Pure Storage: Hour // m has arrived
Hi, Habr! Many of you who follow the All-Flash systems market have heard of Pure Storage. They were mentioned in comments, vendor comparisons, ratings. One problem - in Russia, Pure was not for sale.
And now we are ready to tell you the following: Pure Storage did get to us and is about to enter the Russian market!
I am engaged in the development of areas of storage and SRS in the "Jet". One of my areas of activity is the search and adaptation of new vectors of IT infrastructure development. Among such vectors is an active transition to Flash technology and the associated changes in data storage and processing.
Now everyone understands that the use of mechanical disks for high-performance computing is a thing of the past. The era of Flash is coming. But, as we see, today's All-Flash is most often just plain SSD-filled disk arrays. The more interesting for us are completely new players, startups of this business - companies that do not carry the burden of technology from 20 years ago.
')
Now Pure Storage has 3 storage lines:
At Pure Storage, we noticed more than 5 years ago. Then nothing but an ironic smile, these guys did not cause. Supermicro hardware with Linux on board, some shamanic dances with code and third-party applications, a beautiful idea and not the best implementation. But as time goes on, everything changes, and Pure Storage was able to create a truly interesting product that began to seize America and Europe.
Why is Pure so interesting to us? First, this is the architecture originally created for Flash. The guys have been making a product for many years that takes into account all the nuances of Flash, and not mechanical disks. For example, compression and deduplication always work - they can not be turned off, they are sewn into the code itself, into the mechanisms for working with data.
Secondly, it works simply and quickly. Remember RAID groups, LDEV 's, pools, tiering, partitioning, spare disks? This is nothing. Launched the array - got the capacity and performance. Added disks - got more capacity and performance. You don’t need to think about anything, everything is just r-a-b-a-th-a-th.
In addition, the architecture itself is interesting. On the one hand, this is a classic dual-controller array, on the other - there is a feature: the data is not cached for writing in RAM, everything is stored on external NVMe-modules. Thus, it is possible to remove controllers on the move, change them for others, upgrade inside the ruler, between rulers - all this without downtime. And without loss of performance - the system does not allow itself to be loaded by more than 50% in the normal mode.
And the most delicious is the differences between the Pure business model in terms of sales and support.
The program "forever relevant storage", aimed at the constant updating of the array:
Thus, the guys say: "Buy an array from us once, and you will never have to repurchase it again." To earn, they, obviously, gather on support and on expansions of capacity. The approach is interesting, do not say anything.
The program guarantees capacity savings using deduplication and compression technologies. At the stage of calculating the configuration, you tell what data you will store on the array (for example, VMware 30TB, Oracle 15TB). Then the integrator with the vendor will prepare a proposal in which the efficiency coefficient for the submitted data will be spelled out (for example, 5: 1). In this case, Pure Storage legally guarantees this ratio before selling. If it does not match the real one, additional disks will be brought.
The picture below shows the average coefficient across the entire Pure Storage database (several thousand arrays), which is just over 5: 1
The efficiency counter is published on the manufacturer’s website and updated around the clock.
www.purestorage.com/why-pure/efficient.html
It seems that many manufacturers offer something similar, but often this is just marketing. Pure, however, erect storage efficiency in a cult: it gives legal guarantees, prescribes it in sentences. Let's see how it will be in reality.
Together with the purchase of the array, you get free access to the Pure1 cloud monitoring service. It includes not only the proactive service when cases are opened by the manufacturer automatically at the time of the incident, but also predictive analytics from the cloud. Numerous diagnostic metrics arrive at an interval of 30 seconds from the entire installed base into the Pure1 Meta machine learning system, which allows you to prevent problems before they actually occur. According to the manufacturer, this technology has helped to prevent more than 170 case 1 priority even before they were opened.
The above features, collected in one product, make it very different to look at this array. Pure is capable of disrupting the status quo in the storage market, reversing the relationship to disk arrays, and facilitating the transition to Flash technology.
The only problem is encryption. For a long time, Pure Storage could not enter the Russian market due to restrictions on the import of encrypted systems. At the moment, a special OS version has been released for Russia and China, for which the FSB notification has already been received. Now Pure is ready to enter our market - we expect the first deliveries in August.
Jet is Pure Storage's top service partner. Now we are actively engaged in obtaining our own demo stand - we are aiming for July (it may very well be that we will have a booth even earlier than that of the vendor in Russia). After that, we will be ready to provide you with a real Geek Porn - a full report on testing the array of the most rapidly developing Flash startup. As they say, do not switch! ;)
After our tests, you will also be able to experience a novelty in business - a demo stand will be available for all our customers. Follow the news.
I will be glad to answer your questions in the comments. If the task requires more detailed study, write to belyaevskiy@jet.msk.su .
The author of the article: Vladimir Belyaevsky, Head of Storage at Jet Infosystems
And now we are ready to tell you the following: Pure Storage did get to us and is about to enter the Russian market!
Small introduction
I am engaged in the development of areas of storage and SRS in the "Jet". One of my areas of activity is the search and adaptation of new vectors of IT infrastructure development. Among such vectors is an active transition to Flash technology and the associated changes in data storage and processing.
