Over the last 15 years Pure Storage has re-invented block-level enterprise storage with wide-ranging innovations that span from the hardware layer, with its DirectFlash modules, to the consumption experience, with its Evergreen storage-as-a-service offering.

The company is now aiming to bring similar levels of disruption to enterprise file storage with an approach it calls Real-time Enterprise File. Its latest set of innovations are designed to eliminate the complexity associated with legacy file storage approaches, and bring as-a-service simplicity to file storage as part of a unified architecture. In short, it’s looking to bring the simplicity of public cloud storage to on-premises enterprise file.

Real-time Enterprise File comes with several notable innovations. One is the notion of ‟global storage pools.” This builds on the ‟fleet management” concepts Pure recently introduced into its Pure Fusion management software, and extends it to file storage so that IT admins can create a storage pool across multiple arrays that can grow or shrink on demand, while keeping data in place. By extending Pure Fusion to scale-out file as well as scale-up block storage, IT staff can manage file storage at an aggregate level, rather than having to plan, create, and manage storage reservation or allocations within individual systems.

Meanwhile zero-move tiering is a new approach to data tiering that Pure is bringing to its FlashBlade file storage systems. The key innovation here is around decoupling the storage pool from the array’s compute resources, enabling customers to mix different classes of Flash-based storage (e.g. performance-oriented S-Blades and capacity-oriented E-Blades) within the same chassis. With this in place, a customer can instantly and easily—by utilizing SLA—manage data supporting workloads among different classes of storage (e.g. from high-performance to archive storage). The software instantly reassigns the compute resources associated with that data, rather than manually moving the data itself. Applying this technology to a single large cluster with many petabytes of data could dramatically reduce the amount of time that admins spend on ensuring data is on the most appropriate tier.

Other additions include Always On QoS capability for FlashBlade that offers additional capabilities around ensuring all resources are available to all workloads, with minimum resource contention, as well as an Always On Multi-Protocol Access which offers access for both NFS and SMB by default, designed to simplify the configuration process. Meanwhile, Pure also unveiled a new addition to the FlashBlade family: the FlashBlade//S100 is a scale-out system designed for entry-level use cases around AI, compliance, image repositories, edge, and robo applications.

Pure is also supporting file-based storage as part of its Evergreen//One storage-as-a-service capability, meaning that customers can subscribe to the FlashBlade fully metered and managed pay-as-you-go service that even includes the power bill.

In summary, the announcement of Real-time Enterprise File marks a substantial evolution around Pure’s capabilities in the enterprise file market. It should markedly improve its appeal to mainstream enterprise customers looking to implement a modern file platform that optimally supports both current and fast-evolving evolving future workloads.