Case Study
Wireless Optimization
Company Dials Up MySQL
Performance 20x with
HGST FlashMAX® PCIe SSD
Challenge
Zurich-based OptXview specializes in optimizing network performance for
A growing wireless network with
more subscribers was creating a
performance bottleneck in OptXview’s
SaaS monitoring platform.
customers throughout Switzerland. The company offers a Software-as-a-
Solution
The solution featured a 1.1TB FlashMAX
II PCIe solid-state drive (SSD), deployed
in a standard Supermicro 6015C server
running Ubuntu.
Results
After installing FlashMAX II, OptXview
gained an immediate 20x increase in
MySQL IOPS.
Services (SaaS) monitoring platform that helps global wireless providers
improve network performance and customer satisfaction.
Ensuring Optimal Performance for OptXview Optal
OptXview was founded on the belief that repetitive network problems
should be automatically detected, prioritized, fixed and/or displayed to
network optimization specialists. When the company began operations in
2008, its founders were frustrated by a lack of visually oriented network
optimization tools. OptXview embarked on creating powerful datadriven network optimization tools, which evolved into the Optal network
optimization suite.
Optal provides new ways to view and analyze network data, with realtime relevant graphs and datasets that weren’t available with traditional
tools. It is built upon the open-source MySQL database engine, coupled
with various Java libraries to help engineers dig deeper into networks
and discover new optimization opportunities. As OptXview’s customers’
networks and subscribers continued to grow, the Optal platform started to
experience growing pains.
Case Study
“In our business, response times to critical network events often mean the
difference between happy mobile subscribers and potential subscriber
disconnects,” said Michal Kovacik, Chief Architect and Technical Director
“In our business, response times
at OptXview. It didn’t take long for OptXview’s team of performance
to critical network events often
engineers to pinpoint their own performance issue—input/output delays
means the difference between
within the system’s MySQL database were degrading Optal’s performance.
happy mobile subscribers and
This slowdown threatened to impact real-time network statistics and
potential subscriber disconnects.”
responses to key performance indicators. After reading about HGST
– Michal Kovacik,
Chief Architect and Technical
Director at OptXview
FlashMAX II PCIe SSDs in a Percona white paper, Kovacik approached
HGST for an evaluation unit.
HGST FlashMAX II PCIe SSDs
FlashMAX II is a high-performance SSD solution designed from the ground
up to deliver maximum application performance using today’s fast CPU
cores and the PCI Express interconnect bus. It offers uncompromised,
consistent performance across a wide variety of workloads combined
with the industry’s highest storage capacity in a compact half-height halflength form factor.
In addition to performance and reliability, what also sets FlashMAX apart
is advanced software intelligence that helps enterprises get the most
from each card. For example, FlashMAX Connect software builds on the
FlashMAX II hardware platform and adds Flash-aware network-level
storage capabilities.
HGST FlashMAX® II PCIe SSD
2
Case Study
Dramatic MySQL Performance Acceleration
“When we saw the dramatic
Kovacik installed the FlashMAX II 1.1TB PCIe SSD evaluation unit on a
difference between our current
standard Supermicro (6015C) server running Ubuntu Server (v13.04),
configuration and what we could
and compared it against the current platform running SAS hard drives.
do with the FlashMAX II, it became
Kovacik used randomly generated queries to emulate user behavior inside
clear that this SSD would make a
the test environment. He was able to emulate the I/O system bottleneck
big difference in our monitoring
when reading indexes of huge tables that were too big to reside in cache
and in our responsiveness to
memory. FlashMAX II delivered nearly 20x faster IOPS compared to the
our customers.”
SAS-based alternative.
– Michal Kovacik,
Chief Architect and Technical
Director at OptXview
“When we saw the dramatic difference between our current configuration
and what we could do with the FlashMAX II, it became clear that this SSD
would make a big difference in our monitoring and in our responsiveness
to our customers,” said Kovacik. “We are pleased with the support we
received from the HGST team and are very happy to be working with a
large global suppler of storage technologies.”
For SaaS platforms such as OptXview Optal, fast response times and
headroom to serve a continuously growing customer base are critical
to its success. Without reliable, high-performance storage solutions,
SaaS providers risk latency problems and other bottlenecks which
may translate to an unsatisfactory user experience for its users. With
FlashMAX II, OptXview was able to alleviate its performance issues,
allowing the company to turn its focus back to what really matters—
providing world-class network optimization tools to its customers.
© 2014 HGST, Inc., 3403 Yerba Buena Road, San Jose, CA 95135 USA. Produced in the United States 12/14. All rights reserved 8/14. Other trademarks are the property of their
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