Pure Storage vs Nimble Storage: All-Flash Arrays
Among the crowded field of competitors in the all-flash array (AFA) storage market, two of the biggest and most recognizable names are HPE Nimble Storage and Pure Storage. As a security-first IT solutions provider for over three decades, Blue Mantis has a unique hands-on view of both HPE Nimble and Pure Storage to share about which all-flash array vendor is best depending on your desired business outcomes. Let’s discuss the key decision points that IT decision-makers will want to consider when it comes to choosing enterprise storage, including the differences between data storage technologies, options for data security, business productivity, ease of use, and the total cost of ownership.
Difference Between Traditional Hard Disks, Solid State, and Hybrid Flash Storage
Storage options have evolved significantly over the years, each type offering unique benefits suited to specific use cases:
- Traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) – Utilizes magnetic platters to store data, offering a cost-effective bulk storage solution at the expense of slower performance.
- Solid State Drives (SSDs) – Leverages NAND flash memory, providing superior performance and durability, making them ideal for high-performance applications, although at a higher cost.
- Hybrid Flash Arrays – Combines both SSDs and HDDs to balance performance and cost, suitable for environments requiring a mix of speed and capacity.
When considering between HDD, SSD, and hybrid flash array storage technology for your data, the features that make up the key decision points are:
| Feature | HDDs | SSDs | Hybrid Flash Arrays |
| Technology | Spinning platters, read/write heads | NAND flash memory, no moving parts | Combination of SSDs and HDDs |
| Speed | Slower (200 MBps, 8ms access time) | Fast (500+ MBps, microsecond access time) | Moderate (better than all HDDs, less than all SSDs) |
| Cost | Lowest cost per gigabyte | Higher cost per gigabyte | Balanced cost |
| Capacity | Larger (over 25 TB) | Smaller (16 TB or less) | Scalable with SSDs and HDDs |
| Durability | Prone to mechanical failures | Highly durable | More reliable than HDDs |
| Energy Efficiency | Higher power consumption | Low power consumption | Moderate power consumption |
Why Choose an All-Flash Array for Your Data Storage?
Choosing an all-flash array offers three major benefits in terms of performance, efficiency, and long-term cost savings:
- Enhanced performance – The SSDs used in all-flash arrays provide faster data access speeds and lower latency, resulting in quicker application response times and improved user experience. Additionally, these arrays deliver consistent high performance, crucial for applications requiring high input/output operations per second (IOPS) and low latency, ensuring smooth operations without bottlenecks.
- Improved efficiency – An all-flash array delivers significant energy and space savings, as they are more energy-efficient and require less physical space compared to HDD and hybrid solutions, thus reducing operational costs related to power and cooling. Additionally, their simplified management, attributed to fewer moving parts and a straightforward architecture, makes them easier to manage and support. This allows IT staff to focus more on strategic initiatives, enhancing overall operational efficiency.
- Lower TCO – The improved operational efficiency is one of the many ways an all-flash array helps lower total cost of ownership (TCO), despite the higher initial investment needed for all-flash arrays. All-flash arrays reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs thanks to their longer average lifespan and better durability compared to HDD and hybrid systems, which can drastically lower support costs.
The History of Nimble Storage
Founded in 2008 as a maker of integrated enterprise data storage systems, Nimble Storage was well established in the hybrid flash array market. The company introduced their AF Series of all-flash array storage models in 2016. These models rapidly gained industry recognition for their advanced features, including predictive analytics from their proprietary InfoSight management software to detect and resolve issues preemptively. The success of their all-flash arrays caught the attention of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), leading to Nimble Storage’s acquisition by HPE in March 2017.
Since the acquisition, HPE has strategically positioned Nimble Storage products as a key storage component to their integrated hybrid cloud solutions portfolio. Today, HPE heavily promotes Nimble Storage AF series of SSD-based storage in favor of their hybrid flash-based HF and CS Series of products. HPE touts the Nimble AF Series’ high speed along with enterprise-grade data security, featuring built-in encryption and predictive analytics that address 86% of issues before they affect operations. Additionally, HPE emphasizes the impressive availability of Nimble Storage systems across both AFA and hybrid storage systems, guaranteeing 99.9999% uptime, which translates to minimal downtime and ensures continuous access to critical business data.
The History of Pure Storage
Pure Storage delivered their first all-flash array product in 2011 after several years in “stealth startup mode” with venture capital funding. The company exclusively develops storage systems using flash storage with their own management software that integrates predictive analytics and AI-driven insights for on-prem, cloud, and hybrid storage.
After becoming publicly traded in 2015, Pure Storage’s fortunes benefited from both the industry’s migration to cloud-based IT along with the need to switch from HDD to SSD storage for better performance. The company has made several strategic acquisitions to strengthen their data protection and cloud-native offerings, most recently their purchase of Kubernetes container platform manager Portworx in 2020. The Pure Storage Evergreen integrated “storage as a service” subscription portfolio puts the company into direct competition with HPE Nimble.
