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PowerFlex software-defined infrastructure enables broad consolidation across the data center, encompassing almost any type of workload and architecture. The software-defined architecture offers automation and programmability of the complete infrastructure and provides scalability, performance, and resiliency to enable effortless adherence to stringent workload Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
The PowerFlex family provides a foundation that combines compute and high-performance storage resources in a managed unified fabric. PowerFlex comes in flexible deployment options (rack, appliance, or custom nodes and in the public cloud) that enables independent (two-layer), HCI (single-layer), or mixed architectures. PowerFlex is ideal for high-performance applications and databases, building an agile private or hybrid cloud, or consolidating resources in heterogeneous environments.
Figure 1. PowerFlex family
Software is the key differentiator in the PowerFlex offering. PowerFlex software components provide software-defined storage services and help simplify infrastructure management and orchestration. This software enables comprehensive IT Operational Management (ITOM) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) capabilities that span compute and storage infrastructure, from BIOS and Firmware to nodes, software, and networking.
PowerFlex is the software foundation of PowerFlex software-defined infrastructure. It is a scale-out block and file storage service that is designed to deliver flexibility, elasticity, and simplicity with predictable high performance and resiliency at scale.
PowerFlex Manager is the software component in the PowerFlex family that enables ITOM automation and LCM capabilities for PowerFlex systems. Starting with PowerFlex 4.0, the unified PowerFlex Manager brings together three separate components that are used in previous releases: PowerFlex Manager, the core PowerFlex UI, and the PowerFlex gateway. The new PowerFlex UI runs in Kubernetes and embraces a modern development framework.
PowerFlex File Controllers, also known as File Nodes, are physical nodes that enable PowerFlex software-defined File Services. They host the Network-Attached Storage (NAS) Servers, which in turn host the tenant namespaces and file systems, mapping PowerFlex volumes to the file systems presented by the NAS Servers. All major protocols are supported, such as NFS, SMB/CIFS, FTP, and NDMP.