Unstructured data is growing at a staggering rate of 55-65% annually. And IDC reports that by 2025, there will be 175 zettabytes—that’s 175 plus 21 zeroes—of global data and 80% of that data will be unstructured.
This presents enterprises with immense opportunities and significant challenges. Increasingly, organizations store these volumes of unstructured data on high-performance arrays like Pure FlashArray. These arrays can provide the speed, scalability, efficiency, and simplicity needed to handle massive, complex, and unpredictable data growth.
But as these stores of unstructured data expand, they need consistent protection, fast scans to identify threats, and the ability to recover quickly in the event of a cyber incident.
Fortunately the new Rubrik API integration for Pure FlashArray—now generally available—gives you a direct, reliable, and efficient way to secure unstructured data at scale.
Building on a Strong Partnership
Rubrik and Pure Storage have collaborated for years to protect enterprise data at scale. This partnership has delivered:
Cyber Resilience Stack: Joint solutions for mission-critical data protection and recovery
Unstructured Data Reference Architecture: Validated designs for protecting data at scale
Cyber Resilience Visibility Integration: Enhanced visibility for trusted recovery
The FlashArray API integration represents the next evolution, moving from file-based protection to native array integration that unlocks the full performance and reliability potential of both platforms.
Challenges with File-Based Backup
Traditional network file system and server message block-based backup approaches face growing limitations as unstructured data volumes expand. For example:
Inconsistent snapshots: Open files, antivirus scanners, and active applications can cause backup failures or incomplete captures
Manual configuration overhead: Setting up proper permissions requires admin intervention, multiple support tickets, and creates opportunities for misconfiguration
Time-consuming discovery: Teams must manually identify and enter share paths, especially challenging with NFSv3 and NFSv4 environments
Performance bottlenecks: File-level traversal creates overhead that slows backups and extends recovery windows
These challenges compound as data scales, directly impacting backup windows, recovery objectives, and operational efficiency.
What the API Integration Delivers
Alternatively, an API-based approach to unstructured data backup delivers several key benefits, including:
Consistent Snapshot Orchestration: The integration orchestrates FlashArray snapshots through Pure APIs, ensuring every backup captures a consistent point-in-time copy. This eliminates conflicts with open files, antivirus scanners, and customer applications. You get reliable backups without worrying about skipped files or data integrity issues.
Automated Permission Management: Admin-level permissions are applied automatically through the API: no more manual configuration, no more support calls to troubleshoot access issues. The integration handles it seamlessly, reducing deployment time and eliminating a common source of errors.
Intelligent Auto-Discovery: Rubrik discovers FlashArray shares and IPs directly through Pure APIs. Setup becomes faster and more accurate—no manual entry, no typos, no missing paths. The system automatically maintains awareness of infrastructure changes.
Performance at Scale: Direct API communication removes file-system overhead. Snapshot triggers, metadata ingestion, and recovery operations all benefit from native array integration rather than file-level traversal.
Stronger Cyber Resilience: Consistent, snapshot-based backups eliminate the risk of backing up corrupted or infected files during an active ransomware attack. When you need to recover, you can trust that your restore points captured clean data at a known point in time.
Proven Performance for Unstructured Data
Rubrik NAS Cloud Direct and Pure FlashArray deliver high-performance protection for large-scale unstructured data workloads. Joint validation testing has demonstrated the solution's capabilities across demanding scenarios:
- Protection of multi-petabyte file systems with billions of files
- High-throughput backup and recovery operations
- Scalable architecture supporting enterprise data growth
For detailed performance benchmarks and lab validation results, see the joint white paper.
The new API integration builds on this proven performance foundation by making deployment easier and backups more consistent through native snapshot orchestration.
Figure 1: Native API integration between Pure FlashArray and Rubrik NAS Cloud Direct
Real-World Impact
Organizations running large unstructured data workloads on FlashArray can now:
Protect billions of files with consistent, application-aware snapshots
Accelerate ransomware recovery through precise restore-point selection and faster restore operations
Reduce operational complexity with automated discovery and permission management
Improve compliance posture with more reliable, verifiable backup completion
What’s Next
Rubrik and Pure will continue joint validation and field enablement to support customers using FlashArray for large unstructured data workloads. The teams are also collaborating on expanded performance testing, solution guides, and reference architectures.
The FlashArray API integration is now available to all Rubrik NAS Cloud Direct customers.
Your Rubrik representative can guide you through:
Integration setup and configuration
Performance benchmarking for your specific environment
Migration planning from file-based to API-based protection
Best practices for cyber resilience at scale
Contact your Rubrik team to learn more about protecting your FlashArray data with native API integration.