Violin Memory Scale-out Memory Platform with SMB 3.0 Integration

If you are looking at Storage vendors for Hyper-V you really need to have a look at a storage solutions with SMB 3.0 integration. Because the Hyper-V over SMB scenario will be the future. So until some weeks ago you had 3 options, you could choose EMC VNX, NetApp or a Windows Server Scale-Out File server with or without storage spaces. I haven’t had the chance to test the EMC solution but on paper it looks nice, NetApp solutions lacks a lot of integration such as active-active configurations as well as lacking support for SMB Multichannel or SMB Direct (RDMA). A lot of customers also are looking at the Storage Spaces solutions with Scale-Out file Server which basically supports all the features you need but not offers the benefits an appliance solution brings with support.

Some weeks ago Violin Memory announced a solutions called the Scale-out Memory Platform which is built on their 6000-series. Until today Violin Memory Flash Memory Arrays provide power for performance, high availability, and scalability in enterprise block storage environments. Now these powerful arrays provide a new class of file based solutions with Microsoft Server 2012 R2 directly installed on the array. Microsoft and Violin Memory worked closely to develop this class of solution by bringing the power of memory to Microsoft applications such as SQL Server and Microsoft Hyper-V.

This would offer an appliance solution of the Hyper-V over SMB 3.0 scenario. At the moment there are not a lot of information out there but I will expect more information shortly and if you need more information checkout the Violin Memory page.