Pure Storage All-Flash Software Gets Important Updates

Storage-as-a-service company Pure Storage just added improved disaster recovery and other features to its Purity 6.0 software. Purity 6.0 helps manage and run the Pure Storage all-flash NVME FlashArray products for customers.

Feature highlights include built-in active disaster recovery as part of new continuous replication technology, and unified block-and-file capabilities.

The unified block-and-file capabilities aim to help customers solve infrastructure challenges, including storage silos and sprawl.

The new capabilities bring improvements for customers, Prakash Darji, general manager of the company’s FlashArray group, told Channel Futures. The older Purity 5.0 let customers run mission-critical databases on SAP HANA, Oracle or any SQL databases for structured data. Version 6.0 gives customers unstructured data support to run and consolidate structured and unstructured data together in one place.

Pure Storage’s Darji Prakash

“This will allow, on a single flash array, block and file workloads to run together on one system,” said Darji. “Customers and partners have been seeking this. There’s been pent-up demand for the capability because people have always had to buy separate file systems. Now they have the ability to buy one system that supports both workloads.”

That lets customers run all workloads within Purity 6.0, while leveraging the same data layer, user-interface and other resources, he said.

Pure Storage’s ActiveDR

The new continuous replication feature, called ActiveDR, improves business resiliency without additional costs for third-party software, according to Pure Storage. ActiveDR provides near-zero recovery point objectives (RPO) and continuous replication for storage-as-a-service customers.

Both features are included in the company’s Evergreen Storage subscription models and require no additional licensing fees.

Purity 6.0 also includes a technical preview for expanded backup to cloud options with CloudSnap for Google Cloud Platform. Customers can also categorize data sets for easier identification, and protect data with RSA two-factor and multifactor authentication. Veeam and Commvault backup products can now protect unstructured data on Purity’s new file services.

“Customers want simplicity, ease of use and something that just works,” said Darji. “They don’t want to worry about disruptive events and data migration hassles. They don’t want to worry about having people learn all kinds of specialized skills to run their data storage systems.”

Steve McDowell, a storage analyst with Moor Insights & Strategies, said the new features open opportunities for partners who sell Pure Storage all-flash arrays.

“The most noteworthy feature is Purity bringing file services to Pure’s block storage array,” said McDowell. “The new unified block and file capabilities provide a new level of differentiation for Pure and its channel partners. This opens the door to serving workloads that would have been impossible before this release.”

Opening More Doors

McDowell called the move a clever expansion into adjacent all-flash storage markets for the storage-as-a-service vendor.

Moor Insights & Strategy’s Steve McDowell

“I think we’ll see quick uptake in applications like end-user file services like home directories, and virtual desktop,” he said. “This also provides a new play for storage consolidation, where file and block storage are served from a single device. There’s really nothing in Pure’s competitive space that compares to what this will deliver.”

For partners and customers, the big payoff will come as Pure fleshes out the offering with enterprise capabilities, said McDowell.

“I know that these are already road-mapped, and I expect they will evolve as customer’s adopt and use the offering,” McDowell said.

The addition of beefed-up FlashArray disaster recovery capabilities with ActiveDR are also helpful for users, said McDowell.

“Pure has worked hard trying to deliver near-zero RPO capabilities to its replication-based disaster recovery,” he said. “It seems to have delivered something nice with ActiveDR. This is an area that IT shops care a lot about, and storage companies are investing heavily.”

The new features give channel partners an expanded set of capabilities and file services which bring them into new markets where they couldn’t previously quote Pure, said McDowell.

“This combines with Pure’s continuing push into storage as a service and its technology leadership position in bridging on-premises to cloud with a consistent set of capabilities,” he added.