Managing the disparate storage options required to handle all of the workloads in today’s data center reminds me of those old circus acts where a performer spins multiple plates on sticks. The speed and effort of the act are incredible, always looking like the plates could come crashing down at any moment, but that performer is a blur keeping all those different plates spinning. It must be exhausting. Fun to watch in a circus but not fun to deal with in a data center.
Today, hero storage administrators are doing similar tasks without fanfare and cotton candy…and with much more dire circumstances than broken plates when things inevitably break. Talented individuals constantly balance differing data needs across multiple platforms, always architecting, expanding, and reshuffling to keep up with the data growth asks.
When talented people are just keeping systems running, they can’t use their incredible skills to innovate, modernize, or stop the never-ending management cycle. But how does the industry change? Especially when you supposedly need all these dedicated systems to deal with all the different data types and workloads.
To solve this problem, the storage industry needs a solution that:
- Is built from the ground up for all use cases—from Tier-0 mission-critical workloads down to low-cost data archives on a single, unified operating system and management framework
- Offers massive performance, scale, and efficiency
- Is easy to manage and effortless to upgrade
- Keeps their data safe
Big ask, but at Pure, we’re all about meeting the challenges of big asks. You need more than just performance to provide a platform for every workload. You need to provide the best balance of performance and data services to meet the demanding needs and SLAs of today’s workloads but for the most efficient use of budget.
Today, we want to introduce you to the new future of storage with our next-generation FlashArray™ platforms—solving the need for every workload at the price everyone can afford.
More Workload Support Across Your Data Center
All-flash means not just mission-critical data workloads. It means all workloads and data, including the ones that may be running on spinning disk. Generally being an area of cost sensitivity and high management, Pure Storage launched FlashBlade//E™ earlier this year, a scale-out unstructured data repository built to support unified file and object workloads to tackle disk head-on. Today, the launch of FlashArray//E™ extends the Pure//E™ family to support unified block and file while providing seamless capacity from 1 to 4PB, providing even more options for customers wanting to ditch the disk.
With a continued offering under $0.20 per GB with three years of support, FlashArray//E delivers an always-available data repository built to handle exponential data growth with industry-leading energy efficiency (up to five times less energy than HDD).
As part of the Pure//E family, FlashArray//E and FlashBlade//E provide a scalable platform to say goodbye to disk forever and embrace the all-flash data center. Customers no longer have to settle for hard disks to get a low up-front price. Instead, they now get easier and more reliable access to data managed through the same Purity interface as the rest of their Pure solutions. Additionally, they can acquire the Pure//E family as a CAPEX purchase or as a service through our Evergreen//One™ offering.
Watch the FlashArray//E Deep Dive
More Performance for Even More Consolidation
Our FlashArray platform remains the industry choice for supporting performant and operational workloads, and now with the introduction of FlashArray//X™ R4 and FlashArray//C™ R4, it just got amazingly better. Our goal—better performance, more capacity, zero extra cost.
These new updates deliver twice the performance boost from the previous FlashArray generations. Using the latest Intel Xeon Processors and DDR5 DRAM, it drives up to a 40% performance boost and over 80% increased memory speeds to support greater workload consolidation across all the FlashArray R4 platforms while also boosting inline compression up to 30% to stretch storage capacity further.
More performance and capacity means support for even more workloads, lowering TCO by up to 74% according to the latest ESG Analyzing the Economic Benefits of Consolidating SQL Server Workloads on Pure Storage FlashArray study.
Watch the FlashArray//X and FlashArray//C R4 Deep Dive
More Options for Your Tier-2 Workloads
More performance means a broader choice of platforms to run workloads at the best economics. Today, many organizations throw everything onto Tier-1 arrays to reduce the pain of managing different storage platforms, but this can quickly fill them to capacity. With the new performance capabilities of FlashArray//C, customers have more choices supporting their business-critical applications that don’t require sub-millisecond latency using the same consistent management model that FlashArray is famous for. This enables organizations to have better options for cost/GB for their business-critical applications, saving up to 40% in data costs (vs. storing on Tier-1 arrays).
FlashArray//C’s balance of performance and economics makes it the perfect platform for operational databases, workload consolidation, BCDR, and file workloads, including VMware, PACs, and file stores. Best of all, with ActiveWorkload, you have non-disruptive data mobility between arrays, so it’s easy to move data from Tier-1 to Tier-2 arrays without any impact.
Learn more about ActiveWorkload
More Efficiency to Make Your Budget Go Even Further
More performance and scale cannot come at sacrificing extra cost, power, and space. We must deliver on the promise of the most powerful systems with smaller energy and management footprints. With the release of R4, both the //X and //C will host the industry’s largest flash drives—new 75TB QLC and 36TB TLC DirectFlash® Modules with built-in non-volatile RAM (DFMDs). DFMDs, first introduced with FlashArray//XL™, reduce rack space requirements by removing dedicated NVRAM slots from the main array chassis, enabling even more scale with capacity and improving NVRAM throughput.
Now FlashArray customers can take advantage of unmatched performance over eight times higher than leading HDDs and four times more energy efficiency than competing all-flash arrays.
Let’s break down these efficiency numbers to show you the amazing impact on your efficiency goals!
| FlashArray//X R4 | FlashArray//C R4 |
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More Protection from Ransomware
Ransomware protection should never be an afterthought; all data should be protected, even if new. FlashArray Auto-on SafeMode™ has been extended to new volumes on existing arrays to protect all customer data. Auto-on SafeMode now sets a default snapshot schedule and prevents attackers from destroying snapshots for up to 30 days. This gives customers ultimate protection for all data, simply with no additional effort, while still providing granular controls as needed. In addition, new AI-driven anomaly detection in Pure1® can now alert customers to impending ransomware threats by analyzing data changes.
Learn more about Auto-on SafeMode
Summary
Today’s announcements provide you with a way to stop the cycle of spinning plates your legacy storage systems trap you in. No longer will you have to manage multiple systems or prematurely purchase hardware to keep up with growing data. You can finally adopt a powerful storage platform managed by a common OS that can easily stretch to support the vast amount of your storage needs and continue to get better month after month through our completely non-disruptive, no-downtime upgrades.
Isn’t it time you stopped worrying about managing your storage, ditching the spinning plates, and finally getting the time to drive storage innovation further? Welcome to the era of the all-flash data center.
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