All-flash array vendor Pure Storage has teamed up with database virtualization firm Delphix to demonstrate that flash is not only faster than disk, but also more cost-efficient across the board.

To prove their point, the pair deployed 26 virtual databases, each one terabyte in size, on a Pure Storage FlashArray. The system served 35,000 transactions per minute while consuming only 1.5 terabytes of total storage, and managed to reach sustained peak performance of 900,000 transactions per minute. The companies said that achieving the same results using a disk array from an unnamed legacy vendor required 15 times the capacity and cost 10 times as much.

“When you virtualize a database, you create a highly random IO stream to the storage that brings mechanical disk arrays to their knees,” said Matt Kixmoeller, the vice president of products at Pure Storage. “Used in combination with the Pure Storage FlashArray, which thrives on random IO, and our inline deduplication technology, virtualized databases produced by Delphix can now consume very little space and still have plenty of IO headroom.”

In late August, Pure Storage closed a massive $150 million Series E funding round led by T. Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management and other public market investors. Existing backers Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Sutter Hill Venture participated as well.

The company said that it will use the new capital to expand into new markets and accelerate the development of its FlashArray platform, which received the backing of the intelligence community a few months prior. In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s VC arm, made a strategic investment in Pure to help it “meet the unique needs of IQT’s government customers.”