The VMware Partner Exchange is just around the corner, and the FlashSoft team at SanDisk® is more excited than ever to be at the event February 3 – 5 at Moscone West in San Francisco. At VMworld last year, VMware introduced the vSphere APIs for IO Filtering (VAIO), and as the partner selected to assist in the design of the storage caching APIs, we were delighted to be included in the public announcement of the VAIO program.
It’s Time to See It for Yourself
Now, at the VMware Partner Exchange, it’s time to see VAIO in action. In the technical session on Tuesday, February 3 at 5:00PM, we’ll be joining VMware product manager Alex Jauch to show a demonstration of the FlashSoft caching engine using the APIs to provide storage acceleration for VMware vSphere 6.0.
We can’t wait to share our demo with the VMware partners at the event, and not just because we’re proud of the technology. We also think that the VAIO program delivers huge benefits to the VMware customer.
Stability, Compatibility and Performance
The VAIO architecture provides standard APIs for third-party data services to intercept storage I/O in VMware vSphere. The structured model in which multiple third-party services are integrated with the hypervisor greatly reduces the risk of instability or incompatibility among the services. For example, at SanDisk, we’re particularly focused on storage acceleration through solid-state caching in the server, but it’s critical that our caching not interfere with host-level replication. The VAIO model enables the two types of data services to “plug in” to VMware vSphere in a manner that assures they won’t interfere with each other, or the hypervisor itself.
Besides stability and compatibility, VAIO also delivers performance. The I/O filters give data access at microsecond-level performance, which is critical to enabling I/O-intensive applications to benefit from the data services integrated through the APIs. Obviously, we at SanDisk are obsessed with delivering the lowest possible I/O latency through our hardware and software, and with the VAIO architecture this focus on minimal latency starts within the filters themselves.
A New World of Software Solutions for VMware vSphere
Finally, because VAIO is a program initiated by VMware to give third-party technologies a standardized interface to VMs’ I/O paths, it opens the VMware vSphere architecture to new third-party software offerings. Just as the virtualization hardware ecosystem has grown with an abundance of advanced server, storage and networking options, APIs for software services is the first step in giving the VMware administrator a far richer ecosystem of software solutions providers.
If you’re coming to the VMware Partner Exchange, don’t miss the technical session, and stop by the SanDisk booth (#635) to learn more from members of our team. We’ll see you there!
As a strategic partner with VMware in the development of the vSphere APIs for IO Filtering (VAIO), SanDisk will demonstrate how its FlashSoft software uses the new APIs to provide solid-state storage caching for VMware vSphere 6. The demonstration will take place in the technical session on the VAIO program, led by product manager Alex Jauch, on Tuesday, February 3 at 5:00 PM.
