XcelaSAN® Solution Scenarios

Dataram’s XcelaSAN is the industry's first intelligent, block-level Fibre Channel storage optimization appliance that provides high-speed access to frequently accessed data via dynamic caching and resource allocation for maximum I/O performance.

XcelaSAN dramatically improves IOPS up to 30 times and delivers consistently outstanding I/O performance for virtual desktops during high demand peaks such as boot, login, logout, patch, anti-virus and security update storms. It offers flexibility for administrators in an easy to install and cost-effective solution, while integrated high availability mirroring protects user data and eliminates costly and disruptive recovery processes

Shared Storage Requirements

Challenge: Hundreds or thousands of virtual desktops hosted in shared physical infrastructure compete for the same storage resources, generating far more disk I/O and throughput than can be handled by traditional midrange storage systems. Slow and inconsistent I/O performance results in end user dissatisfaction and reluctance to support a virtual desktop initiative.

XcelaSAN Benefit: By implementing Dataram’s XcelaSAN optimization solution, organizations can avoid an upgrade to high-end storage simply to gain performance. Using XcelaSAN as high-speed cache to handle the I/O demand from consolidated and hosted virtual desktops significantly increases transaction capacity and delivers consistent outstanding performance.

Stormy Storage Bottlenecks in the SAN

Challenge: Virtual desktop users experience poor application response time and service interruptions due to peak-time bottlenecks for boot/login/logout in back-end storage and the need to interrupt applications when making storage-related updates for security or viruses.

XcelaSAN Benefit: XcelaSAN maximizes storage performance, supports significantly more users and provides consistent fast response time by caching both read and write data during stormy peaks.

The Budget Challenge

Challenge: Increased infrastructure cost may deter companies from upgrading the midrange SAN (storage area network) to meet the demands of virtual desktop environments. The reliability, performance, availability and manageability of SAN storage is higher cost than typical PC disk storage.

XcelaSAN Benefit: XcelaSAN enables companies to fully and transparently utilize lower priced, higher capacity midrange storage to deliver consistent high performance to virtualized desktops. Companies can protect and manage valuable virtual desktop data assets in a highly reliable SAN without investing in high-end storage systems.

Desktop Virtualization Delivers Optimization

Desktop virtualization enables companies to optimize management of the user desktop and to more easily provision, update and protect vital corporate assets. Essentially, virtualizing desktops moves the desktop operating system, applications and data from the physical PC to the data center where resources can be shared and IT administrator effort can be reduced.

Benefits of desktop virtualization include: increased flexibility for users who can access their desktop from any device with increased reliability; improved manageability for administrators who can deploy operating systems, new applications and patches more quickly to a large client base; and finally better security and adherence to company regulatory compliance requirements.

I/O Demand Presents Challenges

Desktop virtualization places heavy performance and capacity demand on the centralized virtual data center infrastructure, particularly storage. Consolidation of hundreds or thousands of desktop disks and the associated I/O in a shared storage network drives exceptionally high I/O performance demand during peak periods known as "storms" for boot, login, logout, patch, anti-virus and security updates.

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