When it comes to storage capabilities, what does the hybrid cloud mean to an enterprise?
For Pure Storage Inc., the answer is being able to send data inexpensively to the public cloud, having the ability to restore information either on-premises or in the cloud, and backing up data volumes across a multitude of platforms.
“What we’re looking to achieve is quite simple,” said Rob Lee (pictured), vice president and chief architect at Pure Storage. “We want to give customers the choice, whether they want to run on-premises or in the cloud. We don’t want to put customers in a position where they feel they have to make that choice and feel trapped in one location or another because of lack of features, lack of capabilities, or economics.”
Lee spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Pure//Accelerate event in Austin, Texas. They discussed the approach taken by Pure to tailor its technology for use in the public cloud and how the company has been surprised by use cases for one product in particular (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)
Differentiated product for AWS
Among the latest announcements from Pure was that it would partner with Amazon Web Services Inc. to offer its on-premises storage software in the public cloud. The outcome was Cloud Block Store on AWS, Pure’s operating system optimized for the AWS environment.
“Why that partnership has been so successful is we’re both driven by the same thing, which is customer success,” Lee said. “It became pretty clear to them that we were setting out to build a differentiated product and not just tick off checkboxes. That’s when their eyes really opened.”
Some storage solutions originate to address a particular enterprise need and then customers select the use cases that ultimately determine a technology’s role and direction in enterprise computing. This has been the case with Pure’s FlashBlade product, designed to provide file and object storage solutions.
“We’ve been surprised at a lot of the use cases that the FlashBlade product has been put into play for,” Lee noted. “Artificial intelligence was one of them. That’s really taken off, and it was very much a customer-driven area.”
Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Pure//Accelerate event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Pure//Accelerate event. Neither Pure Storage Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
Photo: SiliconANGLE
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