JERSEY CITY, N.J., September 26, 2019 – Venture-backed startup Formulus Black announced today that it is collaborating with Intel to develop high-performance persistent memory powered infrastructure solutions for test, validation, and optimization on Packet’s cloud platform.  Designed for developers and IT leaders with data-intensive and latency-sensitive applications, Forsa is server software built by Formulus Black that delivers Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory with enhanced performance, capacity, availability, and usability features.

Intel Optane DC persistent memory substantially boosts the performance of data-intensive applications relative to “fast” NAND based SSDs by shortening the traditional path of data between peripheral storage and memory.  Forsa further fuels the performance of Optane DC persistent memory through algorithms that optimize I/O between memory and CPU.  Based on initial testing, the net result includes:

• Decreased CPU usage
• More TPS/IOPS
• and lower latency under maximum load conditions

“We believe Intel Optane is the leading persistent memory technology in the market today and we are excited to provide software that enhances its usability, performance, and TCO for private and hybrid cloud platforms like Packet,” said Jing Xie, Chief Operating Officer at Formulus Black.  “By combining our respective capabilities, we are making it easier for developers and IT leaders to adopt persistent memory solutions and supercharge the performance of databases, ERP systems, and custom-built data-intensive applications.”

Compared to standard DDR4 DRAM, Optane DC persistent memory offers higher system capacity at lower total cost-per-gigabyte and supports data persistence, so data can be cost effectively stored in memory for faster analytics processing and query performance.  Forsa enhances the capacity limits of Optane DC persistent memory for larger datasets by enabling memory to be pooled together from multiple CPU sockets on a single system or across systems.  For example, on a four-socket server, Forsa enables memory on all four CPU sockets to be pooled together AND can further stitch memory from CPU sockets on a second server, creating memory-based storage devices with 12-24TB of capacity (assumes 512GB x 24 Optane DC persistent memory modules per server).  In addition, Forsa provides real time data reduction capabilities via a patented process called BitMarker encoding to further reduce the effective cost and increase the storage capacity of Optane DC persistent memory systems.  Based on Formulus Black’s initial seismic and genomic data testing, Forsa can further reduce these datasets between 20-40%.

“As Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory scales in the market, the industry is embracing the technology as truly transformational,” said Alper Ilkbahar, vice president of Non-volatile Memory and Storage Solutions at Intel.  “The evolving software ecosystem using Optane DC persistent memory, such as Formulus Black’s Forsa, will only accelerate the pace of innovation for developers and end-users.”

“Due to unmatched efficiency, the number of workloads that benefit from high-performance memory-based storage is expanding rapidly. The combination of Intel Optane and Formulus Black’s Forsa is exactly what many of our most demanding users are looking for,” says Jacob Smith, Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of Packet.

For applications that require high availability and fast data replication, the throughput and latency characteristics of Intel Optane DC persistent memory are complementary. For these systems, Forsa’s high availability feature and built-in KVM-based hypervisor enable both high-performance workload isolation and the ability to failover mission critical applications, data, and VM profiles onto a secondary node if the first node experiences a hardware failure or sudden loss of power.  In addition, Forsa’s BLINK feature enables users to quickly backup and restore data and system settings from Optane DC persistent memory to local SSDs, or a network storage target.

Forsa also enhances Optane DC persistent memory usability with an intuitive GUI-based management console for provisioning virtual machines and persistent memory-based storage, and monitoring performance statistics, rather than the standard Command Line Interface (CLI).  For developers and more technically savvy users, Forsa also provides a RESTful-API and CLI interface.  As an added bonus, Forsa brings a suite of memory-management features that are not available for standard persistent memory devices such as the ability to increase the size of persistent memory block devices that are at full capacity, create clones and snapshots, and manage persistent memory resources on multiple nodes from one management console.

About Formulus Black

Formulus Black develops Forsa, a software technology that is unlocking the power of in-memory compute for all applications by enabling server memory to be easily and efficiently used as a high-performance storage media. Forsa can be used to power the most demanding application workloads and for developers seeking to minimize latency, maximize throughput, and scale without performance loss. For more information and to trial our software, please visit: https://www.formulusblack.com

About Packet

Packet is the go-to cloud partner for today’s leading developers, empowering SaaS companies and Fortune 100’s alike to make infrastructure their competitive advantage with automated bare metal that can be deployed anywhere. With 20+ global public cloud locations, a seamless API experience, and the ability to manage custom hardware on-premises or at thousands of edge sites, Packet is ideal for both traditional and cloud native workloads. Notable logos include Sprint (Curiosity IoT), Hatch (real-time mobile gaming), the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and hundreds of SaaS, AdTech, Media, and other companies looking to push the boundaries of performance for their users.

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Source: Formulus Black