Pure Storage Inc. today introduced a new lineup of flash storage systems called FlashBlade//S and a reference architecture focused on artificial intelligence use cases.

NYSE-listed Pure Storage is a major supplier of flash storage equipment for data centers. The company also provides software products that help customers back up business records, optimize their cloud environments and perform other tasks.

Pure Storage is expanding its hardware portfolio with a new lineup of flash storage systems known as the FlashBlade//S series. It’s the latest addition to the company’s FlashBlade product portfolio, which made its debut in 2017. The new systems are optimized to store information that is kept in the form of objects and files.

Organizations often store their business records alongside metadata that provides contextual details about each record, such as when it was last modified. This contextual information can simplify many administrative tasks and is necessary for regulatory compliance. According to Pure Storage, the FlashBlade//S series features a metadata architecture that offers double the density, performance and power efficiency of earlier versions.

Simplifying hardware upgrades was another priority for Pure Storage while developing the new systems. According to the company, FlashBlade//S enables administrators to replace storage, compute and networking nondisruptively. That reduces the amount of downtime incurred when a hardware component needs to be replaced.

FlashBlade//S uses QLC flash, a type of solid-state memory optimized to store large amounts of information. Flash devices use specialized circuits known as memory cells to store data. QLC devices can store four bits per memory cell, more than other types of flash.

“The architectural differentiation of FlashBlade//S is a result of better science driving innovation in both software and hardware,” said Matt Burr, general manager of FlashBlade at Pure Storage. “It is not only the last scale-out platform organizations will ever need, but also the right choice for meeting environmental and sustainability ambitions, which are increasingly important to customers.”

Also today, Pure Storage debuted a new reference architecture dubbed AIRI//S that focuses on the AI infrastructure market. AIRI//S makes it easier for companies to deploy FlashBlade//S together with Nvidia Corp.’s DGX A100 machine learning appliances.  

Each DGX A100 appliance includes eight of Nvidia’s A100 data center graphics cards. The chips enable the system to provide 5 petaflops of performance, which equals 5 million billion computing operations per second. Networking tasks are managed by Quantum-2 InfiniBand switches and Spectrum Ethernet switches from Nvidia.

“Traditional approaches to AI infrastructure often result in silos of servers and storage that are either overspent on capacity or starve AI workloads,” said Amy Fowler, vice president of strategy and solutions at Pure Storage’s FlashBlade division. “With a focus on simplicity and scalability, AIRI//S enables global enterprises to achieve better time to insights and make the most out of their data with AI.”

Organizations that adopt FlashBlade//S and the AIRI//S reference architecture can use Pure Storage’s Evergreen subscription program to manage procurement. Pure Storage first introduced the program in 2015. It enables customers to procure the company’s products through a subscription or on a pay-as-you-go basis, which is simpler than purchasing everything upfront. 

Alongside today’s product updates, Pure Storage introduced a new Evergreen offering called Evergreen//Flex. The offering promises to help companies with fleets of storage systems run their infrastructure more efficiently and reduce electricity usage.

Photo: Pure Storage