Violin Memory

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American computer storage company

title: "Violin Memory" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["defunct-computer-hardware-companies", "computer-storage-companies", "companies-based-in-san-jose,-california", "computer-companies-established-in-2005", "2005-establishments-in-california", "american-companies-established-in-2005", "defunct-computer-companies-of-the-united-states", "defunct-computer-companies-based-in-california"] description: "American computer storage company" topic_path: "technology/computing" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Memory" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American computer storage company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameViolin Systems
typePrivate
foundation
location_countryU.S.
location_citySan Jose, California
key_peopleCEO: Mark Lewis, COO: Todd Oseth, CMO: Gary Lyng, SVP Worldwide Field Operations
homepage
ownerQuantum Group of Funds
::

| name = Violin Systems | logo = | type = Private | traded_as = | successor = | foundation = | location_country = U.S. | location_city = San Jose, California | locations = | key_people = CEO: Mark Lewis, COO: Todd Oseth, CMO: Gary Lyng, SVP Worldwide Field Operations | industry = | services = | homepage = | owner = Quantum Group of Funds | footnotes = | intl =

Violin Systems, formerly Violin Memory, was a private American company based in Silicon Valley, California, that designed and manufactured computer data storage products.

Corporate history

The company was founded in 2005 as Violin Technologies by Donpaul Stephens and Jon Bennett in Iselin, New Jersey. Series A financing valued over $10 million was raised in 2010. Two more rounds of financing in 2011 raised an additional $75 million. Corporate investors included Juniper Networks and Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC). It was based in Mountain View, California around this time.

Series D financing of $80 million in March 2012 was led by SAP Ventures (arm of SAP AG), and included Highland Capital, GSV and others. The reported valuation was over $800 million.

Violin Memory's initial public offering in September 2013, raised $162 million at a price of $9 a share. Its stock price dropped to $2 a share after its largest partner, Hewlett Packard, became a competitor and due to concerns of how quickly it was spending money. The company experienced losses of $34 million the following year and the board called for the resignation of the CEO. Additionally, five shareholder lawsuits were filed against the company, alleging it did not disclose the financial impact expected from a federal shutdown. In December 2013, the company terminated CEO Basile, replacing him with Kevin DeNuccio in February 2014.

The New York Stock Exchange de-listed Violin Memory shares in October 2016 because its market capitalization had fallen below $15 million. A few days later, it changed to be traded on the OTC Markets Group exchange OTCQX, using the same VMEM symbol. In November 2016, it was valued at $3.7 million. On December 14, 2016, Violin Memory filed for Chapter 11 Federal Bankruptcy protection.

On April 24, 2017, Violin announced in a press release that they had emerged from bankruptcy, and had been purchased by Quantum Partners LP, a private investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management LLC.

As of October 16, 2018, Violin Systems released the statement that it had agreed to acquire the storage business of X-IO Technologies and in conjunction with the transaction X-IO has renamed itself as Axellio as its new company name.

Technology

Violin does not use solid-state drives (SSD), but instead uses a proprietary design referred to as flash fabric architecture (FFA). The FFA technology consists of a mesh of NAND flash dies, modules that organize the mesh of flash dies, and a proprietary switched architecture for fault tolerance. In September 2011, Violin announced the 6000 series all-silicon shared flash memory storage arrays.

vMOS is Violin Memory's software layer that integrates with the FFA to provide data protection, management and connectivity to the host.

Products

Violin extreme performance storage platform, XVS 8 released October 4, 2018.

The Violin 7000 series includes application aware snapshots, continuous data protection, synchronous replication, asynchronous replication and metro cluster functionality.

On December 1, 2015, the Violin Memory FSP 7250 and 7600 were announced. The Violin FSP 7250 was marketed as an entry level point product.

The 7700 series can scale up to ten 6000 or 7000 series arrays for up to 700TB of raw capacity or 3.5 PB with deduplication

The Violin 6000 series all flash arrays include the 6600, 6200 and 6100. The 6600 is based on SLC flash and offers 17.5TB of capacity. The 6200 offers flash performance at capacities from 17.5 to 70TB. The 6100 is a smaller array at lower price of entry with a pay as you grow option.

