With Help From Fusion-io, Facebook’s Data Centers Are Going All Flash
Today, Fusion announced that its latest product, Fusion ioScale, which has been available to existing customers like Facebook for a while, is now generally available to new customers as well. The implications for data centers aren’t trivial. I talked with CEO David Flynn about this last week and he summed it up to me simply: Data centers are going all flash. Hard drives are on their way out. Get used to it.
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Fusion-io, Performance, SSD, Technology, Violin-Memory, Virident | Tagged: David Flynn, Facebook, Flash, Fusion-io, LinkedIn, SSD | 
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Posted by stevenjsattler
Violin Memory is a privately held emerging player in storage, offering all SSD Flash storage arrays for primary data. Violin’s storage arrays connect to servers and provide significantly improved performance over traditional HDD/SSD hybrid storage arrays. The company’s solutions are used in environments that require high power and capacity with little to no latency. According to Violin, its SSD arrays can help accelerate the performance of applications in database environments (for reporting and transaction acceleration), Web servers, scientific computing (HPC), and Tier 0 storage. In June of 2010, Violin acquired Gear6, a company focused on Memcaching, a distributed memory caching system for web and cloud environments, which helps increase utilization among server and storage assets. The company has key strategic relationships with Toshiba (a supplier of its NAND Flash) and Juniper, who have each made significant investments in the company over the past several years.
Violin’s go-to-market strategy consists of its direct sales force, key VARs, and co-branded joint-selling agreements with HP (to compete against Exadata) and IBM to deploy IBM’s GPFS file system in clustered, scale-out environments. Violin’s solution is seeing significant interest in databases running Oracle, DB2 and SQL. Violin has previously stated that it expects to exit its current fiscal year (ending in January 2012) with $100mm in trailing revenue, with a go forward run-rate of $40 million-$50 million per quarter. We believe the company is looking to fill out its solution set with feature-rich software and could look to acquire new point products or develop these capabilities internally. Violin’s technology already includes data management tools but the company seems to be looking at adding increased features and functionality over time. We believe that both all-flash memory arrays and flash-based PCIe-based server storage represent the next wave of technologies that are altering the landscape of the storage industry. We believe that customers can find compelling use cases for these solutions and that Violin Memory (as well as companies such as Fusion-io) will continue to gain share within this growing market.
(Copyrighted Material from Barclays Capital Equity Research)
Leave a Comment » | Fusion-io, HPC, Performance, SSD, Storage, Violin-Memory | Tagged: Barclays, EMC, Fusion-io, LinkedIn, NTAP. NetApp, Violin-Memory | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
Newly published research purports to claim that as NAND flash dies get smaller (as they inevitably will) there is a predictable drop in reliability and an increase in latency to the point of a diminishing return that “makes the future of SSDs couldy.”
According to one source: the researchers chose 45 chips from 6 manufacturers. They did not use specialized NAND flash controllers as are used by SSD vendors such as Intel, OCZ or Fusion-io. Instead their results were baseline and considered “optimistic” because they didn’t include latency added through error correction or garbage collection algorithms.
Really? No controller & no error correction & no garbage collection? That’s like putting a racing car on the track and forgetting the tires — results will be poor. Here is the entire paper:
http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/users/swanson/papers/FAST2012BleakFlash.pdf
Leave a Comment » | Fusion-io, OCZ, Performance, SSD, Storage, Technology | Tagged: Flash, Fusion-io, LinkedIn, OCZ, SSD | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
The latest entrant in the flash appliance war is the Zebi Storage Array from Tegile. The marketing engine at Tegile is on steroids — according to their website, we can expect the following:
Through the deep integration of SSD and caching technologies, Tegile systems deliver five times the performance of legacy arrays. These performance gains are recognized by applications even when their data ultimately lands on hard disk drives. High IOPS and low latency for everyone.
In-line compression and de-duplication are used on SSD and hard disk drive media throughout the array. This allows customers to significantly reduce their acquisition and operational cost of storage. All application data is reduced – not just secondary applications, and not in a post-process manner.
