Pure Storage adds new capabilities to unstructured storage software

Pure Storage has announced the availability of Purity//FB 3.0 for FlashBlade, storage software for unstructured data.

FlashBlade delivers a unified, scale-out fast file and object storage platform purpose-built to support application development, analytics and data protection.

Its flagship capability is the ability to accelerate applications and enable data to be shared across applications and workloads.

The latest updates to FlashBlade enable real-time performance that prioritise application workflows, replacing legacy systems.

"FlashBlade is so unique because it is designed from the ground-up for tomorrow's data pipelines and real-time analytics applications, with simplicity, ease of use and performance in mind—something that legacy storage vendors struggle with," says FlashBlade vice president and general manager Matt Burr.

"It delivers multi-dimensional performance and provides an unparalleled customer experience in the scale-out, unified file and object storage market."

Architected to help customers achieve better resource utilisation for compute and storage, FlashBlade reduces the complexity that arises from data silos.

FlashBlade extends this approach to key enterprise features such as replication for file and object and file system rollback, and allows data scientists and data architects to realise the potential of the models they design and create, faster.

Purity//FB 3.0, the scale-out software that powers FlashBlade, delivers the same simplicity and ease of use for the new capabilities that customers have come to love and expect from FlashBlade. Pure-as-a-Service, a true OpEx model, allows customers to leverage FlashBlade via a flexible consumption model.

Purity//FB 3.0 capabilities include:

• File Replication – Enables the disaster recovery of file systems. Read-only data in the target replication site enables data validation and DR testing.
   
• Object Replication – Replication of object data between two FlashBlades improves the experience for geographically distributed users by providing lower access latency and increasing read throughout. Replication of object data in native format from FlashBlade to Amazon S3 delivers cloud mobility. Customers can use cloud for a secondary copy, or use public cloud services to access data generated on-prem.
   
• File system Rollback – File system Rollback is a crucial file system data protection feature. It enables the fast recovery of File systems from snapshots.
   
• NFS v4.1 Kerberos – Kerberos delivers an advanced level of security by authenticating users connecting to NFS v4.1 file systems on FlashBlade.
   
• Audit Logs and SNMP Support – Key enhancements to enterprise readiness by delivering improved security, alerting, and monitoring capabilities.

Virtually all analytics vendors have begun a shift to cloud-enabled architectures, such as Splunk SmartStore and Vertica Eon Mode.

Internal tests show that FlashBlade delivers 80x faster query performance than traditional object storage platforms that disaggregate storage and compute.

It also allows administrators the freedom to scale their compute layer up or down as- needed, and slow administrative tasks are a pain point of the past.

"The adoption of object storage, driven by the rise of real-time analytics in the enterprise, is rapidly expanding, now sitting on equal footing with file storage. This creates a need in the industry for a storage architecture built from the ground-up to provide both native fast file and native object storage," says Insights - Strategy senior analyst Steve McDowell.

"FlashBlade is the industry's first native fast file and object storage platform. FlashBlade allows customers to easily scale performance and capacity for both file and object, invisible to the application, leading to a simpler user experience and more impactful outcome for customers.