SOLUTION BRIEF

vFast Track Architecture with Virident FlashMAX and VMware Horizon View
Introduction
Virident FlashMAX
Virident FlashMAX storage-class memory is a PCIe flash-based storage that is deployed on the servers. It has been designed from the ground up to fully exploit todays computer architectures with many fast CPU cores and the PCI Express bus to deliver maximum application performance. FlashMAX devices integrate innovations in software and hardware to deliver memory-class performance with storage-class capacity and persistence. vFAS, Virident software technology, delivers the most efficient access to flash media for applications. In addition to providing optimized access for peak performance, vFAS also includes many sophisticated techniques for ensuring that applications get a steady, sustained stream of data at all times. vFAS virtualizes the underlying flash media to present a standard block device interface to applications, without leveraging inefficient storage protocols or interconnects. The result is unprecedented gains in application performance without any change to the application. Virident FlashMAX delivers unique benefits for VDI environments including Consistent, predictable performance across various workloads; wide dataset sizes; and, over time, the elimination of performance degradation 20X the application performance of HDD systems at one-third the total cost of ownership 2X the performance of comparable flash-based solutions

Desktop virtualization allows IT organizations to centralize desktops in the datacentersimplifying desktop management, enhancing data security, and driving down operational expenses for organizations by up to 50 percent. End users can enjoy fast, easy access to their data and applications across devices and locations and are no longer tethered to a single device that can only be accessed from a fixed location.

Challenges

Often virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments rely on data storage that resides in traditional, centralized, hard diskbased storage infrastructurestorage-area network or network-attached storage. This shared storage infrastructure model for VDI can cause significant challenges. As organizations scale to hundreds and thousands of desktops, VDI workloads can overwhelm storage devices and cause severe performance degradation. As a result, organizations have to continually expand their shared storage infrastructure, which drives up the cost of ownership. Storage-intensive VDI operations such as desktop provisioning, recompose, boot, login, and antivirus scanning place significant I/O demands on traditional storage infrastructure. This results in slow VDI operations which impact user experience. To optimize user experience, VDI designs need to ensure that they account for peak (not just average) I/O loads while delivering fast application response times. Notably, a failure to provision the right amount of storage can severely impact user experience if there is not enough, and impact cost if there is too much.

VMware Horizon View

Purpose-built for delivering desktops as a managed service, VMware Horizon View provides a positive end-user experience and transforms IT by simplifying and automating desktop management. Centrally maintaining desktops, applications, and data reduces costs, improves security, and, at the same time, increases availability and flexibility for end users. Unlike other desktop virtualization products, Horizon View is a tightly integrated, end-to-end solution built on the industry-leading virtualization platform. Horizon View allows customers to extend powerful business continuity and disaster recovery features to their desktops and standardize on a common platform from the desktop through the datacenter to the cloud.

Solution

Ever since the broad adoption of multi-core central processing units (CPUs), the gap has been widening between the performance of CPUs and hard disk drives (HDDs). The good news is that, during the same period, flash storage has emerged as a promising solution that provides dramatic performance improvements over HDDs. Now, together with VMware, Virident is delivering a vFast Track architecture to help customers accelerate performance, simplify desktop management, and drive down the total cost of acquisition.

SOLUTION BRIEF

vFast Track Architecture with Virident FlashMAX and VMware Horizon View

The VMware Horizon View solution provides a wide range of benefits including Simplified and automated desktop management Optimized end-user experience Lower costs Enhanced security Increased business agility and user flexibility Built-in business continuity and disaster recovery Standardized on a common platform

VMware Horizon View Stateless Desktops Using FlashMAX

By combining Horizon View stateless virtual desktops with Virident FlashMAX , IT can offload the majority of IOPS needed for desktop virtualization. Clones can be recomposed ten times faster. The Golden Image can be recomposed in minutes. And desktop management can be simplified. Customers can deploy stateless desktops through a simple process: Choose a cluster to deploy and select FlashMAX as a datastore from Horizon View Replicas of the Golden Image are created on every datastore on FlashMAX. The VDI linked clones are then spawned from each of the replicas and booted up in a matter of minutes. Scale the existing VDI pool to accommodate lateral, incremental growth by adding another server with FlashMax to the existing pool or adding servers with FlashMax to a new cluster. Deploy the remaining virtual desktops by modifying the number of Horizon View desktops in the pool. The VMware Horizon View stateless reference architecture is designed to be resilient to server failure should one or more server nodes go down. The virtual desktops hosted on the unavailable server are simply absorbed by the remaining servers in the cluster. The replicas on the remaining servers spawn desktops, sharing the load between them. User data is applied to the newly created desktops, and in a matter of minutes the desktops are recreated and ready to use. This architecture further ensures IT can easily scale to thousands of users with concurrent and active desktops.
Figure 1: VDI Stateless Architecture Using Virident

Conclusion

Desktop virtualization simplifies desktop management and eliminates the need for distributed physical desktops. But selecting the right storage to deploy and scale your virtual desktop environment is critical to containing costs and ensuring that end-user experience is not impacted. Virident FlashMAX and VMware Horizon View enable customers to cost-effectively leverage stateless reference architectures to simplify management, accelerate performance, and scale out desktops on demand.

Learn More about the vFast Track Architecture with VMware Horizon View and Virident FlashMAX
For additional information about how the VMware Horizon View and Virident FlashMAX solution is built and validated, read the Design Guide at www.vmware.com.

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