FalconStor to Offer Violin 4TB SSD Appliance

FalconStor Software, Inc. and Violin Memory, Inc. announced a flash memory-based storage system that simultaneously accelerates reads and writes for mission-critical applications as well as general SAN performance. The FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator doubles SAN performance, delivering high-speed access to stored data with minimal latency at a fraction of the cost of conventional solutions.

                       Violin 1010

The FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator combines the FalconStor Network Storage Server (NSS) Gateway, a Violin 1010 Flash Memory Appliance and FalconStor’s storage management software to create a virtual SAN out of new or existing storage resources while introducing a solid-state memory array as a caching platform for all application data requiring the fastest input/output (I/O). The integrated solution uses an economical amount of solid-state storage as a caching platform. Lab tests of the FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator conducted by FalconStor show that a solid-state layer of 1 percent of a SAN’s total storage capacity will increase overall SAN performance greater than 100 percent.

"Our evaluation of the FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator proved that it can significantly enhance storage response time and underload scalability," said George Crump, founder of Storage Switzerland. "The interesting capability of this system is that it can be deployed into an existing SAN and yield impressive improvements in performance and scalability at a reasonable cost."

"There are no other solutions on the market today that can yield as much performance enhancement out of a modest investment in a solid-state tier of a virtualized SAN," said Fadi Albatal, vice president of marketing for FalconStor. "FalconStor’s innovative storage management software intelligently and predictably accelerates reads and writes to the SAN on a global basis and is not exclusive to an application or a specific storage segment."

FalconStor’s SafeCache and HotZone Features
for Write/Read Acceleration
FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator speeds up both writes and reads with two unique capabilities of Falconstor storage management software: SafeCache and HotZone features. FalconStor’s SafeCache capability allows a segment of the solid-state memory array to be devoted to application writes so that all disk writes can be received and acknowledged with low latency. The data is then written transparently to the destination storage volumes on the SAN.

FalconStor’s HotZone capability accelerates the read process of specific applications, including random-access databases, and general SAN I/O by monitoring disk access patterns and then intelligently copying the hot data to a HotZone cache on the solid-state memory array for faster read access. When the data is no longer heavily used, it is deleted from the cache and referenced back to its original location in the SAN to make room for other highly active datasets.

About the Violin 1010 Flash Memory Appliance
The Violin 1010 is a 4-terabyte enterprise-class flash appliance that provides sustainable performance with sub-100μs deterministic latency and serviceability (including automatic active sparing and hot swap of flash modules). Based on patent-pending flash RAID algorithms, the Violin 1010 provides enterprise data centers with performance and reliability at a lower cost than any traditional performance storage systems with solid-state disks (SSD). To achieve a 100 percent performance boost, it is more than three times less expensive to add a solid-state memory cache with the FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator than it is to upgrade a SAN with additional disk arrays.

"Violin Memory is dedicated to developing the fastest, most reliable and economical solid-state memory solutions for the enterprise market," said Matt Barletta, vice president of product marketing for Violin Memory. "Solid state as a consumer technology has been around for a while, but we are now showing the many ways that scalable, solid-state memory arrays can revolutionize traditional enterprise storage methods and business practices. Together with FalconStor, we are providing customers with application acceleration options and flexibility never before available."

Pricing and Availability
FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator is immediately available in North America for a U.S. list price of $32,000, which includes one solid-state memory array with 500 gigabytes of RAID-protected storage capacity. The solution is available through FalconStor’s channel partners.