References

References

  1. "Violin Systems: Company". Violin Systems.
  2. (March 30, 2012). "Violin Memory raises $50M, brings valuation to $800M". Silicon Valley Business Journal.
  3. (March 29, 2012). "Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities". US Securities and Exchange Commission.
  4. Bort, Julie. (December 11, 2013). "Newly Public Company Violin Memory Is In Turmoil And The Lawsuits Are Flying".
  5. (January 7, 2014). "Can a new CEO pull Violin Memory out of its current slump?". The Register.
  6. (December 16, 2013). "Struggling Flash Storage Firm Violin Memory Fires Its CEO". VentureBeat.
  7. Mellor, Chris. (November 10, 2016). "Violin Memory resembles toast". The Register.
  8. James Garrett Baldwin. (October 28, 2016). "NYSE Moves to Delist Violin Memory (VMEM)". Investopedia.
  9. Chris Mellor. (October 31, 2016). "Violin switches stock exchanges fast: OTCQX replaces delisting NYSE as its share trading body". The Register.
  10. "Violin Memory's sad song leads to bankruptcy - Storage Soup".
  11. Chris Mellor. (April 25, 2017). "Violin Memory steps out of bankruptcy, takes the storage stage again". The Register.
  12. Joseph F. Kovar. (October 16, 2018). "Violin Systems To Acquire X-IO Storage Business". CRN.
  13. Michael Cusanelli. (June 27, 2014). "Violin Memory Delivers 'Business in a Flash' with Concerto 7000". The VAR Guy blog.
  14. Antony Adshead. (October 12, 2012). "Violin - a proudly proprietary storage vendor . . .". ComputerWeekly.com.
  15. Chin-Fah, Heoh. (March 8, 2012). "we raid vRAID". Storage GaGa Blog.
  16. Robin Harris. (April 11, 2012). "Violin's clean-sheet architecture". Storage Mojo blog.
  17. Brian Beeler. (August 13, 2012). "Violin Pairs with Symantec to Deliver Data Management Tools". StorageReview.com.
  18. Chris Mellor. (August 14, 2012). "Symantec, Violin in no-strings fling for flash array software". The Register.
  19. (June 2014). "VIOLIN CONCERTO 7000 ALL FLASH ARRAY; PERFORMANCE PACKED WITH DATA SERVICES". [[Taneja Group]].
  20. Nick Heath. (June 24, 2014). "Violin Memory gives its flash storage an enterprise-friendly makeover". ZDNet.
  21. Steve Wexler. (June 25, 2014). "Violin: In the data center, no one can hear you scream!". IT Trends & Analysis.
  22. Sheryl Anderson. (December 1, 2015). "Expanded Flash Storage Platform From Violin Provides Needed Solutions for Customers Seeking Optimization for Extreme Performance; Primary Storage Solutions; and Entry Level Capacity". Press release.
  23. Peter Williams. (June 26, 2014). "Violin: Violin Memory back in all-flash storage tune with new data management strings". Bloor.
  24. Pedro Hernandez. (June 24, 2014). "Violin Plays a Flashy Concerto with New 7000 Array". InfoStor.
  25. (August 12, 2014). "Three New All Flash Arrays 6100 (17.5TB, 26TB and 35TB) Revealed by Violin Memory". StorageNewsletter.com.
  26. Timothy Prickett Morgan. (October 18, 2013). "Violin Turns Flash Arrays Into Blazing Clusters". EnterpriseTech.
  27. Carol Sliwa. (May 2014). "Violin 6000 arrays feature proprietary flash modules, memory fabric". SearchSolidStateStorage.com.
  28. Chris Mellor. (August 4, 2014). "Violin strings up cheaper instrument: 17.5TB flash box for $100k + change". The Register.
  29. Carol Sliwa. (July 15, 2014). "Violin storage adds WFA models, pay-as-you-grow option". SearchSolidStateStorage.com.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

defunct-computer-hardware-companiescomputer-storage-companiescompanies-based-in-san-jose,-californiacomputer-companies-established-in-20052005-establishments-in-californiaamerican-companies-established-in-2005defunct-computer-companies-of-the-united-statesdefunct-computer-companies-based-in-california