[Tweet “Flash leadership and #Microsoft innovation – come see for yourself at #MSIgnite!”]
First, the release of SQL Server 2016 was lauded by analysts as a revolutionary data platform engine and placed Microsoft as a technology leader in this space. Upcoming at Ignite will be the official release of Windows Server® 2016 that delivers innovative, and unprecedented data center value. No less significant, Storage Spaces has seen a sharp ramp in deployments this year (watch for a future blog where we will share more about a customer and the business improvements they experienced), and with the introduction of Storage Spaces Direct, Microsoft is showing how serious it is in the software-defined storage category. Finally, nobody is questioning Microsoft’s gains in Cloud. Azure® has been a massive success. With this year’s first look at Azure Stack, which incorporates Storage Spaces Direct, customers will see how hybrid clouds will transform their data center operations and business outcomes.
Microsoft Has Never Been More Relevant in the Data Center, and Neither Has Flash
Yeah, it’s been a big year for Microsoft. And apparently, a lot of you care – Microsoft Ignite 2016 is sold out. And that is cool for one reason: Microsoft has never been more relevant in the data center than they are today. The innovations they will showcase at Ignite will be impressive, and at SanDisk – a Western Digital brand – we are focused on enabling you to take these innovations even further.
Booth #1636 – Making Microsoft Innovations Even Better
Our booth, #1636, will highlight numerous Microsoft technologies and products, showcasing how their value is expanded with SanDisk flash. Our demo stations will allow you to deep-dive with flash experts on the following:
FlashSoft® Server Caching – How to Use Flash Wisely
FlashSoft 3.8 for Windows Server and Hyper-V is intelligent caching software that removes legacy storage performance bottlenecks to improve the productivity and efficiency of new or existing infrastructure. The demo is an interactive, touchscreen-enabled demo showcasing how FlashSoft software improves application performance and response time, allowing customers to get the benefits of flash performance without making a heavy investment in flash storage (like all-flash arrays or all-flash hyper-converged infrastructure). A recent study by DB Best showed that customers leveraging FlashSoft 3.8 and SanDisk flash as a caching solution versus HDD-only implementations increase workload density by 3x, delivering 65% savings and a 79x ROI.
Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) – Industry Leading Density at Lower Costs
The Storage Spaces Direct demo station highlights how SanDisk flash enhances Lenovo S2D and Microsoft Azure Stack solutions announced at Ignite. Additionally, DataON, will showcase their POC solution for S2D using SanDisk/HGST NVMe and SATA flash products. You will see how S2D with SanDisk flash minimizes data center footprint, enables lower costs, and higher performance.
Storage Spaces Customer Case Study – Real World Advantages
SanDisk and DataON helped Legend3D (a renowned special effects company) create a higher performing, scalable, and more efficient storage system for their 4K stereo and virtual reality workflows. Utilizing Windows Server 2016, Storage Spaces and SanDisk flash, Legend3D can now load 4K files into cache for 150 times faster editing compared to their legacy SAN system. In addition to the linear scalability and capacity they now experience, Legend3D also realized substantial cost savings with the solution.
SQL Server 2016 Always On AGs Reference Architecture – 5x greater performance!
Our SQL Server story is awesome. And you’ll hear plenty about it in the booth. This demo station focuses on a reference architecture (RA) to show how SanDisk SSDs accelerate and allow customers to take full advantage of Microsoft’s improvements to the Always On Log Transport service in SQL Server 2016. (Kudos to Microsoft for their work here, resulting in 5x greater performance compared to SQL Server 2014). The RA establishes a system design that delivers consistent high performance with high reliability and fail-over time of less than one second. Since Always On is already widely deployed with critical SQL Server workloads, customers will benefit significantly by running on this reference architecture.
In-Booth Theater Presentations and Your Chance to Win a Surface Pro 4
Every 30 minutes SanDisk, or one of our partners, will present on different Microsoft technologies and the value-add SanDisk flash (with our partners) brings to enterprise customers. The presentations are short, 7-10 minute discussions, designed to help you understand the business and technical value, and to facilitate further discussion outside of the presentation.
All who attend a theater session will be enrolled into our daily drawing for a Surface Pro 4. The more you attend, the better your odds of winning!
Sample theater topics include:
- TPC-H world records for Data Warehouse
- Storage Spaces Direct
- Increase SQL Server Performance while Lowering License Costs
- Data Warehouse Fast Track Reference Architectures from HPE, Lenovo, and Cisco
- Flash Virtualization System
- Always On Availability Groups “Lessons Learned”
- Customer Case Studies
Speaking Session
My esteemed colleague, Peter Plamondon, Director, Strategic Partner Ecosystems, who frequently posts on this blog, will speak at an Ignite Partner breakout session:
Storage Spaces Direct from the Storage Experts
Tuesday, Sept. 27th, at 12:40pm in Theater 4.
Come See What Flash Leadership Looks Like
Let’s face it; the way IT and business interact with customers is changing. Don’t let your current storage bottleneck your customer’s experience and engagement. There’s a reason Cisco, HPE, and Lenovo all used SanDisk flash in their latest TPC-H world record benchmarks. It’s about flash leadership. Come see for yourself. We look forward to speaking with you at Ignite and showing all that we can do to maximize your Microsoft platforms.
Stop by. We look forward to meeting with you!