Enjoy the flexibility of choice in how your storage is connected to your servers. Fibre Channel and iSCSI block protocols are supported, while both NFS and CIFS file protocols are available for NAS environments. No more silos of storage in your data center.
Integrated snapshot and remote replication functionality shrink backup windows down to next to nothing and eliminates the need for backup software. Our thin replication feature only transmits changed data to reduce the burden on the WAN as well, saving even more.
Tegile’s arrays are dramatically easier to manage than legacy systems. Application optimized templates accelerate the provisioning process and implement best practices in a single mouse click. Backup and replication are built in – no complex back-end software to manage. Best yet – all of our software is included in a single license.
and the best part of all is the price, of course. Learn more here: http://www.tegile.com/products/zebi-storage-arrays/
Leave a Comment » | Performance, SSD, Storage, Technology | Tagged: Flash, LinkedIn, SSD, Storage Array, Tegile, Zebi | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
from Seeking Alpha’s Spencer Knight:
“Fusion is working out the kinks for the ioDrive 2; which is turning out to be a more difficult task than expected.”
This is the first I have heard anything about challenges getting the ioDrive2 into production — frankly, there was no attribution for the comment so I am really wondering if it’s accurate.
Here is the post: http://seekingalpha.com/article/344671-why-you-should-sell-fusion-io-buy-emc-and-commvault#comments_header
Leave a Comment » | Financial, Fusion-io, Performance, Technology | Tagged: CommVault, EMC, FIO, Fusion-io, ioDrive2, LinkedIn, Seeking Alpha, Spencer Knight | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
Credit Suisse Solid State Storage Conference
San Francisco, California
Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 2:15 p.m. (PT)
David A. Flynn, CEO, and Dennis P. Wolf, CFO
Barclays Big Data Conference
San Francisco, California
Monday, February 13, 2012, 4:30 p.m. (PT)
David A. Flynn, CEO, and Dennis P. Wolf, CFO
Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet 2012 Conference
San Francisco, California
Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 10:20 a.m. (PT)
David A. Flynn, CEO, and Dennis P. Wolf, CFO
Morgan Stanley 2012 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference
San Francisco, California
Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 4:05 p.m. (PT)
David A. Flynn, CEO, and Dennis P. Wolf, CFO
Leave a Comment » | Fusion-io, Performance, SSD, Technology | Tagged: Barclays, Big Data, Credit Suisse, FIO, Flash, Fusion-io, Goldman Sachs, LinkedIn, Morgan Stanley, NAND, Solid State Storage, SSD | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
The solid-state memory storage sector often gets a bad rap on pricing, Basile said.
“The mid-tier and below market is quite confused right now [about whether to move to pure SSD storage],” he said. “We’re finding a bifurcation in the market. We’re able to deal with large banks, Internet properties and government buyers very easily. They’re the ones who’ve helped shape our product line over the last two-plus years. That’s why we’re seeing traction with their platforms, and why we grew to $100 million four years faster than 3PAR, five years faster than Isilon, and two years faster than Data Domain.”
(repost: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Violin-Memory-Pushing-Flash-Arrays-into-Tier-1-Storage-769120/)
Leave a Comment » | Performance, Technology, Violin-Memory | Tagged: Don Basile, EMC, LinkedIn, Violin-Memory, VMEM | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
Over the weekend, Violin-Memory posted a job on LinkedIn for an SEC Compliance Manager:
http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=2471619
Not to mention a ton of new job openings here and in Europe:
Tagged as: Engineering Services
Violin Memory Engineering Systems team member required to participate in providing the engineering and support resources needed to drive an evolving, fast-paced engineering team in a startup environment.
Tagged as: Finance
This position will be responsible for managing all SEC reporting and managing the Company’s SOX compliance program.
Tagged as: Hardware
Develop microarchitecture and RTL for high performance PCIe based RAID controller and flash controller. Drive synthesis, formal verification and timing closure (STA) of Storage controller ASIC. Candidate must be highly motivated, and well organized.
