October 2, 2018 sees the private-equity-owned all-flash array survivor Violin Systems putting out its first major new product since exiting Chapter 11 in April 2017.
A webinar will announce “details of its new enterprise storage platform, which delivers consistent high performance and reliability with enterprise-class data services to help customers maximize application performance while significantly reducing IT infrastructure costs.”
Blocks and Files thinks the announcement will revolve around Violin’s FSP 7000 line with new flash drive hardware, perhaps embracing the latest 3D NAND and NVMe drive interface. The company could also introduce NVMe-oF and otherwise improve its Concerto OS. with, possibly, some cloud-based array ops analytics.
Will it move away from its proprietary in-line memory modules (VIMMs?)
The all-flash array market is ferociously competitive, with no quarter given by players such as Dell EMC, HPE, IBM, NetApp, Pure or maturing startups like Kaminario and pushy new NVMe-oF players, including Apeiron, E6, Excelero and Pavilion.
Violin must play a strongly distinctive tune to stand out, keep its customer base happy and start winning new customers.
According to the webinar blurb, Violin will discuss “how the company’s extreme performance solutions offer organizations a unique combination of data protection, business continuity and data reduction services with low latency and high IOPS to improve operational efficiencies needed to meet both current and future business demands. The company’s new product was designed to offer the best combination of extreme all-flash storage performance, low total cost of ownership (TCO) and high return on investment (ROI).”
In these days of emerging NVMe-oF array performance, it will be interesting to understand what Violin means by “extreme performance”.
Tune in to the webinar on Oct 2 at Oct. 2 at 9 a.m. PDT or grab it afterwards for on-demand viewing. B&F
