OCZ has announced that the latest version of its popular VXL Cache and Virtualisation Software is now available and, according to Dr. Allon Cohen (VP of Software and Solutions), it has evolved the "next frontier of flash virtualisation by providing enhanced capabilities to enterprise caching and advanced support for virtualised services."
VXL 1.3 comes with a number of much touted features such as the ability to pre-load the cache with data on a pre-determined schedule to ensure that it is rapidly accessible when necessary and to support Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) applications. Another feature is a unique "business-rule" pre-warming cache engine that adapts the flash cache to the activity cycles in the data center to determine peak I/O performance needs at certain times. This aims to allow users to automatically pre-warm the cache in advance of demanding tasks to provide optimal performance.
The software also allows OCZ's Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSDs to be virtualised and synchronously mirrored to ensure no data loss or virtual machine downtime even during server failures. To enable 'SAN-less' virtualized services, VXL 1.3 Software synchronously replicates flash data through mirroring between Z-Drive R4 PCIe card residing on redundant servers, keeping two live identical copies of the VM data and consequently making this virtual environment significantly simpler to manage
"We have been deploying OCZ’s VXL Software (with OCZ Z-Drives) to enterprise data centers since their very first version, and have seen IT administrators resolve an expanding range of data access requirements with this solution," said Alexander Ruebensaal, Managing Director, ABC Systems AG Switzerland. "We are very pleased with this latest release of VXL and its expanded functionality addresses the real-world needs of our enterprise customers who are transforming their data centers through the use of on-host flash."
OCZ’s VXL 1.3 Software is currently being demonstrated at CeBIT and is expected to be deployed at select customers sites throughout this year.
