FlashSoft: Our Story

The Problem We Solve

Some of the biggest initiatives in the enterprise today are constrained by a fundamental infrastructure problem: how to increase input-output (IO) performance and make much larger amounts of data accessible in working memory. The problem of IO latency affects some of the most important and fastest growing aspects of computing today:

• Real-time analytics on very large amounts of data
• Enabling high performance in online and mobile services
• Processing read/write operations for enormous volumes of unstructured data
• Supporting large implementations of virtualized machines and virtual desktops
• Reducing the number of servers needed, and the energy they consume

Solid State Memory

Having driven a revolution in consumer electonics - digital cameras, smartphones, tablet computers and printers, etc. - solid state memory technology is now replacing the spinning hard disk drives (HDDs) in small laptop computers with Solid State Drives (SSDs). The next destination for solid state memory is enterprise computing. But unlike a laptop computer, where a 256GB SSD can replace a 256GB HDD, enterprises manage huge quantities of data, in enormous, expensive, and very carefully managed storage systems based on HDD technology.

The Value We Deliver

FlashSoft brings the performance and scalability of SSDs to enterprise computing architecture without requiring changes to servers, applications, or disk-based storage systems.

FlashSoft has achieved this with innovative software that enables any SSD or PCIe flash card to act as a high-performance cache for the server. Because flash memory is many times faster than HDD storage and is connected directly to the server, it directly addresses the "IO bottleneck." FlashSoft enables an SSD to transparently cache critical data without any modification to server operating systems or applications, and it works seamlessly with underlying storage systems. Because FlashSoft caches only the "hottest" - most in-demand - data, it enables an SSD to dramatically increase the performance of servers processing tens or even hundreds of terabytes of data.

Our Next Chapter

On February 15, 2012, SanDisk announced that it has acquired FlashSoft. As the FlashSoft team joins SanDisk Enterprise Storage Solutions, we look forward to increasing our business and technology resources, to deliver the best software even faster, and to a greater number of customers and partners.