At its recent HPE Discover Barcelona event, HPE announced its new Alletra Storage MP X10000, an object storage platform integrated with its HPE GreenLake cloud. This release introduces a multi-protocol, software-defined architecture consolidating block, file, and object storage into a single, cloud-managed system.

The X10000 incorporates all-NVMe storage and disaggregated scaling to optimize performance, capacity, and cost efficiency for data-intensive workloads, particularly in AI, data lakes, and backup/recovery.

Technical Details

HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000 introduces a scale-out, disaggregated storage architecture that allows independent scaling of performance and capacity. It integrates with HPE GreenLake for centralized management, enabling cloud-native operations across hybrid environments.

Storage Architecture and Performance

• The X10000 utilizes an all-NVMe design to eliminate front-end caching and data movement bottlenecks, providing consistent low-latency performance.
• HPE implements a log-structured key-value store to optimize flash media usage and improve write efficiencies, critical for object storage workloads.
• The platform delivers up to what HPE claims is 6x faster performance than leading competitors, improving throughput and scalability for AI-driven analytics and data-intensive applications.

Scalability and Flexibility

• The system scales from three to hundreds of nodes, providing petabyte-to-exabyte storage capabilities.
• HPE’s disaggregated storage model allows enterprises to independently scale compute, capacity, and networking, reducing resource over-provisioning.
• Support for AWS S3/S3a APIs enables seamless integration with cloud-native applications and object storage ecosystems.

Data Protection and Efficiency

• Erasure coding and inline data reduction improve capacity utilization while maintaining data integrity.
• The S3-compatible object interface and deduplication capabilities enable up to 20x data reduction, minimizing storage costs for backup and archival workloads.
• HPE certifies the X10000 for backup and recovery with industry-leading vendors, including Commvault and Veeam.

Management and Cloud Integration

• The X10000 operates under the HPE GreenLake cloud, which provides a unified management platform for block, file, and object storage.
• The HPE Data Services Cloud Console (DSCC) enables centralized provisioning, monitoring, and proactive support, streamlining operations across hybrid IT environments.

Analysis

HPE has long had a gap in its storage portfolio, missing a competitive object storage solution. For reasons that have never been publicly articulated, HPE chose not to include the object storage capabilities of its partner VAST Data, whose IP HPE licensed for its file-based Alletra solutions, in its portfolio. This has left an 18-month-long gap that it’s nice to see the company close with this release. 

HPE is positioning the Alletra Storage MP X10000 as a high-performance alternative to traditional object storage solutions. Its disaggregated, multi-protocol architecture offers flexibility in scaling and workload optimization, a key differentiator against competitors such as Dell ECS, Pure Storage FlashBlade, and NetApp StorageGRID.

As enterprises scale AI workloads and unstructured data grows, object storage performance and cloud integration become critical differentiators. HPE’s X10000 aligns with enterprise demand for AI-ready storage but faces competition from cloud-native object storage services such as AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Blob Storage, which offer native elasticity and global scale.

HPE’s ability to drive adoption will depend on price competitiveness, software differentiation, and integration with enterprise data ecosystems. The focus on multi-protocol support, independent scalability, and cloud-based management strengthens its value proposition in hybrid cloud and AI-driven environments.

This is a strong offering from HPE.

Competitive Outlook & Advice to IT Buyers

The new HPE Alletra Object Storage solution competes directly against a wide range of object-focused solutions. This includes traditional OEMs like Pure Storage, NetApp, Lenovo, and Dell Technologies, along with upstarts like Cloudian and MinIO…

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