Making good on an acquisition from last year, data storage specialist Pure Storage Inc. today launched ObjectEngine, a data protection and recovery system for cloud and flash environments.

ObjectEngine was built with technology that Pure Storage acquired when it bought StorReduce Inc., which was a maker of data deduplication and cloud migration software. The new product is designed to integrate cloud and on-premises infrastructures in order to give enterprises an easy way to backup their data and recover it quickly should the need arise.

Explaining the need for ObjectEngine, Matt Burr, general manager of FlashBlade at Pure Storage, said one of the main issues with data recovery is how fast companies can recover it.

He pointed out that most data recovery systems today are feeling their age, based on older disk and tape-based storage mediums. So-called “hot” and “warm” data is generally stored on disk, while backup data goes to tape. But tape systems can be as much as 10 times slower when it comes to restoring that data. That’s no longer good enough for many enterprises, which need their data to be readily accessible at a moment’s notice. So Pure Storage is betting that many companies will be interested in moving their backup data to flash storage in the cloud instead.

“In today’s ultra-competitive environment, organizations need every advantage possible to ensure they get the most value out of their data,” Burr said. “That means fast recovery to ensure data is back in production use as quickly as possible — modern organizations simply cannot afford to wait days or weeks.”

The storage provider is taking direct aim at rival Data Domain in the backup market. Pure’s argument is that backup systems can be an asset more than an insurance policy by tapping into the cloud and using flash systems.

“Pure is a really smart company that tends to skate to the future earlier and faster than its rivals,” said Peter Burris, chief research officer at SiliconANGLE sister research firm Wikibon. “That appears to be happening here, too.”

ObjectEngine combines StorReduce’s software assets with hardware, monitoring and support services from Pure Storage. The offering can integrate with data backup systems from companies such as Commvault Systems Inc., Veeam Software Group GmbH and Veritas Technologies LLC.

Besides providing data backup services, Pure Storage is heavily invested in ways to help enterprises migrate data easily between on-premises systems and public clouds. Last year the company introduced new products, including Cloud Block Store for AWS and CloudSnap for AWS, making its on-premises storage technology available to hybrid-cloud users.

Photo: Robert Hof/SiliconANGLE