of the enterprise flash resources, simplifies network administration which are some of the key details in order to achieve a simple-to-manage SDDC environment. The simple SDDC vision also requires optimization of SSD tools which are available via OCZ VXL Sofwate advance policy-based algorithms as well. The last requirement of the simple SDDC environment calls for seamless, ubiquitous flash deployment and OCZ VXL Software does not require agents or special drivers for caching VM data on the Z-Drive PCIe cards making it a perfect candidate.

The whitepaper concludes that in order to get to this transformative platform which is effective, you need a dynamic, connected and simple in order for application resources to be provisioned and respond quickly to the changing market requirements. Combining storage virtualization with PCIe flash caching, OCZ developed a hardware/software SDDC solution that takes advantage of the power of flash without losing any of the benefits associated with virtualization.

You can download the full whitepaper below.







Source: OCZ.com.