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back to article Whiptail cracks on: VCs pump it full of flash cash

Two venture capital firms have pumped A-round initial funding cash into flash array start-up Whiptail. What's got them so fired up? Whiptail's XLR8r appliance is an all-flash memory array that can store things like VDI images and pump them out to booting PCs faster than a disk drive array. Whiptail CEO Dan Crain said: "We're …

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  1. Cantinflas

    Not really

    Crain needs to do better research on his competitors. Hot swap is one of Violin's key features.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Not really 2

    I don't think Crain knows his own product.....

    Rebranded:

    OCZ drives

    SuperMicro Chasis

    That's why he's not seeing Violin or TMS because these products are for Enterprises.

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  3. Ryan Snell
    Thumb Up

    Context of Hot Swappable

    The comment Dan made about hot-swappable, properly put into context, was more about the nature of WhipTail than it was about Violin.

    WhipTail is architected in a familiar manner - drives in the front, plugs in the back. On the front of the array it is simple to unlock the front bezel and see the 24 drive slots that can be populated with anywhere from 1.5TB to 12TB of hot-swappable MLC based drives that can be replaced, upgraded online, etc.. Access is easy and natural.

    Violin on the other hand manufactures their own memory modules implemented within a locked-down glued-shut appliance. So while it may be "technically" possible to hot-swap a memory module, it certainly isn't hot-swappable in the general industry understanding of the term.

    That's like saying a human kidney is hot-swappable. Technically true, you don't have to stop the heart and resurrect the patient to get the job done, but it's not as hot-swappable as, say, a pair of shoes.

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