Pure FlashArray//X NVMe Shared Accelerated Storage Systems

Pure Storage, Inc. has expanded its FlashArray product line, to deliver cost-effective all-NVMe Shared Accelerated Storage for every workload.

The FlashArray//X family makes everything faster – databases, virtualized and containerized environments, test/dev initiatives and web-scale applications – at no additional cost over FlashArray//M, based on effective capacity.

The all-NVMe FlashArray//X family features five configurations, from the NVMe-ready //X10 for small application deployments to the all-NVMe //X90, the firm’s densest, fastest FlashArray to-date. It represents a generation of Shared Accelerated Storage solutions, powered by NVMe and NVMe-oF, with the potential to unite SAN and DAS into a single, consolidated, shared and fundamentally more efficient data-centric architecture.

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With up to 3PBs of effective capacity in 6U, the //X90 delivers latency of 250µs and offers up to a 2X performance improvement over the market-defining FlashArray//M all-flash array (AFA). An updated version of the born-for-flash Purity Operating Environment, version 5.1, is available as a non-disruptive upgrade for all FlashArray//M and FlashArray//X customers and features up to 20% better data reduction, further reducing the amount of storage customers need to buy and manage.

FlashArray//X90 system front

The evolution to web-scale application architectures has driven change in requirements for storage. Organizations today that embrace a cloud IT model often find themselves with a myriad of storage islands: SANs for classic applications, and DAS for modern analytics and web-scale applications.

“New technologies enable us to reimagine the data center. We finally have the ability to break-down storage silos in the data center to enable broad data sharing. New levels of storage efficiency enable organizations to realize the true potential value of their most important asset-data,” said Bill Cerreta, GM, platforms, Pure. “Diverse, fast compute, fast-converged networks and optimized protocols like NVMe have unlocked the potential to redesign the data center for data itself. The FlashArray//X family represents a critical first building block for truly data-centric architecture.“

A data-centric architecture enables diskless, stateless compute to flexibly connect to a fast, reliable and dense pool of Shared Accelerated Storage via fast networking. It decouples storage and compute, which enables them to scale and innovate independently, but maintains performance and efficiency. Shared Accelerated Storage makes the entire infrastructure faster, consolidates workloads and enables flexible, agile data sharing between modern applications – a design optimized for data.

“The tools we have at our disposal and the tasks we’re faced with demand that we optimize throughout the entirety of the stack, horizontally and vertically,” said Kevin Beebe, VP, product and security, MacStadium, Inc. “With the speed and density of FlashArray//X90, Shared Accelerated Storage becomes a solution that will allow us to optimize for data-driven customer outcomes. Faster time-to-value for data is a massive competitive edge in today’s marketplace, an advantage that enables us to better meet our customers’ demands and helps drive innovation.“

FlashArray//X, like all FlashArrays before it, is built on the Evergreen Storage architecture, which ensures customer investments are protected with non-disruptive upgrades, no planned downtime, and no data migrations. This means that existing FlashArray customers can upgrade non-disruptively to FlashArray//X and experience all-NVMe Shared Accelerated Storage. These announcements include the expanded FlashArray//X family; a flexible, non-disruptive transition to all-NVMe flash and NVMe-oF; and smarter, more efficient software.

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Expanded FlashArray//X family:

//X90 – Densest, fastest array to-date. 3PB effective capacity in 6U, up to 2X faster than the market-defining FlashArray//M and lowest cost array per gigabyte.
//X70 and //X50 – 100% NVMe arrays that scale to 1.3PB and 650TB of effective storage respectively.
//X20 and //X10 – Entry-level NVMe-ready arrays for smaller capacity and remote office needs. These come configured with SATA flash by default, but feature controllers fully-capable of supporting NVMe DirectFlash modules out-of-the-box.

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Pure1 management:

Purity 5.1, the latest release of this parallel storage operating environment, features enhancements to compression, delivering up to a 20% improvement in overall data reduction efficiency, especially for compression-centric application workloads. This non-disruptive software update will be available for all FlashArray//M and FlashArray//X customers.
Pure1 VM Analytics enables stack visibility into vSphere environments. By integrating natively with vCenter, performance issues can be easily visually-correlated from VM → Server → Datastore → Network → Volume → Array.

Expanded Pure1 Workload Planner, powered by the Meta AI engine, helps customers optimize their environments by better understanding the impact of workload changes and also enables FlashArray customers to explore ‘what if’ scenarios for hardware upgrades.
Pure1 Global Dashboard has been expanded, enabling fleet-wide visibility of all FlashArray and FlashBlade arrays globally, available on both the Pure1 SaaS portal as well as on the Pure1 Mobile app. Global visibility into array health, data reduction, alerts, and support issues is available right in your pocket.

“Today’s ever-increasing demands on infrastructure require a new storage architecture that enables traditional database applications and modern web scale applications to share the same infrastructure,” said Scott Sinclair, senior analyst, storage systems and software, ESG. “Enabled by fast networks, NVMe and NVMe-oF, modern, enterprise-grade solutions like the improved FlashArray//X allow organizations to merge SAN and DAS architectures and scale performance benefits across every workload.“

FlashArray//X orderable for both arrays and upgrades and will be shipping in early June. Purity 5.1 is available. Pure1 VM Analytics, Workload Planner, and Global Dashboard updates will be made available soon.

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