Fusion IO signs on for the Lynx effect

Is flash storage the answer to big data?

Fusion IO Australia today announced it had signed on Sydney company Lynx Technologies to distribute its range of flash storage solutions. 

The companies said the explosion of data across key industries such as finance, cloud hosting, retail, media and entertainment, as well as the public sector would drive demand.

John Gabor, Lynx Technologies managing director said Fusion IO provided a sound platform for addressing the challenge of big data.

“Fusion-IO solves performance issues related to traditional disk storage systems with a unique server-based memory tier,” he said.

Fusion IO already boasts around 1000 customers in Australia. Its biggest global customer is Facebook.

HP became an OEM partner of Fusion IO’s some three years with both Dell and IBM later coming on board. Fusion IO is working with HP and VMware to develop bundled storage solutions, which the companies expected to announce soon.

Fusion IO Australia sales director Simon Williams said these OEM agreements had been the main channel for the company’s products in Australia with Melbourne-reseller and distributor IO Max its sole local partner until now. The agreement with Lynx was expected to help bring to market a number of largely software-based solutions not available through Fusion IO’s traditional OEM channels.

Williams said Lynx’s track record with training helped get the deal over the line. However, he stressed that the Fusion IO suite of flash storage products was simple to grasp and easy to deploy. “It’s as simple as installing a hard drive”.

Thanks to rapidly falling prices for flash storage, it was also cheap.

Where Fusion IO’s partners were expected to need support was in understanding the potential applications for the technology.

“Fusion-io & Lynx Technologies are working with solution architects to get a greater understanding of where the product fits,” Williams said.