Tagged as: Hardware
Looking for a talented, motivated technical leader for Design Verification to design a verification environment for a set of storage devices, and have a big outcome on the acceptance of flash memory in large enterprises.
Tagged as: Platform Engineering
Administers and develops the source code control system for all mainframe and open server environments. Creates, tests and implements automated software code build and deployment scripts for mainframe and open server applications.
Tagged as: Product Marketing
The candidate will lead development of world class marketing materials that drive and support Violin’s leadership of the Flash Memory Array field in the marketplace. The candidate will develop/create a range of marketing materials and initiatives.
Tagged as: Sales/Business Development
Proven record of building an international channels team in a high growth competitive environment.
Tagged as: Sales/Business Development
The primary technical resource for the AM for both pre and post sales activities. SE’s will actively drive and managing the tech evaluation stage of the sales process via PoC
Tagged as: Sales/Business Development
Proven track record of selling and partnering in the data center environment required.
Tagged as: Sales/Business Development
Proven track record of selling and partnering in the data center environment required. Country, region and language experience required.
Tagged as: Sales/Business Development
A Solution Architect is a strong technical voice focused on key partner and customer relationships. A Solution Architect will work with customers and partners to design solutions that will create customer success.
Tagged as: Sales/Business Development
Experience in both pre and post sales of enterprise Storage & Computing solutions. High speed networking knowledge required – FC & 10Gb technologies. Hands on POC support skills a must. Country, region and language experience required.
Tagged as: Software
Seeking experienced software developers to lead development of data mobility (Replication, Snapshots etc.) and reduction (Compression, De-dupe etc.) software features for a high performance storage array.
Tagged as: Software
Seeking experienced high performance storage driver developer for existing drivers, adding/extending features and supporting new hardware. Candidate will work with OEM partners in porting drivers to custom environments.
Tagged as: Software
Seeking experienced Infiniband driver developer to lead development of an innovative high performance storage product. Requires proven experience with the IB protocol stack from RDMA and the verbs layer upward, including iSER and SRP.
Tagged as: Software
Experienced software developer(s) to join Platform Integration Team. The engineer should have 5+ years experience software development, preferably in one or more of the following areas: embedded OS, networked storage or high availability systems.
Tagged as: Software
You will be responsible building the web-based front end interface for a new class of flash-based infrastructure product at Violin Memory
Tagged as: Software
Seeking embedded software developers with experience implementing features for storage appliances.
Tagged as: Software
Seeking experienced systems management developer with experience in appliance or embedded products.
Tagged as: Software
Seeking experienced Windows storage driver developer for existing drivers and new driver development, adding/extending features and supporting new hardware.
Tagged as: Support
The Technical Support Engineer provides phone, email and remote technical support and is responsible for assisting customers and field personnel with installation, configuration and troubleshooting our direct and SAN attached FLASH storage products.
Leave a Comment » | Performance, Technology, Violin-Memory | Tagged: LinkedIn, Violin-Memory, VMEM | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
There is a saying that goes, “you don’t have to be faster than the tiger, you just have to be faster than your slowest friend.” That may be a constructive way of thinking about Fusion-IO (NYSE:FIO) today. There’s no question that this is a high-growth tech stock with a huge multiple and huge expectations, but that has never stopped those tech stocks that can deliver the goods. (For more, seeEarning Forecasts: A Primer.)
Big Data 2.0
In some respects, what Fusion-IO seeks to do is relatively simple. In the same way that solid-state drives (SSD) have offered consumers considerably better performance than hard disk drives, Fusion-IO is trying to bring the advantages of flash/SSD memory to the enterprise data market.
Fusion-IO sells a two-part solution. The hardware consists of products like to ioDrive, a collection of flash cards (ioMemory) containing an array of NAND flash chips and an FPGA. These attach literally to the process server (through PCI Express) and can dramatically increase the throughput rates as a result.
