Pure Storage Redefines Tier 1 Storage for the Cloud Era

SAN FRANCISCO, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the market's leading independent all-flash data platform vendor for the cloud era, today announced new software and hardware innovations for the FlashArray product line that redefine tier one storage to meet the needs of a new generation of mission-critical cloud era workloads. With today's introduction of Purity ActiveCluster, CloudSnap native cloud integration, Policy QoS, VVols, the 100 percent NVMe DirectFlash™ Shelf and much more within Purity//FA 5.0 software, Pure Storage customers gain new levels of reliability, coupled with effortless agility and efficiency, to safely consolidate more application workloads.

Traditional Tier 1 storage has long represented the pinnacle of reliability for the most mission-critical applications, but is not optimized for fast innovation, or to keep up with the demands of cloud-era applications. With the release of Purity//FA 5.0, Pure Storage seeks to end the compromise for customers. Organizations can now leverage best-in-class reliability and sophisticated enterprise replication in a purpose-built all-flash array, rich with data efficiency technologies, flash optimization and cloud integration.

"To truly drive modern business and IT transformation in the cloud era, nothing less than always-on and lightning-fast will do for mission-critical applications," said Rob Kwak, Manager, Systems Engineering & Ops at Redbox. "With the addition of Purity ActiveCluster and Policy QoS, Pure has delivered the best of both worlds - the performance we expect from tier 1 infrastructure coupled with the simplicity we expect from Pure Storage."

The signature feature in Purity//FA 5.0 is ActiveCluster, a true active/active metro stretch cluster solution. Purity ActiveCluster extends availability to an unprecedented level, and provides business continuity across the data center or metro region. Application workloads on clustered Oracle, SQL Server, SAP, VMware Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) or Hyper-V continue to run transparently and effortlessly, even if an unexpected issue causes the array, network or data center to fail. Pure Storage FlashArray offers 99.9999 percent availability, now proven over two years, inclusive of maintenance and generational upgrades.

"Over the last year, we exponentially grew the number of users on our platform. Pure has helped us improve our platform availability, efficiency and performance which ultimately helps us scale," said Venky Rangachari, VP Technical Operations & IT, Anaplan. "Combined with best-in-class availability that maximizes our operational efficiency, Pure has helped deliver a consistently excellent experience for our customers."

ActiveCluster was designed from the ground-up for simplicity. It is fully-integrated into FlashArray, requires no add-on gateway hardware and is included at no additional cost - which makes stretch clustering available to any application. ActiveCluster can be configured in minutes with only four commands, and features the Pure1 Cloud Mediator, removing the need for managing a cumbersome third-site witness. For three datacenter (3DC) clusters, ActiveCluster is fully-integrated with Purity asynchronous replication, enabling a third recovery site to be added anywhere in the world. ActiveCluster is available to existing FlashArray customers as a non-disruptive Evergreen upgrade to Purity//FA 5.0.

Purity//FA 5.0 is our largest software release ever, and in addition to ActiveCluster, includes more than 10 additional new features built to extend reliability, performance, cloud integration, cloud automation and developer openness, including:

