Disk drives, so prevalent in the nation’s data centers, are poised to be replaced by newer and more efficient technology in the form of flash memory storage devices. Already widely used to store data in popular consumer gadgets such as smartphones, tablets and netbooks, flash memory is comparably priced to storage mechanisms that rely on rotating disks.
Data center managers are finding that flash storage saves them time and money over the long run. One company that is riding the crest of this storage wave is Pure Storage, based in Mountain View, California. Customers relying on Pure Storage technology are using it to solve problems such as database performance speed issues and gaining faster access to vital data.
Faster read and write speeds are important for businesses that need to work with enormous data sets. Higher speeds are also important when a company is trying to recuperate from a catastrophic data loss and must restore its backups. Pure Storage offers storage that’s priced within the range of hard disk based storage solutions, encouraging data center administrators to switch to this faster medium.
How Pure Storage started
Venture capitalist Mike Speiser, who serves as managing director of Sutter Hills Ventures, was aware of John “Coz” Colgrove and John Hayes from previous work he had done with them. Speiser recognized that these entrepreneurs looked like they would work well together. He encouraged Colgrove to create Pure Storage in 2009, and then set up meetings with him and Hayes. Previously, Colgrove had been an engineering co-founder at Veritas Software Corp.; Speiser was acquainted with Hayes from their work at Yahoo, Inc.
Pure Storage was founded to replace the hard drives found in data centers with flash memory. Working with $95 million raised from venture funds as well as from private investors, Pure Storage is achieving recognition for its technology, with the Wall Street Journal naming it the Silver Winner as the second most promising technological innovation in 2012 out of nearly 540 competitors.
What Pure Storage produces
Pure Storage produces a flash memory system called the FlashArray. It targets tier 1 storage to enable quicker random access to intense I/O applications, including databases, cloud computing, desktop virtualization and virtual servers.
The FlashArray components work right out of the box and are manufactured to scale well in enterprise environments. They enable companies to do their work with always-on encryption.
The devices also are useful because Pure Storage designs them to have consistently lower latency. Faster response times are critical in data centers, and Pure Storage’s FlashArray delivers less than 1ms I/O for the benefit of your applications’ intense read-write requirements. Companies that don’t want to deal with hybrid storage systems that constantly shuffle more-frequently accessed data from hard drives to flash storage and back again as usage diminishes will want to take advantage of an all-flash storage system.
Founders’ goals
The goals of Pure Storage founders Colgrove and Hayes is to produce and sell flash memory that is as inexpensive as conventional spinning hard drive discs while giving companies vastly faster data storage solutions.
“Pure Storage has a simple mission: to enable the widespread adoption of flash in the enterprise data center,” the company states on its website. By offering flash storage with more consistently faster read-write capability at lower costs, the company is well on its way toward achieving its goals.
Originally posted on July 10, 2013 @ 8:22 pm