Finsphere Corporation Selects Violin Flash Memory Arrays to Vastly Accelerate Identity Authentication Response Rates

LONDON--(Marketwire - Feb 28, 2013) - Violin Memory, Inc., provider of a new class of high-performance flash-based storage systems, announced today that Finsphere, a leading provider of identity authentication services to global financial institutions, has chosen its Flash Memory Arrays to accelerate ID authentication response rates to more accurately detect, prioritize and manage security challenges. Violin is outperforming disk-based storage arrays with a 28x higher throughput, 2.7x quicker response times, and almost 22x more IOPs, while also lowering cost.

Finsphere's identity authentication services address a critical challenge as digital and mobile transactions grow. Real-time identity authentication depends on fast response time from the underlying IT infrastructure and high application throughput. Financial institutions look to reduce the risk of payment card fraud by relying on ultra-low latency and network backbone access that meet strict performance requirements.

Finsphere's card protection solution leverages both financial data and telecom (mobile geo-location) data to verify the identity of the card user. Inconsistencies such as a credit card transaction in Paris while the legitimate cardholder's mobile phone is located in London can trigger a real-time alert or other action to reduce the risk of fraud. Violin's Flash Memory Arrays enable Finsphere's real-time fraud alerts and identity authentication, helping the company to markedly improve response rates to financial institution customers and further differentiate itself in the marketplace. 

"I first read about Violin in a tech journal and the performance claims seemed too good to be true. So we benchmarked our application with Violin's Flash Memory Arrays, and found they delivered on their promises," said Mary Reeder, chief technology officer of Finsphere. "I was very impressed and genuinely excited at what this would mean for us. The performance is outstanding, and more than meets the demands of high-volume transaction processing environments like ours."

Finsphere also found that the use of the Violin Flash Memory Array for its purpose-built application drastically reduced the cost per IOP by nearly 9x (from £8.88 to £1.03). Co-location data centre costs are also reduced significantly, as the Violin solution has a much smaller footprint and lower power requirements than traditional disk-based SANs. Benchmarks against the company's existing provider already show nearly 22x more IOPs (38,339.22 v.1771.05), higher throughput (621.52MBps v. 22.70 MBps) and ultimately quicker response times (1.67ms v. 4.52ms).

"Finsphere provides real-time identity authentication by combining customers mobile geo-location data along with predictive analytics -- that's no small task in our hyper-connected world," added Garry Veale, managing director of Violin Memory EMEA. "With banks facing new and increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics, the peace of mind Finsphere offers its customers is both unique and invaluable. The outstanding performance achieved using Violin's Flash Memory Arrays is instrumental in achieving this."

Finsphere is using Violin Flash Memory Arrays for its core EMEA services, with plans to install additional systems for its core US service, to address increasing demand in the retail banking sector.

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About Violin Memory, Inc.
Violin Memory is pioneering a new class of high-performance flash-based storage systems that are designed to bring storage performance in-line with high-speed applications, servers and networks. Violin Flash Memory Arrays are specifically designed at each level of the system architecture starting with memory and optimized through the array to leverage the inherent capabilities of flash memory and meet the sustained high-performance requirements of business critical applications, virtualized environments and Big Data solutions in enterprise data centers. Specifically designed for sustained performance with high reliability, Violin's Flash Memory Arrays can scale to hundreds of terabytes and millions of IOPS with low, predictable latency. Founded in 2005, Violin Memory is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information about Violin Memory products, visit www.vmem.com.

About Finsphere Corporation
Based in Bellevue, Washington, Finsphere was founded in 2007 to enable wireless carriers and enterprises to help protect their customers through identity authentication services. Finsphere utilizes sophisticated analytic platforms and applications, protected by US and international patents, for non-intrusive, privacy enhancing services to authenticate transactions across all industry segments. Finsphere is a privately held corporation whose major investors include Vodafone Ventures, Mohr Davidow, Shasta Ventures and Frazier Technology Ventures. For more information, visit www.finsphere.com.