Pure Storage® FlashArray//C Data Sheet

Purity for FlashArray delivers rich, enterprise data services, DirectFlash™ global flash management, and Evergreen improvements with every release.

ActiveCluster for business continuity and disaster recovery, QoS, vVols, NVMe-oF, Snap to NFS, Purity CloudSnap™, and EncryptReduce are all examples of new features provided with non-disruptive Purity upgrades. With every array, you get builtin Purity storage services, APIs, and advanced data services**.

FlashArray moves beyond the legacy SSD architectures that have flash pretending to be a hard disk. Instead, DirectFlash speaks directly to raw NAND with a super-efficient NVMe protocol and leverages NVMe-oF. 

DirectFlash includes multiple components:

DirectFlash software (DFS): DFS manages array I/O globally, for a faster, more efficient architecture. DFS provides detailed I/O scheduling and performance management. This makes I/Os deterministic and reducing average latency by reducing the number of slow I/Os that would often occur in SSD architectures.

DirectFlash Module (DFM): DFM is a Pure-designed flash module that connects raw flash directly to the FlashArray storage via NVMe. Unlike traditional SSDs that use a flash controller or flash translation layer, DFM is just raw flash. This design removes performance roadblocks of SSDs used by many legacy storage architectures.

DirectFlash Shelf: DirectFlash Shelf is used to add additional NVMe capacity to a FlashArray//C and is external to the array chassis. Instead, it’s connected to the chassis via NVMe-oF protocol with RDMA over converged (RoCE), leveraging 50GB-persecond Ethernet. The shelf maintains the ability to support different sizes of DFMs as flash density improves and new forms become available, such as SCM, QLC, and others. 

DirectFlash Fabric: DirectFlash Fabric lowers network latency dramatically with the added benefits of enabling enterpriseclass reliability and data services via shared storage versus DAS. NVMe-oF enables massive optimisation between the storage controllers and host over fast networking, which enables DirectFlash Fabric to deliver greater performance and efficiency gains, including host CPU offload benefits.

With Evergreen Storage, you can deploy once and enjoy a subscription to continuous innovation as you expand and improve performance, capacity, density, and/or features for 10 years or more—all without downtime, performance impact, or data migrations. Pure has engineered compatibility for future technologies directly into the product via the modular, stateless architecture of FlashArray. This means you can upgrade non-disruptively and expand the equipment you already own. Evergreen programs like Free Every Three and Upgrade Flex provide full trade-in value when upgrading controllers, giving you the agility you need to grow and modernise. 

The Capacity Consolidation program keeps your storage modern and dense as you expand. With Evergreen Storage, you don’t have to re-buy terabytes you already own. Keep your storage evergreen, modern and dense. And always meet your business needs. Pure uniquely offers all of our core solutions either as products (CAPEX) or as services (OPEX) via our Pure as-aService™ portfolio.