ACCELERATE VDI PERFORMANCE WITH CITRIX XENDESKTOP AND PERNIXDATA FVP SOFTWARE

PernixData FVP software accelerates reads and

writes to storage by virtualizing server flash and

RAM, resulting in 10x faster VDI (even under

heavy load).

• 90% reduction in XenDesktop latency

• 62x more IOPS with same storage infrastructure

• Scale XenDesktop deployments without

problems

• Lower storage costs by 99%

SOLUTION OVERVIEW:

BENEFITS OF THE COMBINED SOLUTION:

Citrix XenDesktop mobilizes and secures Windows desktops so users can

access them from any device. This reduces desktop costs, while maximizing

control of content.

However, Citrix XenDesktop is very sensitive to latency. The slightest delay (or

variations in delay) can cause poor and/or inconsistent desktop performance.

This makes storage bottlenecks a big threat to the success of XenDesktop

deployments.

PernixData FVP™ software eliminates storage bottlenecks, making it a perfect

complement to Citrix XenDesktop. By moving storage intelligence into hosts

where the XenDesktop VMs reside, FVP lowers VDI latency by 10x–even under

peak loads. In addition, FVP provides a cost-effective way of scaling out storage

performance as your VDI deployment grows.

How it Works

FVP software is seamlessly deployed inside the hypervisor running XenDesktop

VMs (e.g. VMware vSphere). No changes are required to existing hosts, storage,

or VDI components (e.g. XenDesktop Controller, StoreFront, Director, EdgeSight,

Studio or receivers).

Once installed, FVP software virtualizes high-speed server resources. This clustered

pool of server flash and RAM acts as a low latency data tier. When XenDesktop VMs

read and write data, the requests are served by this tier, significantly speeding up I/O.

SOLUTION BRIEF

ACCELERATEDREADS AND WRITES

Apps Desktops

SERVERS

SHARED STORAGE

VM VM

HYPERVISOR

Apps Desktops

SERVERS

SHARED STORAGE

VM VM

HYPERVISOR

STORAGEPERFORMANCE

STORAGECAPACITY

SERVERS

FVP™SOFTWARE

SHARED STORAGE

HYPERVISOR

ACCELERATEDREADS AND WRITES

VM

STUDIO

VM

DIRECTOR

VM

STOREFRONT

XenDesktop Infrastructure

“Our Citrix XenDesktop latency is the lowest we’ve ever seen it”

– Michael Wingrave, Assistant Vice President

for IT Operations, Regional Bank

READY

Copyright © 2014 PernixData, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws.

PernixData is a registered trademark and FVP, Flash Hypervisor FVP Cluster, and Flash Cluster are trademarks of PernixData, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other brands, products, marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.

www.pernixdata.com | 1-855-PERNIX-D | @PernixData

Key Benefits

High-Performance VDI

PernixData FVP software eliminates storage I/O bottlenecks by

serving reads and writes locally on the host. Typically, this results

in a better end user experience as VDI latency is reduced by up

to 90%.

Reliable Performance, Unaffected by I/O Storms

Various activities, like boot, login, logout, shutdown, AV scans and

update storms, generate substantial amount of I/O activity that

stress backend storage. FVP protects XenDesktop users from

slowdowns during these activities by storing this information in

flash/RAM across several hosts, which minimizes activity in the

array itself. Writes can be from the hosts to the storage array in a

predictable and consistent fashion, preventing the storage device

from being overloaded.

Deploy more desktops. With FVP software, storage performance

can easily grow with your virtual infrastructure simply by adding

more flash/RAM to an FVP cluster. This means you can get more

out of your current storage infrastructure and increase the VM

density on your hosts.

Extend the life of your storage device. With FVP software, a

significant amount of IOPS are offloaded from the storage array

to local hosts, extending the usable life of your storage device by

months or years.

Seamless deployment and management. FVP is a 100% software

solution deployed in less than 20 minutes inside the hypervisor.

It is managed natively by vSphere Web Client making it easy for

virtualization administrators to deploy and use.

Use your existing storage device. With FVP software, storage

performance (IOPS and throughput) comes from the low-latency

data tier. This means you can use your existing storage array for your

VDI deployment, instead of having to purchase a new storage array.

Lower storage performance costs by 99%. FVP decouples storage

performance from capacity, enabling cost effective scale-out. This

lets you avoid/delay a storage upgrade, or spend up to 99% less

(cost per IOPS) compared to new storage hardware.

Real World Example: Regional Bank

A regional bank was having performance issues as they grew their

Citrix XenDesktop deployment. They looked at upgrading their

storage array, but it would cost over $100,000 and not guarantee

an improvement in VDI performance. Instead, the bank invested

in PernixData FVP software. For 1/6th the cost, they got 100K IOPS

per host and 1K IOPS per desktop (FVP increased their VM density

by 2.5x, allowing the bank to deploy desktop VMs with a 100:1

consolidation ratio). This dropped VDI latency from 3 ms to less

than 0.4 ms, enabling the company to grow their VDI deployment

to meet end user demand.

WITHOUT PERNIXDATA

FVP SOFTWARE

WITH PERNIXDATA

FVP SOFTWARE

45

8

50

30

20

10

40

0

82% Reduction in Latency

VDI Latency - US Dollars(Shorter is better)

FVP Software lowered Windows boot times from 45 to 8 seconds for a

healthcare provider.

Summary

To deliver the performance end users expect from their virtual

desktops, Citrix XenDesktop needs responsive storage I/O. This

can be difficult to achieve in a cost effective manner when storage

performance is intrinsically tied to storage capacity.

With PernixData FVP software and server flash/RAM, companies

get the best possible storage performance at the lowest cost,

ensuring that both end-users and IT departments are equally satisfied.

This makes the PernixData FVP platform a core infrastructure

component to any Citrix XenDesktop deployment.