Filer Accelerator

GridIron Systems’ TurboCharger boosts application performance by providing RAM-like access speeds to application datasets. The TurboCharger is deployed between the file server (filer head) and storage. The TurboCharger continuously profiles the data access behavior of applications, which are proxied by the I/O access behavior of the filer, and creates a heuristics-driven map of the data space.

The I/O requests from the filer are fulfilled instantaneously based on the real-time data map, dramatically improving the performance of both the filer and the applications that use the filer. The GridIron TurboCharger delivers incredible cost savings by allowing you to fully leverage your current storage, servers, filers, databases, applications, processes, and personnel — unlike alternatives that are expensive, power-hungry, and often require forklift upgrades.

Fast

With the GridIron TurboCharger, your supercomputer-class compute hosts will no longer spend the majority of their time in an I/O wait state — 1000x faster I/O access translates to up to 10x application runtime acceleration. If your job involves running chip simulations, immersing yourself in geoscience tools for interpretation and visualization, or simply building large software executables, data access is the main component of your performance problem. With the TurboCharger your performance problem is solved.

Invisible

The GridIron TurboCharger doesn’t require any changes to your architecture, application configurations, or operational processes. With the TurboCharger you won’t spend any time moving tables, LUNs, files, etc. Eliminate the guesswork, wasted time, and futile attempts to manually place files into optimized locations among tiered-storage alternatives. Instead, let the GridIron TurboCharger automatically and selectively discover and anticipate all your urgently needed data and feed it to your applications without waiting on any rotational disk latency. The TurboCharger accelerates a variety of file server environments including NetApp V-Series, IBM N Series, EMC Celerra, Open Source File Server, GPFS, pNFS, Lustre, Ehcache, and GFS/IBRIX/PolyServe Cluster File Systems.

Easy

The GridIron TurboCharger can be deployed in hours and is simple to maintain. Simply put the TurboCharger on a Fibre Channel connection between your file server and its storage, and watch the TurboCharger as it trains itself on your specific hardware and software, getting faster and faster with each passing hour. The TurboCharger works with any file server that uses Fibre Channel storage on the backend. Experience better performance for your NAS clients regardless of protocol because NFS, CIFS, HTTP, and even iSCSI will be accelerated when the filer’s back-end Fibre Channel storage has been speeded up by GridIron.

Scalable

The GridIron TurboCharger is built with scalability in mind. Whether you are concerned about capacity or I/O throughput, the TurboCharger has you covered. The TurboCharger can handle file servers up to 160 terabytes. If you need more capacity, simply add a GridIron BoostPack.

Is I/O performance limiting your growth? The smallest TurboCharger supports 100,000+ IOPS. Multiple TurboChargers will scale to 1 million IOPS and beyond.

Safe to Deploy

The GridIron TurboCharger is safe to deploy.

The TurboCharger only accelerates read I/Os; it “passes through” all write I/Os and the associated status commands. You also have granular control — you can choose to accelerate read I/Os from specific servers, storage, or LUNs. Or you can turn on acceleration for all I/Os going through the TurboCharger. You can even get started by accelerating just one of your LUNs and then add more LUNs as you get comfortable with the TurboCharger’s capabilities.

A pair of TurboChargers can be deployed in an active-active high availability configuration.

Furthermore, all components and paths in the TurboCharger have built-in Error-Correcting Code (ECC) circuitry for testing the accuracy of data as it passes through the appliance.

Best Choice

If you are considering high-performance file server solutions, server-based SSD storage, or specialized SSD arrays to enhance I/O performance, the GridIron TurboCharger should be at the top of your list.

Leave Your Apps Untouched

• Utilize installed servers, databases, and software and avoid costly upgrades
• Leave the current configuration of your applications untouched
• The TurboCharger accelerates a variety of file server environments including NetApp V-Series, IBM N Series, EMC Celerra, Open Source File Server, GPFS, pNFS, Lustre, Ehcache, and GFS/IBRIX/PolyServe Cluster File Systems.

Enhance Your Existing Storage

• Leverage your existing storage
• Utilize your existing personnel with no disruption in processes
• Cut costs by maximizing your storage capacity instead of short-stroking disks for performance

Accelerate Your Business

• Dramatically boost the performance of your revenue-generating applications
• Automatically improve the capacity and scalability of your applications
• Provide consistent I/O performance across diverse types of applications
• Minimize power consumption

Download
Filer Acceleration Datasheet