SSD tool is free, but will users buy into it? |
 |
By Kevin Komiega, Assistant News Editor
28 May 2001 | SearchStorage |
|
|
Solid Data Systems wants to cool your input/output (I/O) hot spots
in Oracle applications.
The San Jose, Calif.-based maker of solid-state disk (SSD)
file-caching appliances has made a new version of its software tool,
called I/O Dynamics for Oracle, available for free on its Website.
I/O Dynamics is a self-contained, database analysis application that
lets users spot periods of peak I/O activity in Oracle databases and
identify the specific files that are limiting their application
performance. Since the application runs on a Windows workstation and
not the production database server, it does not put any extra load on
system performance, the company said.
Solid Data says it is making the tool available for free in order to
accelerate the acceptance of SSD technology overall, and not just to
sell its products.
"Solid state is growing out of a tiny niche market, but one of the
things keeping people from adopting solid-state storage is not knowing
what to put on the device," said Vicki Vollmar, director of product
marketing for Solid Data. I/O Dynamics, she said, shows users where
their applications can benefit from SSD technology.
Aberdeen Group analyst Dan Tanner said the I/O Dynamics tool is
useful, but it brings up the debate over solid-state technology. The
catch of SSD, he said, is the willingness to spend for storage that is
more expensive on a dollar-per- byte basis than magnetic disk in order
to gain speed. "Cost for performance is always a classic tradeoff,"
said Tanner.
Version 2.0 of I/O Dynamics queries Oracle systems tables to obtain
read/write information for each active tablespace, and presents its
findings in color-coded graphs, automatically identifying the most
frequently accessed database areas.
The free download of I/O Dynamics will run for thirty days, after
which the user will be asked to register the software. The
registration puts the user on an opt-out mailing list for Solid Data's
products and, in return, Solid Data supplies a key that will unlock the
application for unlimited use.
The company said that while it is currently giving the software
away, they might apply a charge in the future.
Solid-state file caching is an architectural solution where files
reside entirely in non-volatile SDRAM and are accessed with zero
mechanical latency. Solid Data claims that by eliminating the need for
writing data to rotating platters along with RAID caching algorithms,
data access time is reduced from around 7 milliseconds to about 0.014
milliseconds (14 microseconds). In applications where I/O is
unbalanced, the most frequently accessed files, also called "hot
files," make up less than 5% of an application's total data, but eat up
more than 50% of the I/O activity. Moving hot files to SSD file cache
frees up servers and boosts performance.
Companies like Imperial Technology Inc., Seek Systems Inc., and
Solid Data are all vying for a piece of the SSD market, which IDC
projects could reach $2 billion by 2004.
Let us know what you think about the story, e-mail Kevin Komiega, assistant news
editor
For more information:
I/O
Dynamics for Oracle Version 2.0 free download page
searchStorage Tips: Uses for solid-state disks
searchStorage chat transcript: What is
solid-state disk?
I/O
Dynamics impact analysis
Imperial to debut new rack-mounted SSDs
|
|
|
|
