Viking Enterprise Solutions and Kalray announce the co-development of FLASHBOX™, a new generation of NVMe Storage Arrays
Powered by Kalray’s Smart Storage Acceleration Card based on its MPPA® DPU, Viking Enterprise Solutions and Kalray collaborate on a breakthrough NVME disaggregated storage solution that addresses NVMe performance bottlenecks, while providing the same ease of use as standard enterprise-grade storage appliances at an affordable price.
Viking Enterprise Solutions, a division of Sanmina Corporation, an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider and Kalray, a leading provider of a new generation of processors specialized in Intelligent Data Processing from Cloud to Edge, today announced the co-development of FLASHBOX™, a new generation of storage arrays. The solution will be based on a fully resilient VDS2249R system from Viking Enterprise Solutions and Kalray’s smart storage acceleration card that leverages Kalray’s MPPA® DPU (Data Processing Unit) processor.
As technology applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, image processing and analytics proliferate and produce an incredible amount of data every second of every day, the need for fast and high-capacity storage solutions has grown dramatically. Current SSD technology has evolved to address this challenge but SSD direct attachment results in inefficient processing and wasted storage. Newer NVMe disaggregated storage solutions are emerging that separate compute and storage resources using a hyper-fast and standard-based NVMe protocol, improving and optimizing storage systems.
The collaboration between Viking Enterprise Solutions and Kalray is focused on creating a breakthrough NVME disaggregated storage solution that addresses common storage challenges such as performance bottlenecks, while providing “plug and play” ease of use at an affordable price. Key target markets include the AI, high performance computing, life sciences and financial industries that utilize data intensive applications and require low latency, high performance storage.
FLASHBOX™ will be based on Kalray’s MPPA® DPU, a new generation of fully programmable data-centric processors. Whereas most advanced All-Flash Array solutions currently use multiple adapter cards with powerful CPUs (x86) that run storage services, Kalray manages to run all of the critical functions of a disaggregated storage appliance on a single chip: Kalray MPPA® DPU. This solution will be designed to deliver an unprecedented level of integration, speed and performance at an affordable cost.
The new storage array will be unveiled at a digital event in late September.
Eric Baissus, CEO of Kalray, said: “Working with Viking Enterprise Solutions, we are sharing the same vision. To be widely deployed, new technologies need to be easy to adopt and affordable. To this end, we are very proud to work with Viking Enterprise Solutions to revisit the way storage appliances are designed. Our common objective is to be a game changer with FLASHBOX™ by providing to the market a unique high performance, low power, cost-effective new generation of storage appliance based on NVMe technology.”
Rick Kumar, SVP from Viking Enterprise Solutions, said: “We want to change the way the industry uses and processes data, while unleashing the full potential of current and emerging NVMe SSD technologies, without compromising enterprise grade features like high availability and scalability. Our partnership with Kalray will provide a new generation of storage array solutions for Cloud and Edge with Kalray’s K200-LP™ best-in-class smart storage acceleration card.”