How well does your SAN handle crunch time? I’m talking about periods of heavy random read/write scenarios, such as:

  • Data mining
  • High Performance computing
  • ERP Application loads

Depending on how you’ve got things architected, you should have no problem provisioning high-performance storage for all your applications. Got a slow SATA array? You can greatly boost its performance by applying cache principles to the entire SAN, not just a single array – and, not just a write cache, but an intelligent read cache. 

Now, imagine taking this a step further. Let’s add an SSD cache in front of your entire SAN (operating at over 1 million IOPS) and make it intelligent with data profiling… OK, let’s turn on the lights and get real. You can make this happen today with the FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator. NSS lets you configure a write cache and a read cache for your entire SAN using two technologies: SafeCache and HotZone.  Here’s how they work:

SafeCache is a designated area on your SAN, such as an SSD array, where all application writes are sent. By using an SSD array (or any faster LUN on your SAN), the writes are high performance, and acknowledgements are much lower-latency.  Writes are also sequentially written to the final SAN target, which is any typical SAN resource (SATA array, FC array, etc.)   You can see how this would greatly increase the overall performance of the SAN, and subsequently all applications utilizing the SAN storage. With all writes going to the highest performing LUN on your SAN, the write performance becomes predictable regardless of which array is the final target, and predictability is a very good thing in our business.

HotZone is also used as a cache, but it is a designated read cache. Unlike SafeCache, HotZone can be used for the entire SAN or prioritized by application. HotZone intelligently recognizes data that is accessed on a more regular basis, and makes a copy available on the SSD array (or other faster LUN you designate).  As the data is used less, the data profiler will remove the data from the HotZone and redirect access to its normal location on the SAN resources.  Again, you get faster, more predictable storage performance.

How fast you ask?
Lab tests of the FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator  show that adding a solid-state layer of one percent of a SAN´s total storage capacity will increase overall SAN performance more than 100 percent. Compared with achieving an equivalent performance increase by adding spindles alone, the FalconStor NSS is a bargain – even for organizations with modest budgets.

If you’re having performance issues or contemplating adding disk to boost SAN performance or reliability, please contact us for a no-obligation storage assessment.