Viking Enterprise Solutions and Kalray Co-Develop FlashBOX Storage Arrays

Viking Enterprise Solutions, a division of Sanmina Corp., and Kalray Corp. announced the co-development of FlashBOX, a new gen of storage arrays.

The solution will be based on a fully resilient VDS2249R system from Viking and Kalray’s smart storage acceleration card that leverages MPPA DPU (Data Processing Unit) processor.

As technology applications such as AI, ML, image processing and analytics proliferate and produce an amount of data every second of every day, the need for fast and high-capacity storage solutions has grown. 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.

VDS2249R appliance

The collaboration between the companies is focused on creating a 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, HPC, life sciences and financial industries that utilize data intensive applications and require low latency, high performance storage.

Storage acceleration card

FlashBOX will be based on MPPA DPU, a new gen of programmable data-centric processors. Whereas most advanced AFA 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: MPPA DPU. This solution will be designed to deliver an level of integration, speed and performance at an affordable cost.

This storage array will be unveiled at a digital event in late September.

Eric Baissus, CEO, 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 gen of storage appliance based on NVMe technology.“

Rick Kumar, SVP, Viking, said: “We want to change the way the industry uses and processes data, while unleashing the potential of current and emerging NVMe SSD technologies, without compromising enterprise grade features like HA and scalability. Our partnership with Kalray will provide a new gen of storage array solutions for cloud and edge with Kalray’s K200-LP best-in-class smart storage acceleration card.“