Tag: Pure Storage FlashBlade

Pure Storage FlashBlade well positioned for next generation storage

Posted on by Ray in Distributed computing, Ethernet, File Storage, NFS throughput, R&D measures, Software Defined Network, SSD storage, Strategic Inflection Points, System effectiveness

IMG_6344Sometimes, long after I listen to a vendor’s discussion, I come away wondering why they do what they do. Oftentimes, it passes but after a recent session with Pure Storage at SFD10, it lingered.

Why engineer storage hardware?

In the last week or so, executives at Hitachi mentioned that they plan to reduce  hardware R&D activities for their high end storage. There was much confusion what it all meant but from what I hear, they are ahead now, and maybe it makes more sense to do less hardware and more software for their next generation high end storage. We have talked about hardware vs. software innovation a lot (see recent post: TPU and hardware vs. software innovation [round 3]).
Continue reading “Pure Storage FlashBlade well positioned for next generation storage” →

A tale of two AFAs: EMC DSSD D5 & Pure Storage FlashBlade

Posted on by Ray in Block Storage, data protection, Data reduction, data services, Ethernet, File Storage, PCIe, SSD storage

There’s been an ongoing debate in the analyst community about the advantages of software only innovation vs. hardware-software innovation (see Commodity hardware loses again and Commodity hardware always loses posts). Here is another example where two separate companies have turned to hardware innovation to take storage innovation to the next level.

DSSD D5 and FlashBlade

DSSD-d5Within the last couple of weeks, two radically different AFAs were introduced. One by perennial heavyweight EMC with their new DSSD D5 rack scale flash system and the other by relatively new comer Pure Storage with their new FlashBlade storage system.FB

These two arrays seem to be going after opposite ends of the storage market: the 5U DSSD D5 is going after both structured and unstructured data that needs ultra high speed IO access (<100µsec) times and the 4U FlashBlade going after more general purpose unstructured data. And yet the two have have many similarities at least superficially.
Continue reading “A tale of two AFAs: EMC DSSD D5 & Pure Storage FlashBlade” →