PernixData nets $20M to virtualize your server-side flash
The self-proclaimed VMware of server-side flash now has more money to build out enterprise-class sales and marketing staff and to add features to its software. Read more »
Difference in opinion might have prompted Fusion-io leadership changes
photo: Hewlett-Packard
Some analysts are believe two Fusion-io founders might be leaving because they disagreed with the future direction of the company, which involves more software capability and more business from smaller companies. Read more »
Fusion-io puts down $119M to pick up storage maker NexGen and add enterprise adoption
photo: fusionio.com screen shot
Fusion-io on Wednesday said it has acquired hybrid-storage vendor NexGen Storage for around $119 million, positioning it to take on more enterprise business. Read more »
Fusion-io picks up software-defined storage firm ID7 for SCST chops
The British company behind the widely-used SCST target software stack is now part of Fusion-io’s ION Data Accelerator team. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Read more »
EMC further embraces in-server flash storage with more memory cards
photo: EMC
Following Fusion-io’s success in selling flash memory cards, EMC is coming out with more flash memory PCIe cards, following Violin Memory releasing its own versions earlier this week. Read more »
Dell leads $51.6M investment in flash storage startup Skyera
Flash storage startup Skyera has scored $51.6 million in second round funding led by Dell Ventures. With Dell, Skyera gets a potential sales channel and Dell gets tech to sell to its cloud and webscale customers. Read more »
Why Valentine’s Day needs data centers
photo: Shutterstock
Flash memory and database servers are among possible solutions for online dating sites getting swamped with traffic at peak times such as Valentine’s Day. Read more »
Diablo gets $28M to marry memory and the processor
Diablo Technologies is an Ottawa-based startup that has brought flash memory even closer to the processor — making applications run even faster. It has built chip technology as well as software and has raised $28 million to bring the technology to market. Read more »
NetApp brings Fusion-io server flash storage into the fold
NetApp is working with Fusion-io to make server-side flash a resource for storing “hot” data. The company said its Flash Accel software can boost application performance up to 90 percent in some cases. Read more »
Fusion-io turns NAND into DRAM for developers
Flash-based storage pioneer Fusion-io says it has developed a method for extending a system’s memory from DRAM into Fusion-io’s NAND-based storage tier, enabling the possibility of bigger, cheaper in-memory applications than are currently possible. Read more »
Flash storage never sleeps
Although the storage world is awaiting an M&A explosion if EMC actually acquires flash startup XtremIO, Violin Memory and Fusion-io are keeping the hits coming in the meantime. Fusion-io is bringing in new software partners, while Violin brought in another $30 million. Read more »
If EMC buys XtremIO, the flash war is on
The rumor mill is adamant that storage giant EMC is in serious talks to buy Israeli flash-storage startup XtremIO, a move that could trigger an avalanche of flash acquisitions rivaling the scale-out-file-system feeding frenzy a couple years ago. Here’s who might get bought. Read more »
Why Violin Memory is worth billions in an IPO
Violin Memory is a force to be reckoned with in the storage world. It’s not just the industry shift toward solid-state drives replacing slower, less-efficient hard disk drives that’s driving Violin’s value through the roof, though, it’s also the company’s very strategic set of investors. Read more »
Need network processing? Solarflare puts it on the card.
