Violin Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 All-Flash Array

Violin Memory, Inc. announced availability of the Windows Flash Array (WFA).

Jointly developed with Microsoft Corp., it is an all-flash high-performance storage array powered by Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 to deliver a set of high performance storage features and data services for the enterprise.

The speed and efficiency of the WFA transforms the datacentre by reducing server overhead and application response times through improved storage performance, fundamentally altering the cost structure of enterprise applications.

The WFA enables enterprise and cloud workloads, such as SQL Server, SharePoint, and Windows Server with Hyper-V virtualised applications, to meet the needs of global enterprises, while satisfying IT operational demands for maximised agility, automation, and orchestration between network, storage and compute resources.
 
“Microsoft technologies, such as Windows Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint, are already adopted by enterprises worldwide and growing dramatically,” said Bill Laing, corporate VP, Microsoft. “By jointly developing this highly integrated solution with Violin Memory, we are working together to provide enterprise and cloud customers with dramatically improved performance, scalability, and economics for their Windows applications – virtualised, physical, and cloud.”
 
The WFA is an integrated combination of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 and Violin’s hardware and software into a single solution that delivers high performance all-flash array storage for enterprise and cloud customers.

Customers benefit from the storage features of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 embedded into the WFA, including thin provisioning, data deduplication, scalability, and encryption along with space efficient snapshots and continuous availability, through Windows failover clustering.
 
“The WFA solution with Microsoft’s vast suite of server applications is critical for enterprises trying to revolutionise the performance, scale, and cost of data centre and cloud deployments,” said Kevin DeNuccio, CEO, Violin. “This collaboration with Microsoft produces the necessary integration of compute, network, applications, and storage for customers designing the next generation of cloud and virtualised solutions.“
 
Microsoft has improved the efficiency and feature set of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 but, importantly, it provides a new way to connect external storage and make it perform like fast local storage. The Server Message Block (SMB) Direct protocol enabled by RDMA makes possible a compelling enterprise storage alternative to traditional SANs. Testing by Microsoft reveals that SMB Direct can reduce CPU overhead by up to 30%, while delivering higher performance storage that is less expensive, and easier to administer through native Windows Server management tools.
 
SQL Server is an enterprise database that enables customers to build mission-critical applications across OLTP, data warehousing, business intelligence and analytics workloads. These enterprise applications are workloads that benefit from the WFA. Customers beta testing WFA with 2012 SQL Server report that the it delivers up to 2X the write performance and up to 50% higher read performance, compared to an industry standard all-flash array connected via FC.
 
Windows Server with Hyper-V is a virtualisation platforms helping customers achieve a higher utilisation and ROI from their server assets. The high level of random I/O requests from virtualised workloads make the WFA a natural fit. In Hyper-V environments, WFA achieved up to 40% higher write performance in customer beta tests. Increased storage performance means enterprises can increase host server VM density, bolstering their virtualisation ROI and reducing CAPEX.
 
The net effect for customers is a reduction in compute and storage expense, while meeting the demanding application SLAs with orders of magnitude improvement in response times. WFA is a continuously available, high performance all-flash Windows storage server array for the enterprise market.
 
“The WFA has exceeded our expectations within the data warehouse and business reporting environments. The combination of the Windows 2012 technologies and flash array as a platform enables virtualised environments to be truly scalable and resilient with a performance level equal to or greater than direct attached flash storage. This translates to a data warehouse and reporting environment returning immediate value, outperforming traditional vendor offerings and with the lowest TCO compared to traditional storage arrays,” said Justin Gasparre, director, situational awareness
service integration branch, CIO Group, Department of Defence, Australia.
 
“The WFA is unique in the market. By embedding Windows management functionality into the storage controller, Microsoft and Violin are solving a problem we often hear from practitioners in the Wikibon community. Namely, that they don’t have the resources, skills or desire to deal with a separate storage management system. We believe closer integration between Windows and an all-flash array will have broad appeal for SMBs who are resource strapped, and large organisations that want to eliminate management complexity,” said Dave Vellante, chief research officer, Wikibon.
 
“All flash arrays have captured the highest tier of the enterprise storage market for their application acceleration capabilities that go beyond the requirements of today’s data-driven organisations. Bringing together these established benefits found in the 64TB Violin Memory All-Flash Array with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, Microsoft and Violin have created a certified solution to improve the performance of Hyper-V, SQL server and SharePoint environments,” said Eric Burgener, flash storage research director, IDC.
 
