INTELLIGENT DATACENTRES
How Pure Storage intends disrupting data, databases, analytics
Matt Kixmoeller describes seven innovation milestones Pure Storage has set for itself converging the challenges of data management, data access, data storage.
When we started Pure Storage in 2009, we laid-out a bold but simple plan. We saw the coming of flash technology as an opportunity to re-think storage entirely, and we used flash as an opportunity to build a new class of smart storage solutions, focusing our innovation in three key areas: # 1 Build affordable all-flash storage # 2 Make storage simple and self-driving # 3 Make storage evergreen
Seven years later, our original Pure Storage mission is well on the path to being accomplished. We are proud to have had an outsized impact on the $ 35 billion storage market, as the storage behemoths have all pivoted to chase Pure Storage, attempting to emulate both our product strategy and business model.
We aim to deliver a data platform that enables our customers to build a new class of applications and to extract new insights from data – we call this data advantage. With data advantage as our focus, we have set four additional new innovation priorities for the next five years at Pure Storage:
# 4 Bring flash to large-scale unstructured data # 5 Transform application data storage again with Non-Volatile Memory Express # 6 Deliver next-generation converged infrastructure, optimised for cloud and new stack applications # 7 Make application development and data protection effortless in the cloud era
To be clear, we are far from done with our first three innovations areas! The storage industry is still only about 15 % into the all-flash transition, and we are continuing to innovate with SaaS-based management, predictive analytics, and even more business model transformation.
As the businesses of legacy storage companies continue to falter, some have asked why build a storage company at all? Our belief is simple: in the increasingly digital economy data is key.
Yet in most datacentres today, data is also the key bottleneck. Data on disk is the last mechanical gate in the compute chain. Data is where compromises are ultimately made: how much to store, how much can be analysed, how long to wait for answers, compromises no one wants to make.
The IT landscape today is dominated by vendors who are treating data as a compromise. These vendors are all pivoting to low cost and low differentiation data strategies, versus investing in a platform to drive data advantage. Pure Storage believes there is a place in the market for a pure-play data innovator, wholly-focused on driving data advantage.
Bring flash to large-scale
4 unstructured data Pure Storage’ s success has been built upon helping core business applications and clouds that run them to be faster and more efficient. But this mission ignored the majority of data, the vast pools of unstructured data that in the world of digital sensors and machine generated everything is being created faster than it can be analysed.
40 Issue 04 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS