Startup has also updated its core FlashArray product with always-on, data-at-rest encryption for the security-conscious accounts it hopes to entice. Read more »
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 »
New PCIe flash memory cards from Violin Memory will allow for broad enterprise adoption, the company’s CEO says. But the company is not the first to that market. Read more »
Flash storage vendor Violin Memory has acquired appliance maker GridIron Systems to improve performance even more for demanding applications. Even as some are calling for slower flash, Violin thinks speed, cost and reliability don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Read more »
Flash storage startup Nimble Storage has raised another $40 million in preparation for an IPO within the next two years. The company, which builds appliances fusing both flash and hard disk drives, is part of a hot flash market that’s raking in venture capital. Read more »
The Gemini flash array is the first of what will probably be many solid-state storage products announced this week. Nimbus Data says the new array will cut all-in storage cost to $8 per GB from $10 per GB for its previous model. Read more »
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 »
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 »
This quarter saw Amazon Web Services finally relaxing its public-cloud-only stance and launching services to support hybrid-cloud deployments. Meanwhile, Hadoop players moved to make their platforms more accessible to mainstream BI analysts and database administrators. A new quarterly report analyzes these trends and provides a near-term outlook. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
DynamoDB, AWS’ latest effort to rock the technology establishment, has many implications for other players in the big data and cloud computing markets. A new GigaOM Pro research note examines just who is affected, and how. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 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 »
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 »
Nimble Storage, a startup selling flash-equipped storage appliance to small businesses, has closed a $25 million Series D round. Nimble’s approach is interesting in that it pushes flash almost more for convenience than for performance, which distinguishes it from high-end plays like Violin Memory. Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Flash-memory appliance maker Violin Memory has closed $35 million in new funding, further proof that improving the speed of data access is becoming a driving force in enterprise data centers and that flash will be a foundational piece to solving those performance problems. Read more »
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 »