Hybrid HPE Nimble Storage vs. Pure Storage All Flash Arrays
In the past, Nimble’s strength has been providing flash performance at a hard drive price with their hybrid storage arrays, and that value has been proven over and over. Great support, a great product, and a great channel strategy have made them a terrific partner in the datacenter market and created a lot of happy customers. HPE does a good job maintaining Nimble Storage’s proven market leadership with its cloud-based analytics and reporting solution, Infosight, which is free to all owners of Nimble Storage.
One key value proposition of HPE Nimble Storage HF and CS Series is their ability to “scale out and scale up.” This means that you can add storage shelves to expand capacity or buy another controller pair to add processing capability to create one virtual array. When you combine that with how all software is included, it’s easy to use, has great support, and a helpful user community, it’s clear why there are so many diehard Nimble Storage fans.
Pure’s main value to IT leaders has always been they were first-to-market with a viable, reliable, and affordable (relatively) all-flash array storage system. Like their rival, Pure Storage also has fantastic performance, is very easy to use, all software is included, has great support, and an engaged user community. But most importantly, as the price of flash storage has decreased, and the efficiency of data reduction software on the all-flash arrays has improved, the USABLE capacity of flash storage has increased to the point where the EFFECTIVE cost per GB for SSDs is close to the cost per GB of HDD.
However, the fact is that HDD capacities are still much larger than SSDs today. An all-flash array setup still requires a larger capital outlay than a hybrid flash array. That’s why CIOs and other IT business decision makers looking to modernize their datacenters should be comparing HPE Nimble hybrid arrays and Pure Storage all-flash array options based on their organization’s desired business outcomes related to these product features:
- Data Security
- Business Productivity
- Ease of Use
- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
HPE Nimble Storage Hybrid Flash Array Features
Data Security
- Predictive Analytics: Utilizes InfoSight to find and resolve 86% of issues before they affect operations, enhancing data security by minimizing vulnerabilities.
- Encryption: Offers built-in encryption to protect data at rest and in transit, ensuring compliance with industry standards.
Business Productivity
- Availability: Guarantees 99.9999% availability, translating to less than 31.5 seconds of downtime per year, ensuring continuous access to data.
- Ease of Management: Designed for simplicity with a user-friendly interface, reducing the need for extensive IT resources.
Ease of Use
Powerful Yet Simple Interface: Praised for its intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy to deploy and manage.
Total Cost of Ownership
- Lower Cost: Offers an overall lower TCO by reducing operational expenses by mixing enterprise-grade SSD with HDD hardware, efficient management through software, and high availability.
- Predictive Analytics: Helps in optimizing resource use, further lowering costs.
Pure Storage All Flash Array Features
Data Security
- Always-on Encryption: Ensures data is protected without impacting performance, crucial for maintaining data integrity and compliance.
- Rapid Recovery: Offers rapid recovery capabilities, allowing quick data restoration in case of a breach or failure, minimizing downtime and data loss.
Business Productivity
- Efficiency: Designed to be highly efficient, reducing energy consumption and physical space requirements.
- Performance: Known for high performance with low latency and fast data access speeds, enhancing application responsiveness and overall business productivity.
Ease of Use
Simplicity: Emphasizes AI-enhanced analytics and simple design for a straightforward and easy-to-use interface for deployment, management, and upgrades.
Total Cost of Ownership
- Future Proof: All-flash arrays deliver high performance, efficiency, and reliability for years, thereby reducing hardware replacement cycles.
- Evergreen Storage as a Service: Subscription model offering ensures customers can upgrade without added costs, further reducing TCO.
Nimble Storage vs Pure Storage Comparison Summary
| Feature | HPE Nimble Storage | Pure Storage |
| Data Security | Predictive analytics, built-in encryption | Always-on encryption, rapid recovery |
| Business Productivity | 99.9999% availability, ease of management | High efficiency, superior performance |
| Ease of Use | User-friendly interface | Simple and straightforward interface with AI analytics |
| Total Cost of Ownership | Hybrid array versions have lower upfront costs | Higher initial price, competitive TCO |
Trust Blue Mantis to Assess, Modernize, and Manage Your Data Storage
Both HPE Nimble Storage and Pure Storage offer robust and scalable enterprise solutions suitable for multiple industries and business sizes. While it’s not a true like-for-like comparison pitting an AFA solution against a hybrid flash solution, HPE Nimble Storage’s hybrid flash array solution excels in predictive analytics, ease of management, and cost efficiency, making it a strong choice for businesses looking to minimize IT overhead and optimize for cost. Pure Storage’s all-flash array stands out with its high efficiency, performance, and simplicity, driving significant productivity gains—just at a higher price point than the HPE Nimble Storage hybrid flash solution.
For an IT decision-maker, the choice between these two solutions will depend on specific business priorities. If minimizing downtime, simplifying management, and reducing costs are top concerns, the HPE Nimble Storage solution may be the better fit. If performance, efficiency, and “future proofing” are paramount, a Pure Storage solution could be your preferred option.
Connect with us to discuss what would be the best option to meet your company’s needs.
