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OCZ Technology Group, Inc. is announcing availability of its new ZD-XL SQL Accelerator. The ZD-XL was first featured live at Interop 2013, and won a Best of Show Award in the Data Center and Storage segment. By closely integrating OCZ’s high-performance PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) hardware with an enterprise software suite, users will see significant acceleration and optimization of their Microsoft SQL Server database applications.
Database administrators (DBAs) will appreciate the easy and efficient deployment. Utilizing a DBA-friendly graphical user interface, the ZD-XL’s implementation wizards guide users via simple step-by-step instructions, along with models that recommend best practices. OCZ’s innovative caching and acceleration software serve up the relevant SQL Server data as it is called for.
The ZD-XL’s architecture makes its PCIe-based on-host flash available as both local and cache volumes. By efficiently spreading random workloads in parallel across all available flash, database performance improves by up to 25 times. The ZD-XL SQL Accelerator has the unique ability to enable data files, such as tempDB, to realize the high performance of flash, while still caching hot database data to flash for immediate availability from SQL Server.
According to Ralph Schmitt, CEO of OCZ Technology, “Plugging seamlessly into existing or new SQL Server installations, our new ZD-XL SQL Server Accelerator leverages both our solid-state drive hardware and software IP to provide application-optimized flash caching load volumes that enable data to be accessed with the highest possible I/O performance. We believe that the industry is primed for this type of tightly-integrated, plug-and-play use-case acceleration solution that uniquely combines software, driver, firmware and hardware into one robust and easy to deploy high-performance SQL Server solution.”
Additionally, the ZD-XL SQL Accelerator features a pre-warming cache engine and cache warm-up analyzer. The analyzer constantly monitors SQL Server workloads to identify repeated access patterns. The cache can then be automatically pre-loaded in advance of specific, demanding or critical SQL Server jobs. This also gives users the ability to set specific or periodic time schedules to pre-load the cache, assuring that critical data is present on the ZD-XL at the exact moment that SQL Server calls for it.
OCZ’s ZD-XL SQL Accelerator is available in configurations with capacities of 600GB, 800GB, and 1.6TB; with corresponding service and support options. OCZ’s press release on the ZD-XL SQL Accelerator can be viewed in its entirety here.