• Policy-Based QoS. QoS is essential for consolidating multiple tiers of workloads onto a single FlashArray, or implementing Service Provider business models. Purity's ultra-simple, Always-On QoS is extended in this release to include sophisticated policy management, which enables customers to define Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers of workloads for worry-free consolidation, or add per-workload limits for Service Providers to enable differential billing.
• Purity CloudSnap. Customers have increasingly leveraged the public cloud for low-cost backup, retention, DR, and to enable agile application development workflows. FlashArray introduces Purity CloudSnap, a new capability for moving snapshots to and from the public cloud. First, supporting Amazon Web Services (AWS), CloudSnap enables snapshot backup to S3 and Glacier, with recovery options into EBS or back to FlashArray. CloudSnap can restore customer's data in the public using the cloud's native storage formats, which enables full use of public cloud PaaS services. CloudSnap represents Pure's first step to much deeper public cloud integration within Purity. 
• Snap to FlashBlade and NFS. Purity's Snap technology has been greatly enhanced to seamlessly move data copies off FlashArray for long-term retention. The feature uses a new Portable Snapshot format which encapsulates recovery metadata within the Snapshot. Purity Snapshots can now seamlessly be moved to FlashBlade or any NFS target for long-term retention. The migration and recovery is seamlessly managed within Purity's snapshot management policies, which enables snapshot retention on open, lower-cost media options.
• VMware VVols.  Designed for cloud automation, VMware VVols and storage policy-based management bring automation and compliance to VMware-based clouds.  Pure's VVols implementation offers new levels of simplicity and hosts the VASA provider right on the FlashArray, which enables accelerated VMFS → VVols conversion, and enabling simple P→V and V→P migrations.
• Purity Run. Now, Pure offers an array that also serves as an open platform to run custom code, extend interfaces, and enable analytic processing to happen where data is stored. Purity Run enables customers to host VMs and Containers on the FlashArray itself, which opens up new avenues for extensibility and integration. Purity Run creates a safe, dedicated, performance-and-security-isolated CPU and Memory space to run customer code, and supports use cases for Edge, remote office, analytic and database appliances.
• Windows File Services for Purity. Many FlashArray customers want to consolidate point SMB and NFS file shares onto FlashArray. Purity Run now integrates with Windows File Services (WFS) bringing best-of-breed SMB 2/3 and NFS 3/4 protocols onto FlashArray. WFS, fully integrated and optimized for FlashArray, is fully supported by Pure Storage, and can be easily managed with the native Microsoft management stack.
• Microsoft ODX. Integration with the Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) API brings fast, transparent, automatic data copy and move services for files and VMs, onto FlashArray. By offloading the data transfer to the storage array, our ODX implementation minimizes latencies, maximizes array throughput, and reduces resource usage such as CPU and network consumption on the host systems.
• Docker Persistent Volumes. With container technology increasing in mainstream adoption, there is an immediate customer need to deliver persistent storage for containerized applications. With Certified Docker Volume Plugin for FlashArray, customers can extend the benefits of all-flash shared storage to their new containerized applications. The Pure Storage integration brings persistent storage to the docker ecosystem that extends to orchestrators like Swarm, Kubernetes and Openshift.
• Compression 2.0. Purity//FA 5.0 boosts Purity's already market-leading data reduction with an additional 25 percent improvement in compression effectiveness, and further improves all-flash cost efficiency for database and application workloads. All of this is made possible by the introduction of new self-selecting compression algorithms to match the most appropriate data sets.
• 2X Performance Improvements. Purity//FA 5.0 caps off a year of steady improvements in write performance for FlashArray, delivering up to a 2X improvement in write throughput, available to all FlashArray customers as a simple non-disruptive software upgrade.

In addition to these numerous new software features, Pure is also announcing the new 100% NVMe DirectFlash Shelf. First announced in April 2017, the new 100 percent NVMe FlashArray//X is the industry's first mainstream NVMe all-flash array, and leverages Pure's uniquely software-defined DirectFlash Modules. The new DirectFlash Shelf enables the expansion of FlashArray//X beyond its base chassis, and provides NVMe expansion over a dedicated 50 Gb/S RoCE v2 NVMe/F fabric. DirectFlash Shelf further extends Pure's leadership in NVMe, defining the all-flash architecture that will drive performance and density gains for the next decade.

"With hybrid cloud environments expected to be the future for most enterprises, IT is entering what many are calling the 'Cloud Era,'" said Eric Burgener, research director Storage, at IDC.  "Storage infrastructure designed for tier one workloads in the cloud era must not only meet the traditional high performance and "six nines" availability requirements, but must also meet a new set of expectations for scalability, efficiency, flexibility, ease of use, cloud integration, and simple, non-disruptive technology refresh. Companies like Pure Storage, with their FlashArray//X storage array and the Evergreen Storage Program, are delivering on these requirements."

More Information
Features described within will be available as part of the Purity//FA 5.x release train, with multiple releases planned throughout 2017. Purity Run, Compression 2.0, 2X write rate, Microsoft ODX, and Docker Persistent Volumes are available now. ActiveCluster, Policy QoS, VVOLs, Snap to FlashBlade and NFS, and Windows File Services are planned to be available in Q3. CloudSnap and the DirectFlash Shelf are planned for Q4 release. All feature timing and final content are subject to change, and dates above are Pure fiscal quarters.

For additional detail on today's news, please visit our blog. You can also join us today and tomorrow – June 13 & 14 – for our annual user conference, Pure//Accelerate, at Pier 70 in San Francisco.

About Pure Storage
Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) helps companies push the boundaries of what's possible. Pure's end-to-end data platform - including FlashArray, FlashBlade and our converged offering with Cisco, FlashStack – is powered by innovative software that's cloud-connected for management from anywhere on a mobile device and supported by the Evergreen business model. The company's all-flash based technology, combined with its customer-friendly business model, drives business and IT transformation with solutions that are effortless, efficient and evergreen. With Pure's industry leading Satmetrix-certified NPS score of 83.5, Pure customers are some of the happiest in the world, and include organizations of all sizes, across an ever-expanding range of industries.

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Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding the expected performance and benefits of Pure Storage's product offerings. The words "believe," "may," "will," "plan," "expect," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If the risks materialize or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. Risks include, but are not limited to, risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including future reports that we may file with the SEC from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Pure Storage assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Any unreleased products, features, or functions referenced in this release, our website or other press releases or public statements that are not currently available are subject to change at Pure Storage's discretion and may not be delivered as planned or at all. Customers who purchase Pure Storage's product offerings should make their purchase decisions based upon products, features and functions that are currently available.

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SOURCE Pure Storage