Pure Storage has introduced a new service to help customers migrate their on-premises VMware environments to Microsoft Azure.
Coming soon to customer preview, Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution is a block storage as a service available for AVS. The offering will be a migration and management tool, easing the movement of block data into the cloud. It will also come with native integration across the Azure Portal and Pure storage, and customers will be able to apply their existing Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), or Azure credits, to the service.
Pure Storage Cloud for AVS is a fully managed version of Pure Cloud Block Store for AVS that launched last year. Pure Cloud Block Store for AVS is still available to customers, according to Pure.
One of the best ways for [storage vendors] to maintain or continue delivering value is use cases like migration.
Henry BaltazarAnalyst, 451 Research
Storage vendors are ascertaining use cases where they can provide hybrid offerings to customers, according to Henry Baltazar, an analyst at 451 Research, which is part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
"One of the best ways for [storage vendors] to maintain or continue delivering value is use cases like migration," he said.
Smoothing migration
Data migration to the public cloud can better optimize large data storage and usage, compared with having it on-premises, where there is limited space. However, this comes with challenges, such as the time to migrate and potentially migrating duplicate data, Baltazar said.
Another obstacle is that data storage on-premises and in the cloud aren't mirrors of each other, according to Pure. The vendor said it intends to overcome these challenges by providing the same services in the cloud and on-premises so data doesn't have to fit a new or different service.
"The biggest problem [with migration] is trying to get consistency between different clouds or trying to get consistency between on-premises and public cloud," Baltazar said.
Pure's new offering brings storage functionality such as deduplication and compression, reducing the time and costs of migration, he said.
Tailoring Pure Storage Cloud for AVS and integrating it with VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols), VMs stored in a container, makes this more of a "lift and shift" to the cloud, according to Steve McDowell, founder and analyst at NAND Research.
"You still have to move the data up, but … it looks just like on-prem storage," he said.
McDowell noted that other storage vendors offer data services in clouds with enterprise features similar to on-premises. But Pure uses vVols and block storage to shift the workload into the cloud, something that doesn't currently have direct competition.
Cost, security, credits
Customers can use cloud storage combined with Pure's latest offering for better price predictability, the vendor said. Pure will also expand its security and data protection features into the cloud along with Pure Storage Cloud for AVS.
Data compression can save a company time and money but having the same storage capabilities on-premises and in the cloud can also be a cost savings, according to 451's Baltazar. Customers could choose not to use a public cloud's block storage for any number of reasons, such as the costs associated with adding a new service or learning a new technology.
"Having this virtual version, which is built on the same stack or same technology and has the same kinds of capabilities, that's where that value can come into play," Baltazar said.
McDowell agreed and added data protection to the list.
"Storage companies' cloud offerings bring enterprise features not seen from native cloud services," he said.
The ability to use MACC on Pure offerings will also save on costs, McDowell said, which will benefit those that accumulate credits.
Adam Armstrong is a TechTarget Editorial news writer covering file and block storage hardware and private clouds. He previously worked at StorageReview.
