At this year’s Pure Accelerate we were offered a glimpse into the future of data storage. Contrary to what you might expect, the event didn’t center on some new array or a new version of flash. Rather, the focus was on how Pure is transforming the way it delivers storage technology, how its storage supports modern application environments, and how its customers consume and manage its storage.
The announcements focused on Pure’s vision of empowering its customers to achieve business breakthroughs via the modern data experience that Pure’s technology delivers. While the idea of enabling digital business is not new, Pure’s breakthrough concept updates that message to suit the demands of today.
Nearly every business is already digital or in a state of digital transformation. According to ESG research, 98% of IT organizations identify as being in some state of digital transformation. Another way to think about that is that being “digital” isn’t going to move the needle anymore from a competitive standpoint. Being “digital” is necessary for survival but does not guarantee success.
And in a similar fashion, simply buying a newer or faster storage array isn’t going to really move the needle either. Businesses need storage technology that can accelerate operations as well as protect data, and at this years’ Accelerate event, Pure presented its next step to delivering that transformation.
Simplify Kubernetes and Accelerate Cloud-native Development
Building on the vision it put forth with the Portworx acquisition, Pure can now deliver a consistent, Kubernetes-native experience across both FlashArray and FlashBlade systems leveraging Portworx’s technology. IT organizations can automate Kubernetes provisioning for both block and file storage, while also simplifying the work required to ensure resiliency, performance, availability, and data protection.
For modern application environments, these advances are huge. If you want to differentiate your digital business from your competition, speed is essential. Just supporting a CSI driver is often not enough to move the needle for Kubernetes environments. What Pure is doing can actually accelerate DevOps. Developing better code faster equates to making more money. It is sometimes just that simple.
Intelligent Storage as a Service
Another huge part of this event was Pure’s shift from delivering systems to delivering outcomes. The bottom line in today’s IT organizations is that IT is too important and too complex, and smart people are too precious to spend a bunch of resources on managing infrastructure. Pure not only gets that, but they were one of the early vendors to understand the vital importance of simplifying every aspect of the IT experience.
Pure’s Pure1 has artificial intelligence integrated to offer recommendations on net-new workload placement, along with recommendations on how to re-balance existing workloads to optimize their performance along with performance and capacity recommendations. Pure even offers a calculator for its Pure-as-a-Service offering to calculate the price (with full transparency) of procuring storage as a service.
Pure’s integrated AI and Pure1 dramatically reduce the burden on IT when it comes to planning, deploying new workloads, and optimizing existing environments. Again, you and the rest of your IT staff have better things to do. Let Pure help take the risk away from you.
Also, on a side note, I commend Pure’s confidence to provide full pricing transparency. Seriously, 5 years ago, did you think you would see that from a major IT provider? Transparency makes planning so much easier, as well as less risky, which helps your business.
Pure continues to be among the leaders in data storage. And this year’s event reaffirmed that status. If you haven’t looked at Pure in a while, take a look at what they are doing, especially for Kubernetes environments. It’s compelling stuff.
Disagree with my take? Want to chat more on how you think IT events should just focus on hardware? Think storage as a service is a fad and miss the good old days of selecting the physical spindle for each workload? Send me a note, and let’s talk.
