Storage Switzerland Releases ChalkTalk Video on the VMware I/O Blender Effect and How V-locity I/O Reduction Software Addresses the Problem

BURBANK, CA--(Marketwired - September 29, 2015) - Condusiv® Technologies, the world leader in software-only storage performance solutions for virtual and physical server environments, today announced a Storage Switzerland ChalkTalk video that addresses the problem of the "I/O blender" effect in virtual environments and challenges the status quo that the only answer is more flash or spindles. The ChalkTalk video titled, 'Is More Flash or Spindles the Only Answer to the VMware I/O Blender?', discusses the real issue of small, random, fractured I/O and how only a software layer intelligence can change I/O characteristics to be "storage friendly" so virtualized organizations can achieve 50-300% faster application performance on existing systems.

The "I/O blender" effect is caused by the mixing of VM (virtual machine) I/O streams at the hypervisor layer that then sends out a very random I/O pattern that is much more difficult for storage to process than sequential I/O streams. It may seem like a quick fix to add more flash or spindles -- but lead analyst George Crump and Condusiv SVP, Marketing and Product Management, Brian Morin point out that I/O reduction software can more effectively solve application performance issues for virtualized environments without requiring expensive new hardware that is just a temporary solution to an ongoing problem.

The "I/O blender" tax is one of the largest performance penalties that companies face in virtualized environments. Condusiv has proven that no matter how many spindles or how much flash is added to the infrastructure, optimal performance is ultimately robbed due to I/O characteristics that are much smaller, more fractured, and more random than it needs to be. Storage Switzerland notes that: "The noise at the 'I/O blender' is magnified by the inefficiency of how the Windows operating system writes data in virtual environments. As the Windows VM ages, the file system it manages at the logical disk layer segments files resulting in IOPS inflation, so what used to require one I/O to process a read or write can now take eight or more, which further exacerbates the noise and performance penalty at the hypervisor."

"Our value proposition is 50-300% faster application performance, no hardware required," said Morin in the ChalkTalk video. "Now if you want to get into those otherworldly performance gains, sure -- maybe look at adding some additional DRAM as Tier 0 for your caching strategy. But it's really about understanding and identifying the two big I/O inefficiencies in a virtual environment that hardware can't solve. It can't change an I/O profile that's smaller, more fractured, more random than it needs to be, only a software layer of intelligence can do that."

Crump concludes that: "Before you add more flash to the environment, take a look at the rest of the environment and make sure the I/O pattern is optimized for flash -- and that way you get the most out of that investment, and any future investment that you might make."

As an alternative to hardware solutions, I/O inefficiencies can be effectively solved through I/O reduction software -- such as Condusiv's V-locity® -- that targets the root of the problem. V-locity allows administrators to get the most performance possible from their hardware infrastructure after virtualizing. V-locity contains two key technologies that reduce I/O from VM to storage. The first is its patented IntelliWrite^® engine that increases I/O density from VM to storage by adding a layer of intelligence into the Windows OS that eliminates I/O fracturing so writes (and subsequent reads) are processed in a more contiguous and sequential manner. This reduces the I/O requirement for any given workload and increases throughput since more data is processed with each I/O operation. The second key patented technology, IntelliMemory^® DRAM read caching, leverages available DRAM to serve the smallest, most random I/O that penalizes system performance the most. Since IntelliMemory dynamically uses available DRAM, administrators need not need to be concerned with resource contention or memory starvation.

View the complete Storage Switzerland "ChalkTalk" video at: http://storageswiss.com/2015/09/03/is-flash-only-answer-to-vmware-io-blender/

For a full list of technical specifications, visit the V-locity product web page.
For more information, visit www.condusiv.com
Follow us on Twitter and Like Us on Facebook

About Condusiv
Condusiv^® Technologies is the world leader in software-only storage performance solutions for virtual and physical server environments, enabling systems to process more data in less time for faster application performance. Condusiv's V-locity^® I/O reduction software greatly reduces I/O overhead in virtual environments by eliminating the performance penalty from mixing uncoordinated, contentious and disruptive I/O streams from multiple virtual machines (the "I/O blender" effect). As a result, customers experience a minimum of 50% faster performance gains on their heaviest workloads. Condusiv's Diskeeper^® storage performance solution is the #1 real-time fragmentation prevention solution for Windows servers and clients, keeping servers, desktops and laptops running like new permanently. With over 50 million licenses sold, Condusiv solutions are used by 90% of the Fortune 1000 and almost three-quarters of the Forbes Global 100 to increase business productivity and reduce datacenter costs while extending the life of existing hardware.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2015/9/28/11G060742/Images/2015-vmworld-video-511754064170.jpg