Pure Storage Inc. today introduced a new release of Purity, the software powering its FlashBlade systems for holding unstructured information, that packs an expanded set of data management and protection features.

FlashBlade is a series of compact flash systems designed for storing unstructured information formatted as objects or files. The product line mainly targets performance-intensive use cases such as machine learning and analytics.

A single chassis the size of a standard four-rack-unit server holds up to 15 FlashBlade modules. According to Pure, a 150-module cluster can perform 24 million input/output operations per second with the help of its Purity software.

Purity 3.0, the release announced today, brings new data management features. The main highlight is a replication tool that will enable administrators to move records around more easily.

Object datasets such as sensor measurements and images can now be replicated to Amazon Web Services Inc.’s S3 object storage service to make them accessible for a company’s cloud applications. When managing file data, in turn, administrators can use the feature as a backup tool. Purity makes it possible to replicate records from a FlashBlade deployment to a remote backup environment in a read-only format.

Purity’s file management feature set is also being expanded with the addition of snapshot rollbacks. If files are accidentally deleted by a worker or lost because of some other reason, administrators can select one of the historical file system snapshots in their FlashBlade deployment and roll back to that version.

Purity 3.0 brings with it three other new features likewise meant to ensure the integrity of business records. The software now offers audit logs for monitoring and supports the SNMP network protocol, which should allow FlashBlade to work better with infrastructure monitoring tools that use SNMP to collect data. Checking another protocol off its list on the occasion, Pure has also added support for NFS v4.1 Kerberos, meaning companies can use the industry-standard Kerberos authentication tool to verify users who are accessing data in file systems based on NFS v4.1.

Gabriel Chapman, the director of FlashBlade product and solutions marketing at Pure, discussed FlashBlade’s capabilities in detail during a March interview on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE:

Photo: Pure Storage