Violin Memory and Fujitsu Achieve Five Virtualization Benchmark Records

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - Dec 3, 2012) - Violin Memory, Inc., provider of a new class of high-performance flash-based storage systems, and Fujitsu today announced five virtualization world record benchmark results using Fujitsu's PRIMERGY servers and Violin 6000 Series Flash Memory Arrays. The combination of Fujitsu and Violin enable Fortune 1000 companies to maximize the value of their server-storage infrastructure for virtualization deployments. This is the latest in a series of benchmarks where Violin Flash Memory Arrays were used as the storage systems. Violin's Arrays have quickly become the clear choice for primary enterprise storage that powers the needs of the virtualized data center.

Fujitsu and Violin Virtualize Environments at the Speed of Memory
Fujitsu PRIMERGY industry standard x86 servers lead in quality, performance and efficiency. These systems consistently achieve world records and best-in-class performance results in a wide range of industry benchmark disciplines. These new benchmarks published on November 13, 2012, confirm again that Fujitsu leads virtualization performance and efficiency with their PRIMERGY servers. This latest achievement is a new world record for industry standard x86 Intel-based servers with PRIMERGY BX924 S3 (1) and PRIMERGY RX500 S7 (2).

For the benchmarks, Fujitsu used Violin Flash Memory Arrays storage systems that are ideally suited for virtualization solutions with workloads that generate a high amount of input/output per second (IOPS) and require sustained low-latency. One Violin 6616 Flash Memory Array was used in the configuration with two PRIMERGY BX924 S3 nodes, and two Violin 6616 Performance Flash Memory Arrays were used in the other four, bigger configurations.

The combination of PRIMERGY servers and Violin flash storage provided the optimal combination to achieve predictable performance, allowing more virtual machines (VMs) to run on one host with higher rates of consolidation and reduction of licensing costs. This was demonstrated not only by a single result, but by a series of VMmarks with 2, 4, 6 and 8 PRIMERGY BX924 S3 nodes, that scale up to a factor of 2 when doubling the number of hosts, and show that neither the VMware cluster nor the flash storage subsystem is limiting the overall performance.

The Perfect Supplement for x86 Server Virtualization
Jens-Peter Seick, senior vice president of the product development group at Fujitsu Technology Solutions, said, "PRIMERGY Blade Servers in combination with the outstanding Violin Flash Memory Arrays are a perfect supplement for x86 server virtualization and offer more performance in virtualized environments compared to other products. They provide additional benefits such as improved manageability, availability and operational efficiencies being a shared network resource."

The PRIMERGY BX924 S3 server blade's score of 11.88@10 tiles (using 2 nodes), 23.14@20 tiles (using 4 nodes), 34.75@30 tiles(using 6 nodes) and 46.22@40 tiles (using 8 nodes), on the VMware VMmark 2.1 benchmark, currently out-perform all other 2-socket servers in these node configurations. These world-record scores demonstrate how well the system's servers, network and storage components support virtual machine movement, storage migration and virtual machine provisioning. In addition, the PRIMERGY RX500 S7 remains the number one performer in the four-processor "matched pair" class by achieving a new best-in-class result of 20.12@18 tiles(2).

(1) The mentioned VMmark results were achieved by Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX924 S3 server blades, each with 256 GB of memory, using Intel® Xeon® E5-2690 processors and Violin Memory Array V6616, 6 TB, with 64 VIMMs each. Full test results including system specification, further details and current results can be found at: http://www.vmware.com/a/vmmark/. The comparison reflects the status of November 13, 2012.

(2) The mentioned VMmark result was achieved by Fujitsu PRIMERGY RX500 S7 servers, each with 512 GB of memory, using Intel® Xeon® E5-4650 processors. Full test results including system specification, further
details and current results can be found at: http://www.vmware.com/a/vmmark/. The comparison reflects the status of November 13, 2012.

For information about VMmark and the rules regarding its usage visit http://www.vmware.com/products/vmmark. VMware and VMmark are trademarks or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. VMware® VMmark™ is a product of VMware, Inc.

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About Violin Memory, Inc.
Violin Memory is pioneering a new class of high-performance flash-based storage systems that are designed to bring storage performance in-line with high-speed applications, servers and networks. Violin Flash Memory Arrays are specifically designed at each level of the system architecture starting with memory and optimized through the array to leverage the inherent capabilities of flash memory and meet the sustained high-performance requirements of business critical applications, virtualized environments and Big Data solutions in enterprise data centers. Specifically designed for sustained performance with high reliability, Violin's Flash Memory Arrays can scale to hundreds of terabytes and millions of IOPS with low, predictable latency. Founded in 2005, Violin Memory is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information about Violin Memory products, visit www.vmem.com.