There is also a software component, with the Virtual Storage Layer (VSL) software arguably the most important part. This is host driver software that manages the interface between the ioDrive and the operating system. Fusion-IO also has the directCache product that allows Fusion-IO’s products to work in virtualized systems like those created byVMware (NYSE:VMW).
Why Bother?
So why is Fusion-IO doing this? Don’t EMC (NYSE:EMC), NetAppliance (Nasdaq:NTAP) and International Business Machine (NYSE:IBM) already handle the storage needs for Big Data? Yes and no. There are certainly ample virtues to the approach used by EMC (and the others), particularly when it concerns large amounts of data.
The problem, though, is that these aren’t always especially fast systems – there’s something of a “request and go fetch” aspect to it. What Fusion-IO offers is a solution that is much faster (and ultimately cheaper) when speed is of the essence. It’s not yet economical to create an entirely flash-based storage network, but it can make sense for smaller pieces of time-sensitive data.
Early Days
It’s not fair to say that Fusion-IO is a solution in search of a market, but it is fair to say that this is a small early-stage opportunity. Some analysts believe that this will be a $5 billion addressable market in 2015 – by way of comparison, EMC has logged over $19 billion in revenue in its past twelve months. That said, don’t confuse “small today” with “small forever.” Just as hard drives replaced tape-based drives years ago, SSD is going to continue to grow as the costs come down.
Competitors and Buyers
Fusion-IO has a head-start on the competition, but that won’t last very long. First, there is a risk that the VSL software becomes a commoditized product over the next couple of years. More to the point, companies like EMC, NetApp, STEC (Nasdaq:STEC) and LSI (NYSE:LSI) have this market opportunity in their sights. EMC’s Project Lightning should ship in 2012 and while not so much is known about the hardware component, EMC does already have very good storage management software.
Looking more broadly, a host of other companies could potentially get into this market. Chip companies like Marvel Technology (Nasdaq:MRVL), SanDisk (Nasdaq:SNDK), Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) and Samsung arguably have the hardware wherewithal, but need to find a way to implement the software side – something that could get easier if VSL does become a commodity.
There’s also a good chance that Fusion-IO goes into the buyout rumor mill. OEM partners IBM and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) could certainly use this company to enliven the growth prospects of their storage businesses, while EMC has never been shy about pulling out its wallet to cover gaps in its own technology.
The Bottom Line
There’s no point in talking about valuation on a stock like Fusion-IO; sell side analysts will assign grotesque multiples to sales or earnings three years hence, but the reality is that it’s nearly impossible to model growth stories like this correctly. Trading at about nine times trailing sales, Fusion-IO is already in the neighborhood of pure software plays like VMware and ahead of other growth hardware names like F5 Network (Nasdaq:FFIV) or Mellanox (Nasdaq:MLNX).
None of this means that the stock can’t work – the reality of growth tech investing is that multiples seldom stand in the way of further appreciation if the growth is there. It’s a consummate case of “buy high and hope to sell higher.” So long as investors understand the risks that go with that sort of investing, and the inevitability of some “hiccups” along the way that lead to occasional sharppullbacks, it isn’t such a bad aggressive play. (For additional reading, check out 5 Must-Have Metrics For Value Investors.)
Use the Investopedia Stock Simulator to trade the stocks mentioned in this stock analysis, risk free!
At the time of writing, Stephen D. Simpson did not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article.
Leave a Comment » | Fusion-io, Performance, SSD, Technology | Tagged: DELL, EMC, F5, FFIV, FIO, Flash, FPGA, Fusion-io, HP, IBM, Intel, ioDrive, ioMemory, LinkedIn, LSI, Marvell, Mellanox, NetApp, Sandisk, SSD, VMware, VSL | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
You can read about this at THEREGISTER and STORAGESEARCH or go straight to the datasheet HERE.
Leave a Comment » | Fusion-io, Performance, SSD, Technology | Tagged: Flash, Kaminario, LinkedIn, Pcie, Ramsan 720, Soldifire, SSD, Texas Memory Systems, TMS, Violin-Memory, Virident, VMEM, WhipTail | Permalink
Posted by stevenjsattler
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