SanDisk is announcing the new version of its FlashSoft software for Window Server and Linux operating systems as part of a significant upgrade to its enterprise software portfolio. FlashSoft 3.2 is a server-side solid state caching software designed to strengthen the performance of existing applications and server and storage systems. FlashSoft 3.2 now features support for multiple SSDs as well as SSD mirroring for write-back caching. Additionally, it supports up to four caches on just one server and a maximum cache now up to 2TB per cache. FlashSoft 3.2 also now supports DAS and SAN configurations and can accelerate up to 2,048 volumes per cache.
SanDisk is announcing the new version of its FlashSoft software for Window Server and Linux operating systems as part of a significant upgrade to its enterprise software portfolio. FlashSoft 3.2 is a server-side solid state caching software designed to strengthen the performance of existing applications and server and storage systems. FlashSoft 3.2 now features support for multiple SSDs as well as SSD mirroring for write-back caching. Additionally, it supports up to four caches on just one server and a maximum cache now up to 2TB per cache. FlashSoft 3.2 also now supports DAS and SAN configurations and can accelerate up to 2,048 volumes per cache.
FlashSoft 3.2 caches hot data on solid-state memory in the server rather than on the storage which reduces latency. The software dynamically allots cache space to volumes based on I/O activity which optimizes SSD utilization and reduces the necessity for the utilization of CPU and memory resources. The software supports SanDisk devices or any other flash-based system that utilizes PCIe, SAS or SATA.
FlashSoft users have been using the software for increasingly large data sets, so FlashSoft 3.2 has been modified accordingly. As mentioned above, it now allows four separate caches on a single server, with each cache on its own SSD. Additionally, it now has a maximum cache size of 2TB, up from 1TB on the previous version. Beyond that, the number of volumes supported had been 255, but now stands at a robust 2,048. Also alluded to above, FlashSoft 3.2 allows multiple solid state devices to be linked together to provide a larger logical SSD. This means that organizations won’t have to replace an existing SSD. The final major implementation is the safe write-back caching in which the data is written to both SSDs at the same time. Even in the event of an SSD failure, FlashSoft flushes data from the other SSD and switches to write-through mode, providing read-only caching until the SSD failure is corrected.
Pricing and Availability
Available now from SanDisk or authorized resellers, FlashSoft 3.2 for Windows Server is $3,000, FlashSoft 3.2 for Linux is$3,500 and FlashSoft 3.1 for VMware vSphere is $3,900 Software maintenance and 24×7 support is available from SanDisk for all FlashSoft software products.
