Today at Microsoft SQL Summit, SanDisk Corporation announced the latest version of FlashSoft, version 3.8. FlashSoft is SanDisk’s server-side, caching software that can accelerate performance 3 to 5 times. The latest version of the software now has updates for Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Linux.
Today at Microsoft SQL Summit, SanDisk Corporation announced the latest version of FlashSoft, version 3.8. FlashSoft is SanDisk’s server-side, caching software that can accelerate performance 3 to 5 times. The latest version of the software now has updates for Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Linux.
FlashSoft, which SanDisk acquired in 2012, is software that moves hot data to server-side flash to prevent bottlenecks and improve performance. This is especially beneficial to companies running large database-driven applications on shared storage infrastructures. FlashSoft is still compatible with any enterprise flash device, including PCIe, NVMe, SAS or SATA, from all vendors. The software runs in any standard x86-based server, working efficiently with both storage area network (SAN) and Direct Attached Storage (DAS) configurations.
Key benefits include:
- Application Acceleration: Leveraging FlashSoft, enterprises can accelerate application performance by reducing storage latency, without disrupting their existing storage infrastructure. Application performance testing conducted by SanDisk used a HammerDB workload on Microsoft SQL Server to demonstrate a 4.38 times increase in transactions per second. FlashSoft can be deployed on a server-by-server basis, allowing for incremental investment to accelerate the workloads that need it most.
- Policy-based Caching: The new file-level policy-based caching technology improves caching efficiency by allowing administrators to exclude specific files from the cache. Testing conducted by SanDisk showed caching with FlashSoft improved a SQL Server workloads performance by 2.8 times in a Windows Server Hyper-V environment, and that performance gain was increased to 5.93x when the file-exclusion feature was used to cache only the most critical data.
- SAN Relief and Workload Density: FlashSoft also reduces traffic on storage networks and storage systems (“SAN relief”), which can prolong the useful life of current storage investments. Moreover, it also enables more workloads on accelerated hosts (increased workload density per host server), which can greatly reduce software license costs.
SanDisk is also announcing that has joined Microsoft Technology Centers (MTCs) Partner Alliance being the first and only storage vendor to offer its flash products and FlashSoft software in all MTCs worldwide.
