Load DynamiX
Building Efficient Storage Infrastructures

Data storage is going through a dramatic evolution. New technologies such as clustered storage, flash storage, and software-defined storage are changing the data center landscape. Transitioning to these technological advancements, while supporting production workloads has become challenging for enterprises. Countering the data storage hurdles, NetApp’s Clustered Data ONTAP (CDOT) platform furnishes a scalable and unified storage platform for enterprises. But, it introduces risks when migrating from 7-Mode ONTAP. In this transition, Load DynamiX, with its storage workload modeling, performance validation, and analytics, evaluates the performance effects of storage system upgrades. “NetApp customers use the Load DynamiX platform to test and validate the performance of CDOT systems, and to nail down the exact configuration that will support SLAs. This reduces risks during the transition to CDOT,” says Philippe Vincent, President and CEO, Load DynamiX.

Optimizing the performance across all supported protocols, a single Load DynamiX solution covers all NetApp storage products. Load DynamiX provides a combined software and hardware performance testing and validation solution that includes storage workload modeling and load generation. With the ability to accurately emulate real- world application workload behavior, LoadDynamiX enables storage engineers and architects to make intelligent deployment decisions regarding networked storage infrastructure.

The new Load DynamiX Enterprise platform makes it easier to model workloads, create test cases, and evaluate results across FC, iSCSI, NFS, SMB, HTTP, HTTPS, CDMI, Swift, Cinder, and Amazon S3 protocols. “Load DynamiX Enterprise takes advantage of the test appliances that vendors favor, and adds an interface that is user friendly and suited for enterprise storage architects,” asserts Vincent.

Load DynamiX, empowering IT organizations to ensure the performance and reduce the cost of storage, has been engaged with NetApp since 2009 in testing and developing innovative storage functionalities, and proof of concept deployment.Supporting the rapidly growing enterprise sector and vendors, Load DynamiX utilizes an open web application framework to deliver a better user experience, accelerate development, while delivering comprehensive APIs and dramatically reducing QA testing time.

Load DynamiX’s test and validation solutions allow customers to authenticate the expected workload performance and perform predictive analysis of the performance of potential and newly deployed storage infrastructure.

NetApp customers use Load DynamiX storage technology to test and validate the performance of CDOT systems and to nail down the exact configuration that will support SLAs

The company provides three ways to manage and improve operational efficiency of storage technology. First, the storage validation system includes customizable graphical user interfaces for simplified workload generation, results interpretation, and cross-team collaboration. Second, highly accurate emulations of storage workloads across file, block, and cloud storage; and third, enable engineers to spend time designing and running tests, instead of configuring thousands of load generating instances.

The aim of Load DynamiX is to build connections between production storage systems with test systems to allow its clientele to automate the application workload modeling process with ease. Recently, a major U.S financial and insurance company using the Load DynamiX solution witnessed cost savings and reduced risk from the elimination of over- and under-provisioning of their storage infrastructure. Load DynamiX, with its performance testing appliances, identified specific workloads to maintain lower cost HDD storage and helped the company achieve more accurate load testing.

Comprising deep expertise in network storage testing, the company, in regards to world-wide coverage, is expanding outside of U.S. “In addition to providing sales and support through channel partners in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific regions, we’re beginning to augment these regions with local Load DynamiX sales and support representation,” concludes Vincent.