Pure Storage + AP-HM

Storage Performance That Helps Save Lives

When this university hospital needed a centralized architecture dedicated to genomic research to accelerate analysis, AP-HM chose the Pure Storage platform.

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Challenges

The hospital needed faster genomic analysis. In a field where time is a decisive factor, AP-HM needed to improve performance with an optimized infrastructure and software configuration. Already using Pure Storage for general storage and data protection, AP-HM decided to evaluate FlashBlade//S® for its genomic research activities.

Results

AP-HM tested performance under real conditions for three months. The team immediately noticed significant performance gains after deploying a dedicated infrastructure using Pure Storage solutions. Where bioinformaticians previously took an average of 11 hours for a genomic analysis, they now take just 4 hours. With this high-performance, highly scalable infrastructure, AP-HM now has unprecedented analysis capacity capable of adapting to future challenges.

Faster Genomic Analysis
75%
potentially saving lives

Lower Electricity
30%
consumption

Less Space
77%
required in data center

Table of Contents

Introduction A Major Player in Clinical Research Faster Diagnosis with Genomic Analysis Commitment from Pure Storage Hailed by AP-HM Teams Faster Diagnostics Yield Better Outcomes Opening Doors with Environmentally Friendly Medical Research

Introduction

Products

FlashArray//C FlashArray//X FlashBlade//S

Solution Areas

Accelerate Core Applications Activate Real-time Analytics Modernize Data Protection

Customer Industries

Healthcare

Location

EMEA

Genomic analysis has big potential to save lives and French hospital AP-HM wanted to speed up analysis and accelerate diagnosis and treatment. It switched to a high-performance infrastructure powered by Pure Storage and consolidated its work into a “biogénopole,” a hub for medical biology, genetics, and anatomic-cytopathology research used by the hospitals of Marseille.

A Major Player in Clinical Research

Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP-HM) is one of France's largest university hospitals. With more than 2,000 physicians and over 12,000 non-medical staff, AP-HM offers a wide range of medical and surgical services. The hospital is also recognized for its contributions to medical innovation and research, particularly in the field of molecular biology. AP-HM has 1,600 clinical research programs and nearly 12,000 patients in clinical trials.

Whether it's to diagnose a rare disease, personalize a cancer treatment, or combat an emerging epidemic, fast molecular biology analysis, including genomic analysis, is essential. It enables physicians to act faster, and with greater precision, sometimes making the difference between life and death.

Faster Diagnosis with Genomic Analysis

To improve the performance of genomic analysis, AP-HM set up a “bionénopôle,” a hub that brings together medical biology, genetics, and anatomic-cytopathology at the hospitals of Marseille to centralize biological research and laboratories into one site.

"We conducted analysis across several sites, each of which had its own storage and VMware virtual machines (VMs) operating from two data centers," explains Renaud Massé, IT infrastructure manager at AP-HM. "In a field where time is a decisive factor, we needed to consolidate resources and improve performance. We decided to create a centralized architecture dedicated to genomic research."

Commitment from Pure Storage Hailed by AP-HM Teams

AP-HM was already using Pure Storage FlashArray//X™ and FlashArray//C™ for general storage and data protection. The proactive support, ease of management, and performance from Pure Storage stood out. "Pure Storage provided us with excellent performance and capacity at the best cost," says Massé.

When building infrastructure to power the bionénopôle, the hub that brings together all specialties of medical biology, genetics, and anatomic-cytopathology at the hospitals of Marseille, AP-HM wanted to tap into the Pure Storage platform's consistency and opted to conduct a FlashBlade proof of concept (PoC). Pure Storage provided a FlashBlade array in a production configuration, enabling AP-HM to test performance under real conditions for three months. During this period, Pure Storage teams helped AP-HM bioinformaticians to optimize the entire infrastructure and software configuration.

"The bioinformaticians appreciated the commitment of Pure Storage, which enabled them to check that the storage met their needs and to confirm the quality, responsiveness, and relevance of the support," says Massé.

Faster Diagnostics Yield Better Outcomes

The AP-HM team immediately noticed significant performance gains after deploying a dedicated infrastructure using Pure Storage solutions. Where bioinformaticians previously took an average of 11 hours for a genomic analysis, they now take just 4 hours—75% faster.

"We can attribute the seven hours we’ve saved in delivering genomic analysis to the performance of this new platform using Pure Storage solutions. This represents more than just numbers: It leads to faster diagnoses and potentially saved lives," emphasizes Massé.

Opening Doors with Environmentally Friendly Medical Research

A model of performance and operational efficiency, the AP-HM medical biology center also stands out for its sustainability. The Pure Storage platform reduced storage footprint from 26U to 6U—a 77% reduction—which also helped reduce electricity consumption by around 30%.

Beyond the impressive figures, a whole new horizon of possibilities is opening up for AP-HM. With this high-performance, highly scalable infrastructure, AP-HM now has unprecedented analysis capacity capable of adapting to future challenges. This technological flexibility helps put AP-HM at the forefront of medicine where rapid analysis is a powerful catalyst for hope, providing new potential to save lives.