Solarflare, the former maker of 10 gigabit Ethernet silicon, has transitioned from making chips to making network adapter cards to speed up the networking capabilities of servers. Now it wants to take that further by doing real-time processing as data comes in from the network. Read more »
Next up from EMC: Project Thunder flash appliance
EMC’s promised Project Lightning server-based flash storage product is now available under the VFCache brand. But EMC’s not done — it plans a bigger, more powerful flash appliance dubbed Project Thunder, due later this year. Both products take direct aim at the Fusion-IO threat. Read more »
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Infrastructure Q4: Big data gets bigger and SaaS startups shine
Continuing a yearlong trend, the fourth quarter in big IT was all about big data, and Hadoop in particular. Still, many are beginning to recognize the software framework’s shortcomings, which is why this quarter also saw more attention for startups claiming easy analytics and real-time processing. Elsewhere in infrastructure, SaaS startups made out well and valuations for these companies are getting higher, and naturally there was news from the AWS camp. This quarterly wrap-up examines these events and more, including the quarter’s dark spot, the hike in prices in the hard-drive manufacturing space due to the floods in Thailand. Companies mentioned in this report include Calxeda, Heroku, Rackspace, Salesforce.com and Tier3. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Fusion-io competitor Virident closes $21M round
Virident, the PCIe solid state memory player that competes head to head with Fusion-io, scored $21 million in Series C funding including money from new investors Intel Capital and Cisco Systems, as well as contributions from Sequoia Capital and Artiman Ventures. Read more »
Gelsinger: EMC still in the buying mood
EMC, having spent billions on acquisitions over the last few years, ain’t done yet. At the top of the shopping list is more security, more management and more data analytics know-how, EMC’s Pat Gelsinger told reporters today at an event at Gillette Stadium. Read more »
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Infrastructure Q3: OpenStack and flash step into the spotlight
Last quarter we highlighted the fast maturation of the Platform-as-a-Service and big data spaces. Those two trends only picked up speed during the third quarter of 2011. Joining them on the cusp of IT greatness, though, are the OpenStack project and flash storage. The former gathered serious validation from big-name companies, while the latter saw less funding than last quarter but a significant number of product launches. Of course, the third quarter wasn’t all lollipops and rose petals. We saw new computing technologies and delivery models such as tablets wreak havoc on both HP and Cisco, and there are concerns (aren’t there always?) about how the Internet will handle our increased use of streaming video and cloud computing. Unfortunately for HP and Cisco, the latter problem might be an easier fix than the strategic woes facing them. Additional companies mentioned in this report include CloudBees, Rackspace, Engine Yard and Joyent. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
How consumer demands drive enterprise flash storage
Fusion-io has released a pair of new components that more than double the capacity and improve performance of its previous-generation products on the latest generation of NAND flash. Enterprise flash providers must keep up with short consumer innovation cycles while operating within long enterprise buying cycles. Read more »
Violin Memory CEO: IPO coming, acquisitions possible
Violin Memory released a new line of all-flash-memory storage arrays yesterday, but my recent discussion with CEO Don Basile was all about the company’s future, which he says includes an upcoming IPO and possibly a flash acquisition or two. Read more »
Scenes from VMworld Day 1 — from CEOs to superheroes
It was an eventful first day at VMworld, highlighted by Paul Maritz’s keynote to thousands of attendees and Fusion-io’s superhero-themed party featuring Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Here’s VMworld Day 1 as I experienced it outside the press room. Read more »
That was fast! Fusion-io launches IO Turbine product
Fusion-io, a newly public company that makes flash memory components for servers on Monday released the results of its acquisition of IO Turbine, a mere three weeks after it acquired the startup. The combination of the two companies has resulted in a product called ioCache. Read more »
Pure Storage brings hard disk pricing to Flash storage
Pure Storage, a startup offering enterprises a storage array comprised entirely of Flash memory, promises to change the economics around Flash memory and push hard drives out of the performance storage market. The company just announced $30 million in funding and detailed its product. Read more »
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Infrastructure Q2: Big data and PaaS gain more momentum
Big data and Platform-as-a-Service offerings highlighted the second quarter, suggesting that we can expect to see a shift in enterprise IT practices around application development and analytics very soon. On the PaaS front, we saw new projects like DotCloud and Cloud Foundry gain incredible momentum in just a few short months. The big-data activity ranged from major new Hadoop vendors to heavy investment in flash storage that will speed the serving of data to processing engines. In other areas, we saw an uptick in cloud-computing plans from large vendors, OpenStack continued to mature and pick up both contributors and users, and Facebook caught our eye by launching an open-source project around the designs for its specialized servers and data centers. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Salesforce.com, IBM, Heroku and Calxeda. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Amazon’s Werner Vogels on the Stonebraker/NewSQL debate
photo: Pinar Ozger
The furor over Michael Stonebraker’s criticism of Facebook’s scaling of its MySQL database we covered last Thursday has continued to generate comments on the post itself and on Twitter. Friday, Amazon’s CTO Werner Vogels weighed in with a tweet that seemed to accuse Stonebraker of hubris. Read more »
FlashSoft gets $3M and SSDs get more cachet
Combine virtualization, big data and solid state memory, and you get a trifecta of technology buzz words that a few startups are trying to combine to deliver faster speeds on top of virtualized infrastructure. Plus, as speed becomes crucial, are hard drives still relevant? Read more »
SolidFire readies SSD storage systems for cloud providers
Cloud storage startup SolidFire is giving cloud providers early access to its solid-state-disk-based systems for storing customers’ data. The Atlanta-based company is building SSD-based appliances that it says will help ease the migration of enterprise applications into the cloud by significantly boosting storage performance. Read more »
Fusion-io’s IPO went well; who wins?
