Pure Storage's New FlashBlade//S: Decouples Compute, Capacity

by Joseph F. Kovar

Flash storage developer Pure Storage Wednesday unveiled a new modular version of its FlashBlade file and object storage array that for the first time disaggregates the compute and capacity to allow customers to scale them separately as needed.

The new array was introduced at the Pure//Accelerate Digital techfest22 conference being held this week in Los Angeles.

The new FlashBlade//S:, the latest in Pure Storage's file and object storage FlashBlade array series, is based on the same low-cost QLC flash technology behind the company's FlashArray//C: block storage array, said Pure Storage CTO Rob Lee.

"FlashBlade//S: is a massive step forward in modularity, flexibility, performance, scale and all the things people like about FlashBlade," Lee told CRN. "It's the industry's first all-QLC, high-performance file system."

It is also Pure Storage's first array that decouples the compute power from the capacity, which means customers can scale either or both independently, depending on the workload, Lee said.

The new FlashBlade//S: is also at the heart of Pure Storage's new AIRI//S, the newest version of the AI-ready infrastructure the company designed in conjunction with Nvidia.

By decoupling the compute and capacity, Pure Storage is taking a big step with its FlashBlade//S: in meeting customers' requirements, said Justin Field, technical solutions architect for World Wide Technology, a St. Louis-based solution provider and early Pure Storage channel partner.

"This move into composable infrastructure is exciting, with individual scaling of performance and capacity," Field told CRN. "With previous versions of FlashBlade, you could only scale by buying more of both. Now you can mix and match performance and capacity, buy what you need when you need it."

FlashBlade//S: is a very useful flexible unified flash storage device for file and object storage data, Field said.

"There's no need to buy a lot of hardware up front," he said. "Pure has had good experience with its supply chains and can get the hardware customers need. So customers can just buy what they need now and add more later."

FlashBlade//S: is also unique in that it allows capacity to be moved between blades and arrays as needed, Field said.