Solarflare, Fusion-io Partner on Big Data Applications

Solarflare's application-intelligent 10GbE solutions deliver low-latency and high-throughput Linux kernel and Microsoft Windows performance.

Solarflare, a provider of application-intelligent 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking hardware and software, announced it is collaborating with Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO), a specialist in shared data decentralization, on solutions that accelerate applications. A member of Fusion-io's Technology Alliance Program, Solarflare's products, paired with Fusion-io products, are designed to minimize latency and increase application performance.

Solarflare's application-intelligent 10GbE solutions deliver low-latency and high-throughput Linux kernel and Microsoft Windows performance. The server adapters also support the latest Layer 2/3 smart flow management features, which enable Solarflare products to match network performance through the server to the specific requirements of the customer.

For example, building on the previous receive packet steering (RPS) and receive flow steering (RFS) work from Google, Solarflare is able to deliver Linux kernel hardware acceleration for RFS. Using accelerated flow steering, Solarflare 10GbE adapters match traffic flows deterministically to specific server CPU cores to optimize application performance. The company's solutions are available through 36 VARs worldwide, and sold through Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM third-party hardware programs.

"With the growth of big data applications and customer adoption of Fusion-io PCIe flash products, the network has become the bottleneck. By accelerating network I/O, increasing throughput and decreasing latency, Solarflare unlocks the processing power of today's servers for analytics," said Bruce Tolley, vice president of solutions marketing at Solarflare. "We look forward to working closely with Fusion-io to deliver great solutions to our common customers. Customers will now be able to more easily install our smart 10GbE networking products and move applications closer to the network with our common solutions."

Social media and other data-intensive applications are forecast to generate zettabytes of data residing in both structured and unstructured databases. According to IT research firm IDC, the amount of information created and replicated will surpass 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes) in 2011. With advancements in data search and analytics; Web object caching and search; and data retrieval provided by such technologies as Hadoop/HDFS, MapR, Memcached and PCIe-based flash, customer applications are now inhibited by network I/O performance.

"We're honored to have Solarflare join our TAP program," said Tyler Smith, vice president of alliances at Fusion-io. "Fusion's ioMemory-based hardware and software solutions move process-critical data into the servers to where application processing occurs. This minimizes latency and maximizes performance to increase value to our customers' end users, while lowering infrastructure, capital and operating costs."

Smith noted Solarflare's application-intelligent 10GbE products solve a similar problem on the network I/O side by increasing application performance and reducing application latency. "Under the Fusion-io TAP program, we will work together on product compatibility, integration and support, enabling us to provide a better overall experience to our shared customers," he said.