Integrating Flash Memory in Server Architecture

SSD Performance without Sacrifice

FlashSoft has designed its solutions from the ground up to work with any standard SSD or PCIe flash hardware. FlashSoft works seamlessly with server operating systems and applications, and is transparent to underlying storage.

FlashSoft provides caching in the server with minimal overhead on memory and CPU. Through sophisticated metadata management and a cache designed specifically for flash memory, FlashSoft requires a modest allocation of working memory and less than 5% of server CPU. FlashSoft can manage a cache up to 1TB in size using only 150MB of system memory.

The FlashSoft Difference

Without FlashSoft, enabling SSD as a cache presents difficult architectural choices:

• Processing metadata operations, read-write management and other integration operations in the server can be compute intensive, placing a significant burden on the server CPU and memory. FlashSoft's innovative metadata model enables an SSD-based caching solution that utilizes only 3% to 5% of server CPU and less than 150MB of RAM.
• "Heavy lifting" can be handed off to firmware on a custom-built SSD hardware, but this ties the caching capability to a specific hardware architecture, resticting choice and increasing cost. FlashSoft is an all-software solution, designed to run on any SATA, SAS or PCIe SSD.
• Some caching efficiency can be achieved through modifications to the server operating system, applications or underlying storage volumes, but this can significantly increase complexity and management overhead. FlashSoft identifies hot data automatically, running completely transparently to the server operating system and applications, as well as the underlying storage, including direct-attached, RAID and/or SAN.