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High-performance solid-state storage device maker OCZ Technology added a key ingredient to its software lineup Jan. 9 in announcing the acquisition of privately held flash caching and virtualization software/hardware provider SANRAD. Terms of the deal were not revealed by OCZ.
Mountain View, Calif.-based SANRAD, founded in 2000, has its research and development center in Tel Aviv, Israel. SANRAD currently sells flash caching and virtualization software and hardware to storage and networking OEMs such as Nexsan and Brocade as well as directly to the enterprise through a channel network.
OCZ will use SANRAD’s intellectual property to speed up its new Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) NAND flash storage cards. The NAND flash-powered PCIe interface (championed by Intel, Fusion i-o and a few others) is becoming dominant in the enterprise solid-state disk market, with unit shipments greater than the combined shipments of its SAS and Fibre Channel counterparts expected in 2012.
SANRAD improves access to stored data in virtualized environments with its NAND flash-optimized software. It allows data centers to use more of their flash-based storage, extending the lifespan of the storage infrastructure and maximizing efficiency.
Using this software, virtualized data centers gain the benefits of NAND flash performance while retaining the key benefits of server virtualization, such as VMware’s vMotion (for location changes), high availability and disaster recovery.
SANRAD’s virtualization software is VMware-, Microsoft- and Citrix-certified. OCZ made the purchase expecting to speed up performance (and thus, sales) of its PCIe-based flash storage packages in virtualized environments.
SANRAD’s VXL software works with VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen hypervisors. It enables efficient dynamic distribution of host-based flash resources to guest virtual machines via its application optimized cache engine.
The VXL SCSI connectivity enables support of most modern operating systems, including all variants of Windows, FreeBSD, Solaris and Linux servers, in contrast to other caching solutions which require an installation of an agent or driver on each virtual machine.
OCZ Technology, which used to make niche dynamic RAM (DRAM) products, changed its focus a year ago when it withdrew from the memory business to focus on its solid-state-drive business.
San Jose, Calif.-based OCZ launched its first 1TB solid-state storage drive last fall-the first, the company claimed, in a 2.5-inch form factor.