Storage Virtualization: DataCore Announces UpTempo: Performance Acceleration Software For Microsoft Exchange, SQL Databases, Virtual Servers, Citrix, OLTP, VDI and Other Disk I/O Intensive Applications

Leading storage virtualization vendor DataCore Software recently announced that it has released new versions of its UpTempo performance accelerators, which are designed to dramatically boost the performance of Microsoft Windows Server Platforms and their applications. The server versions of UpTempo can dramatically speed up Microsoft Exchange, SQL Databases, Virtual Servers, Citrix, Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI) and other File and Disk I/O Intensive Windows Server Applications. UpTempo dramatically speeds up applications by making the computer system read and write data to its disk drives more efficiently. It does this by overcoming today's biggest performance barrier – data input/output (I/O) bottlenecks resulting from slow, mechanical, disk accesses – the most common cause of server and desktop application underperformance. List prices for UpTempo start at $49 for XP systems and $498 for Windows 2003 Server systems. Trial software is available for download at www.datacore.com/download.asp.

According to George Teixeira, CEO and president, DataCore Software, "Time is money and UpTempo can save you time! UpTempo software adds intelligence and predictive, self-learning caching algorithms to speed up workloads and maximize I/O throughput. UpTempo improves response times, maximizes system utilization and dramatically enhances user productivity providing a high Return on Investment (ROI)."

The server performance problem and the widening I/O gap

CPU advances have followed Moore's law for many years – now roughly doubling in speed every 18 months. Memory technologies have gained ground almost as quickly. In sharp contrast, hard drives have taken over 10 years to double in speed. This widening gap in performance makes the rotational and seek time latency of hard drives the biggest performance bottleneck in modern computers.

What is UpTempo?

• Advanced disk block cache, a sophisticated "virtual" I/O controller that sits below the file system
• An I/O scheduler
• A combination of very advanced mechanisms for increasing the performance of local I/O
• A set of predictive self learning and workload aware algorithms
• A general schema for reducing exception overhead for disk I/O
• Software that sits 'below' the Windows file system and improves its performance
• Simple-to-use and automated software, requiring no application knowledge from the user

How much does UpTempo help?

Mileage may vary! But, speed ups by a factor of 3 to 4x I/O performance (and sometimes 10x or more) are not uncommon. It depends on how much applications are constrained by I/O bottlenecks. Check out the results from a number of benchmarks (www.datacore.com/products/prod_UpTempo_benchmarks.asp). Seeing is believing – take a free test drive! Click here to download: www.datacore.com/download.asp.

What types of Windows platforms and applications will benefit from UpTempo performance acceleration?

Most systems today are bottlenecked by I/O and the more tasks and the more disks you have running the more you can gain from UpTempo. Computers are general purpose in nature and therefore workloads constantly change. UpTempo shines in larger multi-user, multi-disk environments. With more traffic there is more congestion and therefore more opportunity for UpTempo to break the bottlenecks and accelerate the I/O. One might not be bottlenecked on I/O during a particular instance of time – but due to changing workloads and usage rates, one likely will be now or later. That's when UpTempo's performance boost really saves the day.

UpTempo's ability to remove I/O bottlenecks improves performance throughout, but the value is even more significant during peak loads on applications such as:

• Mail & Collaboration Servers - Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, etc. Heavy loads impact efficient collaboration and productivity. When the volume of user transactions increases greatly, the time required for a user to view his or her schedule, contacts, and tasks, or to send or receive e-mails, etc., may increase from a fraction of a second to many seconds. More traffic may mean more congestion and taking more time than usual to complete. Although Exchange Servers feature internal caches, their effectiveness is reduced as the number of users and I/O transactions increase.
• Database Servers - Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, etc. Database management servers are in the top tier of servers placing the heaviest demands on the storage subsystem. They are the subject of much discussion regarding performance optimizations. DBMS servers often under-perform, and disk I/O bottlenecks are often the main reason. Very large, intensely-accessed databases stress the Windows file-system cache.
• Online transaction Processing (OLTP), E-Commerce, Financial Applications and Business Intelligence Servers (CRM-ERP-OLAP) – SAP, Macola, Oracle, Microsoft Small Business Financials.
Large e-commerce, financial systems and manufacturing and process control systems stress disk I/O capabilities. The large transaction loads, database requirements, report generation, document processing and control systems often are characterized by intense peak loads that overwhelm systems.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructures and Virtual Server Solutions – Thin-Client Server Solutions: Citrix MetaFrame, Microsoft Terminal Server.
Virtual server-based computing, by definition, has multiple virtual servers leveraging the same hardware platforms and therefore they centralize multiple loads of I/O data retrieval, disk storage and processing on a single physical server. While this method improves hardware utilization and cost-effectiveness, it also places a larger demand on disk I/O resources that can degrade guest operating system (virtual servers and desktops) performance.

Performance bottlenecked? Is your disk activity light blinking?

Does your system only seem to slow down while performing particular tasks? Are the disk lights steadily blinking while performing these tasks? Do you use a lot of disks? Are you running several applications or multi-user? Does the workloads on your system change over time? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then you probably have disk I/O bottlenecks and UpTempo can make a significant impact on your performance.

UpTempo's powerful disk cache helps optimize system resource utilization by applying processor and memory resources to the I/O bottleneck problem.

Learn More

In order to download a PDF of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), click here: www.datacore.com/downloads/UpTempo_FAQs_032306.pdf. You can also visit: www.datacore.com/products/prod_UpTempo_faqs.asp.

Additional Information

Also, please see the mention on page 12 of DataCore in the VDI report titled "VDI: A New Desktop Strategy - A Guide to Managing User Desktop Environments with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure." The full VDI report may be accessed on the VMware web site at www.vmware.com/pdf/vdi_strategy.pdf.

An out-take from report follows: "Block caching using tools such as UpTempo allocates a preset amount of memory to storing data blocks requested by the file system. Pre-fetching of data block based on usage patterns further accelerates data access. Writes can be written to memory and flushed to disk periodically for improved performance."

About DataCore Software
DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization software, fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. DataCore's disk server software easily adds capacity expansion and centralized storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, VMware, MacOS, and NetWare systems. DataCore is privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For more information, call (877) 780-5111 or visit www.datacore.com.

SOURCE: DataCore Software