The past couple of years have been good for startups that specialize in flash memory storage systems for data centers.

Though they peddle pricey wares, flash chip-based data storage and SSD makers are giving data centers a performance edge with energy savings boot. And in an era that’s unkind to pokey cloud performance and is marked by new-found environmental awareness, these attributes have helped capture the attention — and checkbooks — of VCs. Recently, Fusion-io and Violin Memory have been making big funding news. Today, the former is a Wall St. darling while the latter is undoubtedly pondering its next move.

Three months after filing its IPO, Fusion-io’s shares are available on the open market. And on its first day, the market is embracing the tech company, which employs Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist, by pushing its price up 30 percent to $24.84 (from its $19 offering price) and placing it just shy of a $2 billion valuation — a nice payoff for early investors. (As of this writing, FIO is trading at $22.75.) It certainly doesn’t hurt that Facebook is Fusion-io’s largest customer, and we all know big and fast the social media giant is growing.

As for that other flash storage play, one has to wonder how this affects Violin’s plans…

Here are a couple more hand-picked links on Fusion-io’s Wall St. debut:

Fusion-io’s IPO went well; who wins – GigaOM
Fusion-io I.P.O. Surges – NYT Dealbook
Today’s Fusion-io IPO Leads Wave of Fundings – Data Center Knowledge