Analyst(s): Camberley Bates, Paul Nashawaty
Publication Date: September 25, 2024
At Pure Accelerate London, Pure Storage rolled out new models for FlashBlade and services that addressed portability and virtualization migration.
What Is Covered in This Article:
- The new FlashBlade model and functionality
- New Universal Credits for subscription
- Stated direction for the 150TB DFM
- More help for optimizing server virtualization
The News: Pure Storage made several key announcements at Pure Accelerate London. The company unveiled the new FlashBlade//S100, a lower-capacity entry point for their unified file and object storage solution. They also introduced Universal Credits, a subscription-based pricing model that offers greater flexibility and scalability. Additionally, Pure Storage outlined their roadmap for the 150TB Direct Flash Module (DFM) and reaffirmed their commitment to supporting server virtualization migration.
Pure Storage Levels down with the FlashBlade//S100 at London Accelerate
Analyst Take: Pure Storage has introduced a new entry-level object storage solution called the FlashBlade//S100. Object storage has often been equated with large and very large deployments, but in recent years, customers recognizing the value of the technology have opted to enter in at lower capacity sizes. Thus, this new model is designed to cater to smaller-scale deployments, offering a starting capacity of 126TB and a maximum capacity of 3PB. The S100 comes equipped with the same data services as its larger counterparts, including snapshots, replication, WORM, and SafeMode. Additionally, it can be upgraded to larger FlashBlade systems through non-disruptive migrations.
Pure Storage also rolled out new features for FlashBlade. These include QoS for setting service levels by workload, thus adjusting automatically based on priorities. The new multi-tenancy feature enables multi-level authentication and shared buckets. Their Co-Pilot support, which has been rolled out previously for FlashArray, is now available for FlashBlade.
Pure also announced Universal Credits for purchasing subscription services. Long being an innovator in services that wrap around technology, such as Evergreen, this offering recognizes that customers may not know exactly what they need over a given subscription time frame. The Universal Credits allows customers to move between Pure Storage products and service locations – in the cloud on premises. They are also rolling out ‘self-activation’ through their portal, making it that much easier to transact.
Pure Storage also reiterated the availability of their 150TB DFM by the end of the year. This will be a boon to their FlashArray capacity series and the large-end FlashBlade solutions.
Lastly, Pure Storage gave a preview to their Virtualization Assessment Tool. This is an online tool to model a server virtualization environment and costs of the software, i.e. VMware to support the environment. The tool will look at the servers, cores, and storage implications. This is a continuation of the company’s work to help customers decide on the direction for the VMware investments.
What to Watch:
- FlashBlade//S100 entry level joins a select few object storage providers with the entry-level offering. As AI and container use grows, consider others will follow.
- Universal credits are becoming a must have from vendors, especially as vendors pursue a more unified or platform approach to providing data storage. Expect this to become a standard from all vendors.
- Expect competitive pricing actions with the roll out of the 150TB DFM.
Please see the press release on Pure Storage’s website.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
The Six Five – On the Road with Pure Storage CEO Charles Giancarlo
Pure Storage//Accelerate 24 Announcements
Storage Portworx and Red Hat OpenShift Simplify Virtualization
Author Information
Now retired, Camberley brought over 25 years of executive experience leading sales and marketing teams at Fortune 500 firms. Before joining The Futurum Group, she led the Evaluator Group, an information technology analyst firm as Managing Director.
Her career spanned all elements of sales and marketing including a 360-degree view of addressing challenges and delivering solutions was achieved from crossing the boundary of sales and channel engagement with large enterprise vendors and her own 100-person IT services firm.
Camberley provided Global 250 startups with go-to-market strategies, creating a new market category “MAID” as Vice President of Marketing at COPAN and led a worldwide marketing team including channels as a VP at VERITAS. At GE Access, a $2B distribution company, she served as VP of a new division and succeeded in growing the company from $14 to $500 million and built a successful 100-person IT services firm. Camberley began her career at IBM in sales and management.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business from California State University – Long Beach and executive certificates from Wellesley and Wharton School of Business.
With over 25 years of experience, Paul has a proven track record in implementing effective go-to-market strategies, including the identification of new market channels, the growth and cultivation of partner ecosystems, and the successful execution of strategic plans resulting in positive business outcomes for his clients.
