AUE - Key Insights
Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone! This is Rich Barlow, Principal Technologist @ Pure. It was super fun to proctor this AUE session with Antonia and Jon. Hopefully everyone got in all of the questions that they wanted to ask - we had so many that we had to answer many of them out of band. So thank you for your enthusiasm and support. Looking forward to the next one! Here's a rundown of the most interesting and impactful questions we were asked. If you have any more please feel free to reach out. FlashArray File: Your Questions, Our Answers (Ask Us Everything Recap) Our latest "Ask Us Everything" webinar with Pure Storage experts Rich Barlow, Antonia Abu Matar, and Jonathan Carnes was another great session. You came ready with sharp questions, making it clear you're all eager to leverage the simplicity of your FlashArray to ditch the complexity of legacy file storage. Here are some the best shared insights from the session: Unify Everything: Performance By Design You asked about the foundation—and it's a game-changer. No Middleman, Low Latency: Jon Carnes confirmed that FlashArray File isn't a bolt-on solution. Since the file service lands directly on the drives, just like block data, there's effectively "no middle layer." The takeaway? You get the same awesome, low-latency performance for file that you rely on for block workloads. Kill the Data Silos: Antonia Abu Matar emphasized the vision behind FlashArray File: combining block and file on a single, shared storage pool. This isn't just tidy; it means you benefit from global data reduction and unified data services across everything. Scale, Simplicity, and Your Weekends Back The community was focused on escaping the complexities of traditional NAS systems. Always-On File Shares: Worried about redundancy? Jon confirmed that FlashArray File implements an "always-on" version of Continuous Available (CA) shares for SMB3 (in Purity 6.9/6.10). It’s on by default for transparent failover and simple client access. Multi-Server Scale-Up: For customers migrating from legacy vendors and needing lots of "multi-servers," we're on it. Jon let us know that engineering is actively working to significantly raise the current limits (aiming for around 100 in the next Purity release), stressing that Pure increases these limits non-disruptively to ensure stability. NDU—Always and Forever: The best part? No more weekend maintenance marathons. The FlashArray philosophy is a "data in place, non-disruptive upgrade." That applies to both block and file, eliminating the painful data migrations you’re used to. Visibility at Your Fingertips: You can grab real-time IOPS and throughput from the GUI or via APIs. For auditing, file access events are pushed via syslog in native JSON format, which makes integrating with tools like Splunk super easy. Conquering Distance and Bandwidth A tough question came in about supporting 800 ESRI users across remote Canadian sites (Yellowknife, Iqaluit, etc.) with real-time file access despite low bandwidth. Smart Access over Replication: Jon suggested looking at Rapid Replicas (available on FlashBlade File). This isn't full replication; it’s a smart solution that synchronizes metadata across sites and only pulls the full data on demand (pull-on-access). This is key for remote locations because it dramatically cuts down on the constant bandwidth consumption of typical data replication. Ready to Simplify? FlashArray File Services lets you consolidate your infrastructure and get back to solving bigger problems—not babysitting your storage. Start leveraging the power of a truly unified and non-disruptive platform today! Join the conversation and share your own experiences in the Pure Community.
