Violin Systems Intends to Acquire X-IO Storage Renamed Axellio

Violin Systems LLC signed a letter of intent with X-IO Technologies to acquire X-IO Storage, the division of X-IO Technologies that developed the Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) flash and hybrid storage array product lines.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The transaction is executed to be completed within 30 days.
 
Violin will add X-IO ISE arrays to its flash storage product lineup, meeting the needs of a greater variety of customers and providing the industry with a range of solutions spanning from terabytes to multiple petabytes with enterprise performance, features, and reliability.

Ultimately Violin intends to integrate its own performance technology with X-IO price-performance value to deliver transformational economics for organizations of any size.
 
In addition to the X-IO products and engineering team, Violin intends to retain X-IO’s class service process and organization. This will ensure that the X-IO customer installed base, with more than 8,000 arrays continues to  get the same level of service. Violin’s goal is to transform overall customer experience by utilizing the best practices from both organizations.
 
X-IO Technologies will be rebranded as Axellio Inc. to focus on its solutions for edge computing and hyperconverged infrastructures.
 
“This acquisition will create substantial opportunity for Violin Systems in price-sensitive mid-markets where X-IO has excelled, and down the road, the opportunity to assimilate X-IO’s product strengths so we can keep shepherding customers into the ideal storage systems as their needs evolve,” said Mark Lewis, chairman and CEO, Violin. “Our global network of partners will also welcome the ISE arrays as a cost-effective alternative for common workloads like VDI and database acceleration.“
 
“With the unmatched affordability of X-IO, and the extreme performance Violin is known for, the market has a clear leader in extreme performance storage solutions,” said Bill Miller, CEO, Axellio. “Whether it is price/performance for midsized environments, or hyperscale density for large enterprises, Violin will be able to deliver the fastest enterprise storage in the world at the best value.” 

Bill Miller will be joining Violin board of directors upon completion of acquisition.
 
Violin’s performance platform enables an infrastructure cost savings and cost avoidance of 40% or more by reducing the number of servers and cores needed. Consolidated hardware in the data center means less power and cooling requirements, less management and a reduced need for the number of software and application licenses. With improvement in application performance, there is an equally improvement in the experience of the applications’ end users, resulting in improved customer satisfaction. Combined with Violin’s performance advantages, customers are able to realize competitive advantages while simultaneously saving money.
 
X-IO Technologies was born as XIOtech in 1997 and acquired by Seagate in 1999. Initially operating as Xiotech, part of Seagate’s Advanced Storage Architecture group, it was spun out in 2002 and sold to a venture capital firm. Then, in 2007, Xiotech acquired Seagate ASA. The company became X-IO Technologies in 2011. In 2017, X-IO introduced its first Axellio edge computing product.