Violin Systems recently announced their new XVS 8 platform. I had the opportunity to speak to Gary Lyng (Chief Marketing Officer) and thought I’d share some thoughts here.
Background
A few things have changed for Violin since they folded as Violin Memory and were acquired by Soros in 2017. Firstly, they’re now 100% channel focused. And secondly, according to Lyng, they’re “all about microseconds”.
What Really Matters?
Violin are focused on extreme performance, specifically:
- Low latency;
- Consistent performance (24x7x365); and
- Enterprise data services.
The key use cases they’re addressing are:
- Tier 0;
- Realtime insight;
- OLTP, DB, VDI;
- AI / ML;
- Commercial IoT; and
- Trading, supply chain.
The Announcement
The crux of the announcement is the Violin XVS 8.
[image courtesy of Violin Systems]
Specifications
| Performance |
Latency as low 50µs to 800µs
Dedupe LUN performance improved by >40% |
| Capacity |
Usable – 44.3TB – 88.7TB
Effective – 256TB – 512TB |
| Enterprise Data Services |
| Efficiency |
Dedupe + compression reduction Ratio 6:1
Low impact Snapshots, Thin Provisioning, Thin and Thick Clones |
| Continuity
Protection
Scalability |
Synchronous Replication (Local/Metro) | Asynchronous Replication |Stretch clusters (0 RPO & RTO – 7700) |NDU
Snapshots (crash consistent) |Consistency Groups (snaps & replication)
Transparent LUN mirroring
Online LUN expansion
Capacity pooling across shelves
Single Name Space |
| Hosts |
8x 32Gb FC (NVMe Ready) or 8×10 GbE iSCSI |
Feature Summary
Performance & Experience Advances
- Consistent-Performance Guarantee
- Cloud-based predictive analytics providing insight into future performance needs
- NVMe over FC
Flexibility & Efficiency
- Single Platform with selectable dedupe per LUN / Application
- Snap-Dedupe
Application Infrastructure Ecosystems
Other Neat Features
32Gbps FC connectivity
Concerto OS updates (expected early Q1 2019)
- Simple software upgrade to existing systems
- Lowered IO Latency, Higher Bandwidth
- Lower CPU usage and enable cost savings through compute and software consolidation
- Optimised for transporting data from solid state storage to numerous processors
Everyone Has An App Now
All the cool storage vendors have an app. You can walk into your DC and (assuming you have the right credentials) scan a code on the front of the box. This will get you access to cloud-based analytics to see just how your system is performing.
[image courtesy of Violin Systems]
Thoughts
Violin Memory were quite the pioneers in the all-flash storage market many years ago. The pundits lamented the issues that Violin had with keeping pace with some of the smaller start-ups and big box sellers in recent times. The decision to focus on the “extreme performance” space is an interesting one. Violin certainly have some decent pedigree when it comes to the enterprise data services that these types of high-end customers would be looking for. And it’s not just about speed, it’s also about resilience and reliability. I asked about the decision to pursue NVMe over FC, and Lyng said that the feeling was that technologies such as RocE weren’t quite there yet.
I’m curious to see whether Violin can continue to have an impact on the market. This isn’t their first rodeo, and if the box can deliver the numbers that have been touted, it will make for a reasonably compelling offering. Particularly in the financial services / transactional space where time is money.