“We’ve been fans of the software defined storage inside Windows Server 2012 and the flash defined storage from Violin Memory ever since we tested solutions from each of these industry leaders separately. But we’re blown away with the Violin WFA that combines the power of both. This unique partnership has created a one of a kind solution that dramatically increases the performance and efficiency of business critical application workloads like SQL Server and VDI,” said, Brian Garrett VP, ESG.
 
“The performance found in the WFA is transformative. It allows customers to redesign their datacentres to respond to user needs faster, which is key in a world where speed is a competitive advantage,” said Michael Frandsen, CEO, MentalNote ApS, Microsoft certified consultant.

“The Violin WFA fits cohesively with our customers’ requirements for high performance, easy to manage all-flash storage. The seamless integration into Windows IT environments will reduce time to production and ease service and support expenses,” said John Walters, MD, NextGen Distribution, Australia.

“Advanced computing environments can be a challenge to implement. The WFA delivers leading performance and features that allow us and our resellers to deliver new levels of value,” said Masataka Kunisue, GM, storage network solution dept., SCSK Corporation.
 
Microsoft has certified the WFA as a supported system for Windows Server 2012 R2 and is available directly from Violin and its community of channel partners with shipments beginning April 22.
 
“Violin Memory’s WFA effectively delivers blistering performance for Microsoft workloads,” said Marc Staimer, president, Dragon Slayer Consulting. “Microsoft and Violin cooperated and worked closely together to engineer and fine-tune Microsoft’s Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 with Violin’s flash array to transparently supercharge Microsoft application performance. It looks like they’ve succeeded.”
 
“Many storage vendors rave about the value add of their systems being in the software stack and not in the flash-based hardware platform architected to get the best performance out of the chips. The joint development between Violin and Microsoft takes the best of both to build a one of its kind solution. By building Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 directly into Violin’s uniquely designed all-flash array, enterprises will find that their Microsoft applications, including Hyper-V, SQL Server and SharePoint will run at incredible rates to transform their business critical processes,” said George Crump, founder, Storage Switzerland.
 
“Microsoft applications are a mainstay in thousands of datacentres around the world and support the business critical processes of millions of organisations. By combining the performance benefits of flash memory with the enterprise features of Microsoft, the Violin WFA dramatically accelerates the performance of these applications in enterprise and private cloud deployments. In an apples to apples comparison, this Violin array will likely deliver greater performance improvement than the array without such deep integration with Microsoft. Consequently, I expect that together the two companies will deliver better ROI and lowered total cost ownership for high random I/O workloads like SQL server, large scale VDI and file server,” said Arun Taneja, gounder, Taneja Group.
 
“Violin Memory and Microsoft have created a new enterprise storage solution that fundamentally changes the way businesses can benefit from the features of Microsoft applications and systems. The ability to utilise a very high performance flash storage system with the embedded features including encryption, deduplication, live migration, RDMA transfers, transparent failover, and scale out makes the Windows Flash Array the first of its kind on the market,” said Randy Kerns, senior strategist, Evaluator Group.
 
“Violin and Microsoft have together created a very unusual storage system. Violin’s flash technology gives the WFA extremely high storage performance, which has the knock-on effect of reducing CPU load on application servers, while also cutting operational costs by eliminating storage as a source of performance bottlenecks. Meanwhile the Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 OS that runs the WFA also boosts application performance, by supporting fast, low-latency RDMA networks in a way that other storage systems cannot do,” said Tim Stammers, senior analyst, 451 Group.
 
“The explosive growth in flash storage implementations has penetrated the enterprise and mid-market because of its ability to bolster performance for applications like server and desktop virtualisation, OLTP and analytics. However, organisations are in need of hardware greater than technical feeds and speeds. The new Violin WFA has the enterprise management features required to become a critical solution for companies who rely upon Microsoft applications to run their business,” said Jim Bagley, senior analyst, SSG Now.
 
“Many enterprises rely on Microsoft IT environments, but need better ROI and a lower TCO for their applications. Storage is typically the bottleneck, but the jointly developed Violin WFA requires less server utilisation supporting Microsoft enterprise applications to improve the performance of high random I/O workloads and consolidate IT initiatives. Organisations who suffer from application and server sprawl will greatly benefit from the WFA that improves the capabilities of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 to deliver rich file and storage services by putting Windows intelligence in the array,” said David Hill, principal, Mesabi Group.
 
“This comprehensive solution from Violin Memory and Microsoft accelerates the most widely used enterprise applications to address the critical needs in the tier one storage market. Customers who rely on Microsoft for the success of their business can now consolidate and elevate the value of their infrastructure to fundamentally change the cost and performance of deploying high random I/O workloads like Hyper-V, SQL Server and large scale VDI,” said Greg Wong, founder, principal analyst, Forward Insights.