Now everyone understands that the use of mechanical disks for high-performance computing is a thing of the past. The era of Flash is coming. But, as we see, today's All-Flash is most often just plain SSD-filled disk arrays. The more interesting for us are completely new players, startups of this business - companies that do not carry the burden of technology from 20 years ago.
')
Now Pure Storage has 3 storage lines:
- FlashArray // m - a line of general purpose AF arrays, suitable for demanding applications as well as for conventional systems (for the time being, only // the m line will be available in Russia);
- FlashArray // x - NVMe Flash array for the most critical application performance;
- FlashBlade is a horizontally scalable file and object AF array.
What is Pure?
At Pure Storage, we noticed more than 5 years ago. Then nothing but an ironic smile, these guys did not cause. Supermicro hardware with Linux on board, some shamanic dances with code and third-party applications, a beautiful idea and not the best implementation. But as time goes on, everything changes, and Pure Storage was able to create a truly interesting product that began to seize America and Europe.
Why is Pure so interesting to us? First, this is the architecture originally created for Flash. The guys have been making a product for many years that takes into account all the nuances of Flash, and not mechanical disks. For example, compression and deduplication always work - they can not be turned off, they are sewn into the code itself, into the mechanisms for working with data.
Secondly, it works simply and quickly. Remember RAID groups, LDEV 's, pools, tiering, partitioning, spare disks? This is nothing. Launched the array - got the capacity and performance. Added disks - got more capacity and performance. You don’t need to think about anything, everything is just r-a-b-a-th-a-th.
In addition, the architecture itself is interesting. On the one hand, this is a classic dual-controller array, on the other - there is a feature: the data is not cached for writing in RAM, everything is stored on external NVMe-modules. Thus, it is possible to remove controllers on the move, change them for others, upgrade inside the ruler, between rulers - all this without downtime. And without loss of performance - the system does not allow itself to be loaded by more than 50% in the normal mode.
And the most delicious is the differences between the Pure business model in terms of sales and support.
Evergreen
The program "forever relevant storage", aimed at the constant updating of the array:
- every 3 years as part of the Pure Storage service contract, the controllers for the current models are changed for free to customers (while you are on support, you always have new controllers);
- new generation of arrays do not require replacement of disks, no migrations;
- lifetime warranty on drives (as long as there is support);
- Pure changes outdated discs to new ones for free if the customer increases the capacity by 4 times;
- all licenses are included (even if new functionality will be released).
Thus, the guys say: "Buy an array from us once, and you will never have to repurchase it again." To earn, they, obviously, gather on support and on expansions of capacity. The approach is interesting, do not say anything.
RIGHT-SIZE GUARANTEE. Capacity Warranty
The program guarantees capacity savings using deduplication and compression technologies. At the stage of calculating the configuration, you tell what data you will store on the array (for example, VMware 30TB, Oracle 15TB). Then the integrator with the vendor will prepare a proposal in which the efficiency coefficient for the submitted data will be spelled out (for example, 5: 1). In this case, Pure Storage legally guarantees this ratio before selling. If it does not match the real one, additional disks will be brought.
The picture below shows the average coefficient across the entire Pure Storage database (several thousand arrays), which is just over 5: 1
The efficiency counter is published on the manufacturer’s website and updated around the clock.
www.purestorage.com/why-pure/efficient.html
It seems that many manufacturers offer something similar, but often this is just marketing. Pure, however, erect storage efficiency in a cult: it gives legal guarantees, prescribes it in sentences. Let's see how it will be in reality.
Pure1
Together with the purchase of the array, you get free access to the Pure1 cloud monitoring service. It includes not only the proactive service when cases are opened by the manufacturer automatically at the time of the incident, but also predictive analytics from the cloud. Numerous diagnostic metrics arrive at an interval of 30 seconds from the entire installed base into the Pure1 Meta machine learning system, which allows you to prevent problems before they actually occur. According to the manufacturer, this technology has helped to prevent more than 170 case 1 priority even before they were opened.
The above features, collected in one product, make it very different to look at this array. Pure is capable of disrupting the status quo in the storage market, reversing the relationship to disk arrays, and facilitating the transition to Flash technology.
And where is Pure in Russia?
The only problem is encryption. For a long time, Pure Storage could not enter the Russian market due to restrictions on the import of encrypted systems. At the moment, a special OS version has been released for Russia and China, for which the FSB notification has already been received. Now Pure is ready to enter our market - we expect the first deliveries in August.
Jet is Pure Storage's top service partner. Now we are actively engaged in obtaining our own demo stand - we are aiming for July (it may very well be that we will have a booth even earlier than that of the vendor in Russia). After that, we will be ready to provide you with a real Geek Porn - a full report on testing the array of the most rapidly developing Flash startup. As they say, do not switch! ;)
After our tests, you will also be able to experience a novelty in business - a demo stand will be available for all our customers. Follow the news.
I will be glad to answer your questions in the comments. If the task requires more detailed study, write to belyaevskiy@jet.msk.su .
The author of the article: Vladimir Belyaevsky, Head of Storage at Jet Infosystems
Links
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/331682/
All Articles