Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 04 | Page 41

INTELLIGENT DATACENTRES
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Customers are looking to leverage public cloud to both develop applications and to retain data for long-term protection
• Data on disk is the last mechanical gate in the compute chain
• Delivering reliable and efficient storage is only a very small piece of the data lifecycle
• Differentiation lies in having the most data , analysing it the fastest , discovering new insights , delivering new products and experiences not possible without it
• Hyper-converged vendors are focusing on reducing cost by making storage just an integrated commodity function versus a platform for strategic advantage
• It is time to banish SCSI for good
• Legacy protocols most notably SCSI remain the archaic way we still speak to flash within storage arrays and to storage arrays over the network
Earlier this year we introduced FlashBlade , the second major product from Pure Storage , aimed squarely at tackling the big data problems and opportunities of tomorrow .
Transform application data storage

5 again with Non-Volatile Memory Express Our founding vision for Pure Storage was to eradicate the spinning disk from the datacentre , but it turns out that the remnants of disk remain in the storage architecture even after the disk is gone . Legacy protocols , most notably SCSI , remain the archaic way we still speak to both flash within storage arrays , and to storage arrays over the storage network . It is time to banish SCSI for good .

The advent of the new Non-Volatile Memory Express and Non-Volatile Memory Express / F protocols hold the promise to do just that . Non-Volatile Memory Express over PCIe enables storage arrays to eliminate serial-attached SCSI links from their controller processors to flash . Non-Volatile Memory Express / F enables dramatically faster , SCSI-less connections between servers and storage arrays , making them appear local to servers and enabling local storage performance with networked storage shared efficiency and manageability .
Pure Storage ’ s approach to Non-Volatile Memory Express is simple , and perhaps unsurprisingly similar to how we first approached flash . We believe Non-Volatile Memory Express is for everyone . We are building a set of Non-Volatile Memory Express-enabled products that will allow mainstream Non-Volatile Memory Express adoption across a wide set of use cases , not just for the performance elite .
The move to Non-Volatile Memory Express will be a multi-year transition , and we are committed to taking our customers there in a non-disruptive , investmentprotected , Evergreen fashion .
Deliver next-generation converged

6 infrastructure , optimised for cloud and new stack applications Storage does not exist as an island , it is deployed with compute , networking , virtualisation , and all this is ultimately in the service of applications and users . Nearly a decade ago the concept of converged infrastructure was born to gain the advantages of an end-to-end tested stack . We see an opportunity to re-think converged infrastructure solutions for the modern cloud era , an era that demands greater agility and uses public cloud as the key comparison yardstick .

It was this need to modernise that first inspired us to create FlashStack converged infrastructure solutions over two years ago . Pure Storage and Cisco Systems recently announced an expansion of collaboration around FlashStack . We believe FlashStack is the most reliable , powerful , and agile private cloud foundation available .
Looking further beyond , we see an opportunity to redefine the lines between databases , analytic stores , and data storage . In the end , they are all about interacting with your data . Should they not be much more seamless ? Can we blur the lines to create a new data tier to power next-generation applications ?
Make application development and data

7 protection effortless in the cloud era

Delivering reliable and efficient storage is only a very small piece of the data lifecycle . While storage has improved , data management processes have remained largely unchanged for decades , and drive much of the proliferation of unnecessary data copies in the enterprise . It is also a whole new era , a cloud era , where customers are increasingly looking to leverage the public cloud to both develop applications and to retain data for long-term protection .
We believe that the potential of data is so huge , so integral to the future of the digital economy , that the market deserves a pure-play company that focuses wholly on delivering data advantage .
Matt Kixmoeller is Vice President Products at Pure Storage
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