Pure Storage’s FlashArray//E launch offers “multi-year advantage” with performance and energy efficiency boosts

Pure Storage has unveiled an expansion of its Pure//E product family with the launch of the new FlashArray//E drive at its annual Pure Accelerate conference in Las Vegas. 

The storage firm said that the all-new FlashArray//E will include the upcoming release of the industry’s largest 75TB QLC DirectFlash Modules, representing a step change in storage capacity and performance for businesses.

The new array will provide “unmatched savings” in both power and space, according to Pure Storage, providing an 80% reduction in power, 60% lower operational costs, and 85% less e-waste compared to traditional disk-based storage. 

Similarly, the firm said the new product range is capable of 4x greater energy efficiency compared to all-flash arrays currently available on the market. 

In a press briefing ahead of the launch, Shawn Hansen, VP and general manager for FlashArray at Pure Storage, told journalists the launch will act as a “key differentiator” for the company in the storage space. 

“We simply think we have a multi-year advantage,” he said. “It will be very hard for others to come in and offer what we’re doing with the //E family.”

The announcement follows the launch of FlashBlade//E earlier this year, and extends the Pure//E family to support unified block and storage, in addition to scaled capacity of up to 4PB. 

As part of the announcement, Pure Storage revealed the new array will “expand customers’ options to tackle data growth” and unlock greater value from operational data by offering a baseline of 1PB of capacity. 

This, the company said, will reduce traditional business frustration over data storage in offline archives or having to expand inefficient, costly disk systems to harness data efficiently. 

The firm said the decision to offer a 1PB capacity comes amid a period of surging data growth, with many organizations struggling to keep pace with demanding volumes of data. 

“Data continues to grow at a monumental rate,” Pure Storage said in a launch statement. 

“This is unsustainable for large-capacity, price-sensitive workloads leveraging legacy and disk-based storage solutions that are ill-equipped to manage growing demand while maintaining competitive cost structures, reducing data center space, and eliminating inefficient power usage.”

Also announced on day one of Pure Accelerate 2023 was the release of the next-generation FlashArray//X and FlashArray//C R4 models. 

Pure Storage said the new FlashArray//X series will provide larger enterprises with enhanced data agility, performance, security, and cost savings. 

These models will also offer significant performance boosts of up to 40%, according to the company, as well as an 80% increase in memory speeds, and a 30% “inline compression boost” to stretch storage capacity for enterprises. 

“Pure pioneered all-flash storage, and the 4th generation of FlashArray//X and FlashArray//C extends our multi-year leadership advantage,” Hansen said. 

“We’re driving the revolution of an all-flash data center at the cost of disk – which unlocks the incredible density, OPEX, and power efficiency savings needed for next-generation data centers.”