X-IO hits back at Pure Storage's flash claims

Hybrid storage vendor claims HDD storage has been given a bad name, and that flash could be a risky business

Hybrid storage vendor X-IO has rubbished claims made by US vendor Pure Storage last week as it landed in Europe.

California-based Pure Storage launched in EMEA last week, claiming to offer an all-flash solution at the same cost as disk, but X-IO has hit back, branding the hype around flash technology a myth.

The vendor, which insists its hybrid solution combines the best of both flash and HDD storage, said the idea that hard drives are unreliable and that flash is the only alternative "could not be further from the truth".

The firm's solutions development director Gavin McLaughlin said investing in flash could be a risky business for end users.

"Many organisations considering flash arrays are guilty of overkill," he added. "In many cases, flash is not the answer and could introduce unnecessary risk to the datacentre and the business by implementing unproven technologies."

As part of its EMEA launch, Pure Storage is offering a full refund to customers who do not see increased reliability and performance at a price that is competitive with disk.

Despite the new arrival's claims, X-IO said hard drives are still more cost efficient.

"Some workloads need the performance of technologies such as flash storage, but flash is a tool, not a solution. Vendors have used and abused HDDs for so long now they have managed to get [them] a bad name." McLaughlin said.

"But the truth is that [hard drives] are still the most cost-effective storage mechanism for 90 per cent of data workloads."

X-IO recently signed a distribution deal with Irish distributor Commtech, which will see its product reach the firm's reseller base across the UK and Ireland.