Flash-storage component manufacturer Fusion-io is trading well above its initial public offering price, signaling that investors believe solid-state drives might actually live up to their promise to displace large quantities of spinning disks in enterprise data centers. Read more »
Fusion-io’s IPO spurs huge flash investments
It looks as if solid-state cache specialist Fusion-io’s IPO on Thursday has investors thinking big about the possibilities of flash storage in the enterprise. Flash array maker Violin Memory raised a $40 million round from strategic public-market investors, and a software company called VeloBit emerged from stealth. Read more »
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The Structure 50: The Top 50 Cloud Innovators
In five short years, cloud computing has gone from being a quaint technology to a major catchphrase. Amazon and others are now moving at Internet speed, trying to offer better security, faster networking, more compliance and a host of other products that are attempting to meet the demands of startups, consumers and enterprises alike. On GigaOM’s Structure channel, we cover the gear and software that comprises the cloud, the services and the people who are changing the industry. Now for the first time, we’ve decided to condense that knowledge into the Structure 50, a list of the 50 companies that are influencing how the cloud and infrastructure evolves. All of these players, big or small, have people, technology or strategies that will help shape the way the cloud market is developing and where it will eventually end up. Companies mentioned in this report include Amazon, Rackspace, Cloudera, China Telecom and SeaMicro. For a full list of companies, and to see the Structure 50 as one full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
LinkedIn Preps a Bigger IPO, But It’s No Facebook
LinkedIn is upping its expectations for its much-anticipated IPO, which it now believes can pull in as much as $274 million. The company this morning released the pricing for its IPO and is now prepared to offer 7.84 million shares at $32 to $35 each Read more »
Another SSD Hardware Startup Gets Cash. When’s the Shakeout?
Kaminario, which provides high-performance storage, has raised a $15 million C round of financing. As SSD startups hit maturity and the market for using solid state drives in data centers for high-performance and energy efficient storage heats up, when will we see the inevitable consolidation? Read more »
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Infrastructure Q1: IaaS Comes Down to Earth; Big Data Takes Flight
Two markets stand out above all else when looking at the first quarter of 2011: infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — the epitome of cloud computing — and big data. Amazon Web Services continues to lead the IaaS space in terms of customers and innovation, while Rackspace, buoyed by momentum around OpenStack, will be its primary competitor for mainstream customers. In the big data space, there are so many players and terms floating about it’s difficult for outsiders to get a handle on who’s who and what’s what, though such activity validates the technologies. Other developments this quarter included HP’s impending presence in the cloud computing and big data spaces and the realization that Intel won’t be left to die if low-power servers based on x86 processors catch on like the buzz late last year suggests they will. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Microsoft, Cloudera, SeaMicro and Facebook. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Violin Memory CEO: Fusion-io IPO Just the Tip of Flash Iceberg
According to Violin Memory CEO Donald Basile, Fusion-io’s proposed IPO is just the start of what should be a very busy era for flash. Basile, whose previous job was as chairman and CEO of Fusion-io, sees an impending multi-billion-dollar market, spurred in part by Larry Ellison. Read more »
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Big Data, ARM and Legal Troubles Transformed Infrastructure in Q4
Some might call this past quarter in the infrastructure space transformative. The rise of ARM-based processing suggests the days of x86 dominance might be coming to an end, while the Amazon Web Services-WikiLeaks controversy cast new light on the legal aspects of cloud computing. Big data got bigger, meanwhile, as the Hadoop ecosystem expanded, and amid all these cutting-edge technologies, two archaic topics — Novell and Java — proved they aren’t going anywhere soon. Companies mentioned in this report include Intel, AMD, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Yahoo, Appistry, VMware, Joyent and Microsoft. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Storage Pain Is Fusion-io's $45M Gain
Fusion-io, a maker of specialty solid-state storage drives, has raised $45 million in a third funding round, bringing its total investment to $111.5 million. The company is succeeding because webscale businesses and cloud computing need its gear that speeds up access to stored data. Read more »
iPad to Offer 30,000 Free e-Books at Launch
If you were concerned that you’d only be able to read things on your iPad if you ponied up some cash for the privilege, even if that amount turns out to be less than expected, worry no more. The iPad will launch with 30,000 free e-books. Read more »
VCs Pump Cash Into Solid-state Storage
Data center managers aren’t the only ones suddenly charmed by solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing storage needs. A growing number of VCs are also warming to the green, high-performance potential of the storage technology (GigaOM Pro Research, subscription required). With no moving parts to speak of, […] Read more »
MySpace Gets Greener Data Centers with Fusion-io
Storage — it’s the unsexy work horse behind social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter that require hundreds of thousands of servers to handle the data of millions of users. Traditionally taking the form of spinning disks, data storage also sucks a whole lot of […] Read more »
