Violin Memory is music to the ears of those who hate hard disks

Flash memory appliance maker Violin Memory is introducing a new flash memory product today that it hopes will steal market share away from hard disks in corporate data centers. That means storage operations that once took hours can now be done in a matter of minutes.

Hard disks are now the dominant storage devices in the vast arrays in big corporate data centers. But Violin Memory argues that its improvements in both flash memory and input-output systems enable it to achieve cost parity with hard drives. And it argues that its patent-pending technology also offers 10 times better performance.

The new Violin Memory 3200 Flash Memory Array can do a storage task in two hours that once took 12 using hard drive arrays. The Violin 3200 arrays can use thousands of flash memory chips in a single storage system. About 140 terabytes worth of memory can fit in a rack, with performance reaching 3 million input-output operations per second.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Violin launched its first generation of memory arrays last year. The new generation lowers the cost of a system further than the last generation to as little as $20 per gigabyte. That’s about the same cost of hard disk drive arrays. Violin Memory uses RAID protected flash memory chips, which means they are reliable enough that they can be used as primary storage for any file and operating system.

As more and more computing moves into the cloud, corporations need more reliable storage. (Imagine, for instance, if Facebook lost all of your photos. You wouldn’t be very happy). That’s why this type of memory solution will become more popular in the future. Violin Memory has 50 employees and was founded in 2005. Toshiba recently invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Violin Memory has raised $30 million since 2007.

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