Intel Corp. on Tuesday announced its Intel Cache Acceleration Software (CAS) for Linux and Windows that prioritizes application performance, providing solid-state drive (SSD) levels of speed without migration costs, and built-in data integrity for Intel's SSD data center family of products. The Linux version of the software (to be generally available within 30 days) will complement the existing Intel CAS 2.0 for Windows that is available today.

"Intel CAS delivers a multi-level cache across the SSD and DRAM for optimal performance. Compared to short-stroked hard-drive technology, we've seen up to 50 times the improvement in I/O performance throughput for read intensive workloads by adding Intel CAS with the Intel SSD 910 series," said Chuck Brown, product line manager for Intel's non-volatile memory solutions group.

Intel CAS 2.0 is based on technology originally developed by Nevex Virtual Technologies, and provides key capabilities that enhance the company's SSD data center family of products. Intel's CAS 2.0 solution provides significant input/output (I/O) and application performance improvements in use cases including database/OLTP, virtualization, cloud and big data, such as Hadoop. Intel CAS 2.0 for Windows and Linux supports the Intel SSD data center family including the Intel DC S3700 and 910-series.

"With the combination of Intel CAS and the Intel 910 PCIe SSD, Intel has a solution that is a game changer for server-side caching. It allows IT to easily add more performance to their existing storage infrastructure, delivering SSD levels of speed without a complete data migration," said James Bagley, senior analyst at Storage Strategies-Now.

The Intel CAS solution provides significantly improved performance for I/O-intensive applications running on dedicated servers or virtual machines (VMs). With its unique policy-based caching, Intel CAS can target performance to specific applications, files, VM or individual database tables. Selective optimized caching allows administrators to focus performance on applications and data that directly impact the business while enabling consistent I/O acceleration by avoiding contention with other applications and server actions. A scalable application server tier with direct-attached SSD provides low latency and consistent performance, complementing SAN technologies for capacity storage tiers such as archive, backup, recovery and more. By balancing CPU and I/O performance, Intel CAS offers companies lower TCO with an optimized, integrated solution.

"The idea of improving application performance without breaking the bank is one that has obvious appeal in today's increasingly complex and demanding IT environments. Intel's CAS delivers on this aspiration in two ways: First, it is based upon Intel's high-performance and highly reliable solid-state solutions, which ensures easy integration and data integrity; and second, it is differentiated from 'vanilla' solid-state solutions in its use of multi-level caching across DRAM and SSD, which helps to simultaneously drive overall performance above, and overall costs below, that of less-sophisticated SSD-only solutions," said Mark Peters, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.

Tags: Intel, SSD, HDD