Pure Storage Inc. is looking to change the dynamics of data lake storage with the launch of its latest product FlashBlade//E, a scalable, all-flash unstructured data repository that more or less matches the cost of traditional hard disk storage.

Today’s launch of FlashBlade//E means that data center operators no longer need to settle for hard disks when it comes to bulk data storage, Pure Storage said in a news release. It’s available at a cost that’s competitive with disk storage, and has the added benefit of much lower operational costs, the company explained. Pure says it’s designed to give companies a superior way to manage unstructured data growth efficiently, together with a simpler user experience, allowing them to eliminate the last remnants of disk-based storage in their data centers.

Pure Storage said FlashBlade/E is priced at under 20 cents per gigabyte, with three years of service provided to customers. A second advantage is that it consumes five times less power than the disk-based systems it’s designed to replace. The larger the system is, the more efficient it becomes, Pure said, making it a great option for companies that need to pursue sustainability targets. A final benefit is that FlashBlade//E is 10 to 20 times more reliable than hard disks, the company said.

The secret sauce is that FlashBlade//E is based on QLC NAND technology, as opposed to the higher-grade and more expensive TLC NAND that’s used for high-performance storage, said NAND Research analyst Steve McDowell. He explained that the new offering is targeted at high-capacity data lakes, which are huge repositories where companies store the vast majority of their enterprise data. Traditionally, data lakes have always been reliant on traditional hard drives, with flash used almost exclusively for high-performance workloads such as deep learning or advanced analytics.

“Because FlashBlade//E uses QLC NAND for its storage, that really changes where it can play,” McDowell explained. “QLC doesn’t offer the high performance of TLC NAND, but it does deliver greater storage density, and does so at a very attractive price. Beyond being lower performance, QLC NAND is also more sensitive to writes than TLC, making it more suited for storing data that is predominately read-only – which describes most of an enterprise’s unstructured data.”

Pure is targeting a very big section of the storage market that’s likely to grow immensely over the next few years. Analysts have forecast global unstructured data capacity to grow by 10 times before 2023. According to Pure, this level of growth is almost certainly unsustainable for existing hard disk-based offerings.

McDowell said Pure has timed the launch of FlashBlade//E very well, because NAND prices are currently at all-time lows. It means that the acquisition cost of flash storage for unstructured data is almost equal to that of traditional storage for the first time.

Then there’s the added benefit that flash storage is cheaper to operate in the long run, the analyst said. Flash drives are generally much more energy efficient than hard disks, he said, and they don’t suffer from the mechanical wear and tear that plagues spinning disks. So it provides companies with a nice option for meeting their environmental sustainability goals while reducing the total cost of ownership.

“The bottom line is that Pure Storage is bringing affordable flash storage into the high-capacity data world for the first time,” McDowell said. “It’s the first vendor to target this space with flash storage, meaning that Pure is entering new markets with almost no direct competition. That gives Pure a substantial head start. It’s a good product — affordable, sustainable and with a lower TCO.”

Pure Storage said FlashBlade/EE will become generally available by the end of April. In addition to traditional purchases, customers will also be able to deploy FlashBlade//E through a new Efficiency service tier of its Evergreen//One storage-as-a-service offering that provides cloud-based storage with the same level of control as on-premises deployments.

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