StorCentric bought the all-flash array pioneer Violin Systems for an undisclosed sum, its fifth acquisition in two years
Todd Oseth, Violin Systems President and CEO, said in his statement: “The acquisition provides Violin customers with streamlined access to a robust portfolio of data management solutions, backed by StorCentric’s world-class support organisation. StorCentric’s customers will benefit from the availability of Violin’s all-flash NVMe product for their demanding performance-critical applications at a highly competitive price point.”
Mihir Shah, StorCentric CEO, said his mini-conglomerate aims to “offer a complete portfolio of data management technologies that support growing enterprises’ needs. Violin fits perfectly into our solutions roadmap, a mid-point between our Nexsan and Vexata all-flash offerings. As a prominent name in the all-flash array market, we aim to build on its track record of innovation.”
Venture-backed Storcentric’s other acquisitions include the assets of Drobo and Nexsan, followed by Retrospect (backup) and Vexata (high-end all-flash arrays).
A walk down Violin Memory Lane
Violin Memory was founded in 2005, and was an early all-flash array pioneer, along with FusionIo and Texas Memory Systems. The company IPO’d in 2013 and subsequently declined into bankruptcy.
The Soros Group bought the assets for $14m and renamed the company Violin Systems.
Violin launched its VXS 8 all-flash array in 2018 and in the same year merged with Xiotech in 2018 when Xiotech separated from the Axellio business. At the time it said it had more than 100 Fortune 500-size customers and was working with Phison to add NVMe-over-Fabrics technology to its flash arrays.
We wrote in October 2018: “The Soros Fund, Violin’s owner, faces a dilemma if the company falls behind in the performance stakes. It would have to raise it stakes to develop faster product or quit. We should see which way the wind is blowing by the end of 2020.”
The wind has now blown – towards the Soros Group exiting from its Violin interests and selling them to StorCentric.
