Pure Storage Unifies Management with File Services for FlashArray Platform
The new software provides unified management of block and file storage.
April 27, 2023
![File services for Pure Storage FlashArray File services for Pure Storage FlashArray](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt3cff5ec313039001/6525ca787a0cbd2f8154daf7/Pure-Storage-FlashArray.jpg?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=95&format=jpg&disable=upscale)
Pure Storage is now enabling unified management of structured and unstructured data with the release of its File Services for FlashArray software. The new platform lets administrators manage block and file storage together on the same network.
Available for Pure Storage enterprise flash arrays, company officials claim the new software provides VM-aware management of storage pools that can reduce the cost of storage ownership by over 50%, compared to managing block and file storage separately.
“A lot of customers have wanted to see the efficiency and the simplicity of a single operational model,” Pure Storage VP of product management Peter Skovrup told Channel Futures.
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Noting that many organizations have separate block and file architectures when using the same array, “they are missing out on the strength of the separate architectures because they typically had compromises on one or the other side.”
Pure Storage’s File Services for FlashArray provide “a native experience where both blocks and files are treated as equal citizens are first-party services on the array,” he added.
Enabling the management of block and file storage within the same storage pools eliminates the need for customers to predetermine how much storage gear they will need in the future.
File Services a Different Approach to NFS Data Storage
Pure Storage isn’t claiming that it is the first to develop an NFS data store.
“That’s been out there for a long time, but we’re taking a different approach toward the NFS data stores,” Skovrup said.
By his estimate, roughly two-thirds of storage behind VMware ESX virtual machines is block, and about one-third is NFS-based.