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Pure Storage, Micron expand QLC NAND partnership
Micron and Pure focus on hyperscalers and AI workloads by bringing the latest generation of QLC NAND to Pure's storage hardware and software.
In a bid to gain more hyperscaler business, Pure Storage and Micron have expanded their collaboration to include the upcoming generation of Micron QLC NAND.
The expanded partnership will use G9 -- Micron's soon-to-be-released quad-level cell NAND node -- for future DirectFlash Modules (DFMs), Pure's version of SSDs. Details of the new NAND are sparse, as Micron plans to release specifics for a wider release. However, G9 QLC NAND will be used in future DFMs for hyperscalers to provide additional flash storage for new data centers and replace aging storage like HDDs with faster, more compact alternatives, according to Pure.
This is the second NAND supplier partnership Pure has highlighted in as many months, with Kioxia becoming a partner in December, according to Steve McDowell, founder and analyst at NAND Research.
"Pure is name-checking their suppliers, showing that they have firm control of their supply chain," he said.
Focus on hyperscalers
A little more than a year ago, Pure created a line of business wholly focused on hyperscalers, according to Bill Cerreta, general manager of hyperscale at Pure Storage. He said the focus has paid off and pointed to the company's Dec. 3 third-quarter earnings, in which Pure reported a design win with a top-four hyperscaler.
Cerreta said he sees the expanded partnership as a continuation of the decade-long partnership Pure has had with Micron, which allows customers to have the latest technology for their DFM as soon as it is available.
"Keep in mind, some of the solutions we're providing to the hyperscale do not include a Pure array," he said. "They are DFMs with a software solution."
Hyperscalers tend to build their own equipment, according to Camberley Bates, an analyst at The Futurum Group. So, the question is, if hyperscalers build everything, why not build a flash module?
"Because somebody else has done it and done a darn good job," Bates said referring to Pure's DFM.
Looking to dethrone HDDs
While HDDs still make up a majority of primary storage in terms of footprint, AI is causing data center transformations, according to Jeremy Werner, senior vice president and general manager of the storage business unit at Micron. Customers are struggling with the limitations of space and energy consumption.
"Micron's partnership with Pure enables hyperscale customers and enterprises to optimize their investment through increasing the use of solid-state storage," Werner said.
Hyperscale customers are currently facing two big issues, Bates said. One is energy usage, and another is AI's demand for more performance.
"One of the ways to address that is to move from a hard drive environment to a solid-state environment," she said.
There are a few benefits of DFMs compared with HDDs, McDowell said. One is just density: DFMs are at 150 TB, with 300 TB on the horizon; the largest HDDs are 32 TB. Customers can replace density for density in a smaller footprint that requires less power. Another benefit is reliability.
"When I've got tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of drives, some are going to fail, and SSDs are much more reliable," he said.
Adam Armstrong is an Informa TechTarget news writer covering file and block storage hardware and private clouds. He previously worked at StorageReview.
