At Pure Accelerate, Pure Storage CEO Charles Giancarlo laid out his vision for how Pure Storage delivers on the promise “Modern Data Experience.” But what does a “Modern Data Experience” mean, and what does delivering on this promise looks like?
The Pure Way
First, let’s look at how Pure has defined “Modern Data Experience.” The words they use are Simple, Seamless, and Sustainable.
To them, this means API-driven, consistent management tools, experience, and analytics regardless of whether you operate on-premises or in the cloud. Storage services are multi-protocol and multi-cloud. Customers have flexible purchase or subscription options to buy what they need. These customers also aren’t locked into outdated hardware but can upgrade when they want.
While this is pretty simplified, here are some Pure offerings that fall into the categories outlined in Pure’s “Modern Data Experience.” Pure 1 and Pure Meta are examples of solutions that represent their commitment to simplicity. Sustainability is represented in Evergreen Storage and Pure-as-a-Service offerings. CloudSnap, portable snapshots in which metadata and data blocks are encapsulated together, and “Snap to NFS” show Pure’s commitment to a seamless experience. Really, though, most of these products belong could live in multiple categories. Since those three words are the pillars of Pure’s “Modern Data Experience”, it only makes sense that they are all so interconnected.
Next up, let’s explore my takes on Pure’s goal-centric adjectives for “Modern Data Experience” and what these terms mean to me in this multi-cloud, run your application anywhere world.
Consistency
For the longest time, cloud migration conversations centered around whether an organization would lift-and-shift or rewrite their applications to be cloud-native. One of the many reasons that organizations considered lift-and-shift a viable option was because they only wanted a single way of operating, and they chose the route they knew. Lift-and-shift became the path of least resistance.
However, times are a-changing, and organizations are rewriting applications that exist on-premises to be cloud-like even if those applications will only live on-premises. They are embracing the value of having consistent development models in both cloud and on-premises. Because cloud-native is optimized for the cloud and container orchestrators like Kubernetes and OpenShift can run anywhere, this is becoming the new path of least resistance.
Optimization
As much as cloud simplified deploying resources like compute and storage, it also complicates things like billing. If left unchecked, bills can quickly become hefty in AWS and other hyperscaler environments. Because the reward of cloud cost savings is great and the rise of Machine Learning allows you to glean even greater insight into how your applications are performing and utilizing resources, optimization is a frequent topic du jour. After all, if you want to improve efficiency and cost savings, you need measurements. Organizations end up on a constant quest to make the most efficient use of the resources that they have.
Consumption Models
Can you consume something as a Service? Being able and align your operating costs with revenue is powerful. When you make more, you spend more on IT. Also, one of the challenges of traditional infrastructure has always been forecasting future needs. Organizations have long struggled with overbuying or not buying enough. As-a-Service helps with this tremendously.
Traditional storage vendors, though, have also struggled to transition from solely capital expenditures (CapEx) and offer Operational Expenditures (OpEx) options, too. Evergreen Storage and Pure as-a-Service for On-Prem and Public Cloud take on these consumption-related challenges and are key differentiators for Pure Storage.
Plus, the hamster wheel of always having to buy new hardware gets tiring. When you have to explain to a CTO that the storage array that you spent $1 million on five years ago has to be de-commissioned, no one is happy. Pure’s answer to this quandary was to create a subscription service for CAPEX purchased storage arrays that allow you to upgrade every three years for up to 10 years. Pure-as-a-Service allows you pay for a reserved capacity and then what you use of that. Consume in on-premises, via direct connect, or in the cloud.
Conclusion
Now that I’ve shared Pure’s “Modern Data Experience” aspirations and my thoughts, what does this term mean to you? If you are interested in reading more about Pure’s approach, you can find it here.
Stay tuned for my next post on Pure Storage’s “Modern Data Experience.”
