LSI on Monday introduced the Nytro portfolio, a family of solutions that combines PCIe flash technology with intelligent caching and management software to achieve accelerated application performance in datacenters and cloud environments.

Nytro solutions allow datacenters to contend with massive data growth and speed the ability of databases and other applications to access data and provide real-time analytics and reporting.

According to LSI, the Nytro products offer up to 30x faster database transaction performance, over 4.0GB per second sustained throughput, automatic, intelligent read and write caching of hot data to high-performance flash storage, power, cooling and physical footprint savings, the reliability of LSI SandForce flash storage processors with DuraClass technology along with compatibility with existing infrastructure through use of LSI SAS and MegaRAID drivers.

The Nytro product portfolio includes the LSI Nytro WarpDrive Application Acceleration Cards, the LSI Nytro XD Application Acceleration Storage Solution, the LSI Nytro MegaRAID Application Acceleration Cards and the LSI Nytro Predictor Software Tool.

The LSI Nytro WarpDrive Application Acceleration Cards are the company's second-generation family of PCIe flash adapters. Nytro WarpDrive cards range in capacity from 200GB to 3.2TB of MLC or SLC flash memory, and combine the characteristics of LSI SandForce flash storage processors with LSI SAS controller ICs.

The LSI Nytro XD Application Acceleration Storage Solution combines the LSI Nytro WarpDrive card with Nytro XD intelligent caching software for out-of-the-box application acceleration for storage area networks (SAN) and direct-attached storage (DAS) environments. The Nytro XD solution automatically and transparently caches frequently accessed data reads and writes to PCIe flash storage, delivering up to a 30x performance improvement over HDD-only storage systems.

The LSI Nytro MegaRAID Application Acceleration Cards provide cost-effective acceleration of SAS-connected DAS storage by combining the RAID performance and data protection capabilities of LSI MegaRAID controllers with on-board flash and intelligent caching software. Nytro MegaRAID cards automatically move data between integrated flash storage and hard drives to blend high-performance storage without requiring expensive software tuning or rewrites.

The LSI Nytro Predictor Software Tool provides an intelligent guide for choosing the right Nytro application acceleration solution. Nytro Predictor software helps IT managers and database administrators identify and analyze application "hot spots" of frequently used data to determine which applications can be accelerated and make recommendations on which LSI Nytro product is best-suited for their specific application requirements.

LSI Nytro solutions are currently sampling with LSI's OEM customers, and are expected to be generally available beginning in the second quarter. Pricing for Nytro WarpDrive cards starts at a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $6,600 MSRP2, pricing for Nytro XD solutions starts at $9,400 MSRP3, and pricing for Nytro MegaRAID cards starts at $1,799 MSRP.