OCZ Storage Solutions - a Toshiba Group Company and leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that it has initiated a beta test program for the next release of ZD-XL SQL Accelerator and invites enterprise SSD customers and SQL Server database administrators (DBAs) to participate. DBAs looking to accelerate SQL Server workloads via SSD flash or flash caching, and have production SQL Server data to run on the new ZD-XL SQL Accelerator platform are especially sought for this beta testing program. Those interested in becoming a ZD-XL SQL Accelerator 1.5 beta tester are invited to complete the online application form here.

The next generation ZD-XL continues to provide optimized and efficient flash acceleration for SQL Server environments through its tight integration of innovative hardware and software elements. It supports SQL Server 2008 R2 and 2012 versions, as well as the new 2014 version released April 1st by Microsoft that builds on the key features delivered in previous SQL Server versions, improving storage performance, availability and manageability. ZD-XL 1.5 enables DBAs to unleash the full power of SQL Server 2014 features, such as flash Buffer Pool Extension (BPE) support, that enables database pages to be accessed faster by loading them directly from flash.Additional features of ZD-XL SQL Accelerator 1.5, in support of SQL Server 2014, include:

• VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor support that enable flash resources to be deployed exactly to the needs of virtual machines (VMs) running SQL Server workloads
• Remote flash services that enable support for blade and rack servers
• Tight integration with SQL Server management that enable acceleration at a per database level versus having to accelerate all of the databases files in the SQL Server instance
• Advanced analysis and cache warm-up engine that assures the right data is on flash when it is needed by SQL Server