Unlocking Enterprise Agility: Transitioning to an Always-on Data Repository

Add In today’s data-driven world, storage leaders and directors face a challenging dilemma when managing enterprise archives. Balancing the need for online and offline storage repositories can lead to delays in complex decision-making processes that hinder business agility. Let’s delve into the intricacies of this challenge and explore how transitioning to an all-flash storage solution can transform your organization’s efficiency and speed.

The Struggle with Traditional Data Repositories

Enterprise data is growing exponentially, and with it, the demand for storage capacity and accessibility. Today, most data repositories are split between hard disk drives (HDD), cloud storage, nearline, and tape. While data governance can assist in determining how some data is stored, in many cases, there is not enough capacity available. As such, compromises must be made in what data remains “active” and what data is stored on slower, “cheaper” storage or offline solutions like tape. While organizations can add more capacity by growing their HDD pool, this adds much more complexity, cost, and energy requirements—especially when data is growing at over 20% year over year, while HDD ecosystem density is increasing at less than 5%. That means a lot of incremental HDDs to meet this need, massively raising the power and management costs of the organization. In our current economic reality, storage leaders have access to less budget but are tasked with determining which data should reside online using current capacity or be relegated to longer-term archives, compromising the agility of the business.

Hard Disk Drive Capacity and Density Constraints Are Holding You Ransom

The inherent limitations of traditional storage technologies often come with capacity and density constraints. They were designed for a time when we measured capacity in terabytes, and data growth was slower. We now deliver multiple petabyte options, and data growth is accelerating at light speed. Traditional HDD growth cannot keep up.  

Let’s look at a quick example of this. The largest HDD drive today is approximately 32TB, while the largest SSD is Pure Storage® QLC DirectFlash® Module (DFM) at 75TB. It would take 2.5 HDDs to match the same capacity as a single Pure Storage DFM. Even with the projected growth of HDDs to 50TB by 2026, hard disk drives still cannot keep pace with the expected growth of DFMs to 300TB during the same time. That’s a massive 6:1 reduction in space, cooling, and power consumption required even before tapping into the benefits of an all-flash solution.

In a disk repository environment, you’re forced to decide what data deserves the privilege of staying online for immediate access and what should be relegated to slower, offline storage.

The All-flash Storage Advantage

To overcome these challenges and streamline operations, consider transitioning to Pure Storage all-flash storage and have your data repositories always available for faster business insights. Pure Storage delivers:

• Instant access to all data: With an all-flash storage system, all your repository data is readily available at your fingertips. This eliminates the need for time-consuming data retrieval processes, allowing your team to access critical information instantly. No more waiting for data to be retrieved or moved from cold or offline storage, boosting productivity across the board.
• Enhanced data retrieval speed: All-flash storage offers unparalleled speed and responsiveness, even for colder data. This means your users can quickly retrieve historical data, conduct analyses, and make informed decisions without the delay associated with HDDs.
• Simplified management: Managing an all-flash storage solution is straightforward compared to juggling multiple types of storage repositories. This simplification reduces administrative overhead, enabling storage teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine maintenance.
• Improved business agility: Removing the barriers created by offline and nearline data repositories makes your organization more agile and responsive. You can adapt to changing business needs more swiftly, gaining a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced environment.
• Cost-efficiency: While all-flash storage may have been considered out of reach for data repositories, technological advances in DirectFlash have made it increasingly cost-effective. Taking management, power, cooling, and replacement into consideration, the value of disk storage just doesn’t add up. Switching from disk to all-flash can mean up to 40% lower TCO and 60% lower operational costs over six years. Pure Storage all-flash acquisition costs are now under $0.20/GB raw and $.016/GiB for Evergreen//One™ storage-as-a-service (STaaS) offerings.

Final Thoughts

Transitioning to all-flash storage for repository workloads for archiving can be a game-changer. It eliminates the need for data migration, accelerates access to all your data, and simplifies storage management. And to make that transition seamless, with the new Pure//E™ Family, you now have a complete set of products that can be instantly deployed to support all your block, file, and object repository data and replace those old spinning disks. Simply choose the capacity you need (starting at 1PB) and tap into the vast data services ecosystem of Pure Storage at the same acquisition cost of disk and a massive 40% reduction in TCO. With a cost under $.20 per GB raw ($.016 per GiB for STaaS), there are no longer any barriers for you to finally join the all-flash revolution!

Learn about the Top Five Reasons to Switch to an All-flash Data Repository.

Here