Violin Memory Pricing

UPDATE: Pure Storage lawyers requested that we remove all pricing information (publicly available with a quick search). We complied.

This post highlights the most popular Solid State Disk/Flash vendors and provides a chart to help decipher their costs. This data has been aggregated from various sources so no claims are made as to its accuracy.

In some cases the manufacturers provide a link to “Self-Service Pricing” via EchoQuote™ so you can get up to date pricing information quickly, often in minuts (last column).

Top 10 Solid State/Flash Array Vendors in Alphabetical order:

Vendor	Category	Pricing
Astute Networks	Flash Memory Arrays	Not Available
Fusion-io Pricing	Solid-State PCI Express Cards (Nexsan acquisition may put it on path to full appliance gear)	Not Available Range $2-$5/GB
Nimbus Data Pricing	Flash Memory Arrays	Not Available Per 2012 article – $150K for 10TB dual configuration
OCZ Pricing	Flash PCI Express Cards	Not Available Range $2-$5/GB
Skyera Pricing	Flash Memory Arrays	Not Available
Texas Memory Systems Pricing	PCI Cards Flash Memory Arrays	Not Available
Virident Pricing	PCI Cards Flash PCI Express Cards	Flash Max II Starts at $6000
VIOLIN Systems Pricing	NVMe Flash Arrays	Velocity cards come in 1.37, 2.75, 5.5 and 11TB raw capacity versions at a list price cost of $6/GB for all of them except the entry-level 1.37TB card which lists at $3/GB.Flash Max II Get a Self-Service Quote at our Violin Systems Pricing page.
Whiptail Pricing	PCI Cards Flash Memory Arrays	From $50K to $250K for multi-terabyte arrays

Original article by Maria Deutscher at Silicon Angle

It’s turning out to be a big week for flash. Violin Memory, one of the largest suppliers of SSD-based storage solutions, announced a new product line-up called Velocity. The lineup features three PCIe server cards with 1.37, 2.75, 5.5 and 11TB of raw storage.

These four capacity levels will be priced at $4,200, $16,900, $33,800 and $67,500, respectively. With the new line-up, Violin is making a strategic play in the pricing game, simplifying and streamlining the supply chain. The deal with Toshiba is an important factor in Violin’s plan, empowering the storage provider to better manage the ebb and flow of NAND pricing.

Now for the specs. Sustained performance using 4KB blocks measures at 120,000 IOPS for the 1.37 card, 1000, 270,000 and 540,000 IOPS for the 2.75, 5.5 and 11TB cards. This figure jumps above one million IOPS in setups where 512KB blocks are used instead.

The new Violin chips run barebone firmware that supports Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and VMware. Compatibility for management software from other vendors will probably roll out with future patches.

The other important feature of Velocity, beside the performance and support, is that the chips are completely self-contained. This means that software can be booted faster and without help from the host server, something that the competition – that is to say Fusion-io’s competing PCIe chips – can’t do.

The launch is backed by Toshiba, one of Violin’s earliest backers and its top distributor in Japan. The manufacturer will leverage Velocity to enhance its storage portfolio.

Hiroyuki Sato, storage products division veep at Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor & Storage Products Company, said: “The PCIe card market is important to Toshiba’s customers. Expanding our strategic relationship with Violin Memory will allow us to bring the valuable Violin enterprise intellectual property to a broad range [of] industry-leading solutions in our future product offerings.”

Flash is hot, and Toshiba is not the only whale in the ocean looking to make the most of the technology. Earlier this week Seagate had a PCIe update all its own, while last month NetApp announced an all-flash array for software-driven environments that’s more scalable and efficient than less abstracted solutions.

Compare SSD Flash Memory Vendors with Pricing

Violin Memory Pricing for PCIe cards