VDURA Launches Flash Relief Program: Beat Any Vast or Weka Configuration by 50%

As NAND shortages drive requoted prices up 2-3x, VDURA's mixed fleet architecture delivers superior performance and capacity at half the cost

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The flash supply crisis has reached a breaking point. Between Q2 2025 and Q1 2026, 30TB SSD pricing surged 257%—from $3,062 to $10,950—while HDD pricing rose just 35%. At CES 2026, Vast Data called this the "worst storage rut in 40+ years" with a 200 exabyte deficit, 52-week lead times, and price increases exceeding 50%.

Customers and resellers report stalled deals and requotes 2-3x above original pricing. All-flash vendors locked into single-commodity architectures face severe allocation constraints with no relief in sight.

To help customers navigate this crisis, VDURA today announced the Flash Relief Program: Submit any valid Vast or Weka configuration or any other all-flash high performance file systems alternative, and VDURA will beat the price by 50% while delivering superior throughput and capacity.

Why Architecture Matters Now: VDURA HYDRA

A 25PB deployment delivering 1,000 GB/s performance shows the divergence:

• All-flash architecture: $8.50M (Q2 2025) → $24.54M (Q1 2026)
• VDURA mixed fleet (20% SSD/80% HDD): $6.56M (Q1 2026)

VDURA is the only vendor delivering HYDRA: a modern software-defined, high-performance parallel file system with true linear scaling, native mixed-fleet SSD/HDD support, end to end performance and intelligent tiering, engineered for sustained flash-velocity reads/writes, maximum GPU saturation, operational reliability for strict SLAs, and superior economics for providers in today's AI infrastructure race. Additionally, the ratio of flash to HDD can also seamlessly change over time with online dynamic cluster expansion, delivering both immediate cost savings and the flexibility to adapt as workloads or the underlying device commodities economics change over time.

“This flash crisis is exactly what 'flash-only' vendors have already acknowledged as a severe rut where they are forcing hard decisions on customers," said Ken Claffey, CEO of VDURA.

"Several years ago, we had the foresight to pioneer the only modern high performance data storage infrastructure that isn't chained to a single storage commodity. By intelligently utilizing all types of storage media in a true mixed-fleet architecture, we overcame the end-to-end performance bottlenecks and operational complexity that plague legacy tiered systems. Today's market volatility is now proving us right: our customers and partners are uniquely positioned to achieve high-performance, GPU-saturating infrastructure at dramatically lower cost and with far greater supply chain resiliency than rigid all-flash alternatives can deliver. That's why our new Flash Relief Program challenges any all-flash config: submit yours, and we'll beat the price by 50% while matching or exceeding your specs - proving mixed-fleet isn't just smarter, it's immediately accessible relief.”

The Program:

Submit a Vast or Weka configuration requirements (or any other all-flash high-performance file system alternative) and VDURA will provide a competing proposal within 24 hours that:

• Matches or exceeds performance specifications
• Matches or exceeds capacity requirements (useable and effective)
• Undercuts total cost by 50%

VDURA Technical Advantages:

• Exceeds NVIDIA and AMD GPU guidelines for storage performance
• Up to 60 GB/s reads, 40 GB/s writes throughput per flash node
• True software-defined storage (SDS): Not tied to proprietary hardware like legacy hybrid architectures, our software runs on a multi-vendor ecosystem for adaptability, hardware availability and no vendor lock-in
• Resilient and efficient File level Network erasure coding with inline data reduction for even greater mixed fleet effective capacity
• Unified namespace with single data and control plane for management simplicity
• Online Software Upgrades
• Linear scalability without performance degradation

Valid configurations must include performance requirements (throughput, IOPS, latency), capacity requirements (raw, usable, effective), and configuration details. Submit to VDURA Flash Relief Program or email [e-mail].

*For Flash Relief Program Offer and terms and conditions; visit https://www.vdura.com/flash-relief-program/.

Storage Economics & Flash Volatility Index

On January 20, VDURA released its free interactive tool that tracks quarterly flash pricing, models cost scenarios across architectures and visualizes performance-capacity-cost trade-offs. The calculator shows how all-flash economics compare to mixed fleet configurations at various SSD percentages using real market data.

Interactive calculator available at https://www.vdura.com/flash-volatility-index-and-storage-economics-optimizer-tool/.

About VDURA

VDURA provides high-performance mixed fleet storage solutions for AI/ML training, media and entertainment production, high-performance computing, and large-scale data analytics. The company's unique HYDRA architecture enables organizations to optimize storage configurations based on workload requirements and market conditions. For more information, visit www.vdura.com.

The Storage Economics & Flash Volatility Index uses publicly available market data and uniform commodity pricing methodology for architectural comparison. Contact vendors directly for formal quotations.