'This was a very purposeful strategy': Pure Storage unveils Enterprise Data Cloud in bid to unify data storage, management

Pure Storage has announced the launch of a new unified data management platform aimed at streamlining infrastructure for enterprises - and CEO Charlie Giancarlo believes it’s a key differentiator for the company moving forward.

Unveiled at the company’s Pure//Accelerate conference in Las Vegas this week, the Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) service aims to provide enterprises with a “virtualized cloud of data” that can be easily monitored, scaled, and managed.

The move marks the latest effort by the company to build out its platform-focused strategy for data storage and management.

With a unified architecture, it’s essentially cultivating an all-encompassing ecosystem which combines hardware and software, and caters to a wide range of enterprise storage options, including hybrid, public cloud, and on-prem.

If it all sounds rather familiar, then you’re not wrong. Other industry competitors, NetApp in particular, have similar options in the form of its Data Fabric - another unified data storage and management solution.

However, speaking to ITPro at the conference this week, Giancarlo said there are notable differences which make this an industry-first.

“I think they've used that [Data Fabric] for 25 years as their phrase,” he told ITPro. “But what’s really different is that we have this intelligent control plane, which has never existed in data storage before, just to be really clear.”

The intelligent control plane, a key component of the EDC, enables enterprises to automate aspects of their storage and data management practices, such as the optimization of storage arrays, for example.

It’s by no means the only aspect of the new Data Cloud that has Giancarlo and the company waxing lyrical. Indeed, the new solution combines an array of automation and analytics tools, including Pure1, the company’s intelligent planning and analytics platform.

Similarly, integration of its AI Copilot, unveiled at last year’s conference also provides enterprises more detailed insights.

Meanwhile, Pure Fusion, another resource management platform, plays an equally important role in the broader strategy. This allows users to unify storage as a “pool of adaptable resources”, which ultimately simplifies management of arrays and configurations.

Reaching the point of offering a unified data storage ecosystem has been a long-term effort by the firm, Giancarlo told ITPro, and has been facilitated by Purity, the operating system which underpins the company’s FlashArray and FlashBlade systems.

This is essentially the software layer that allows users to manage and optimize storage options.

“This was a very purposeful strategy that took us quite a few years to develop, where we have developed everything on purity,” Giancarlo told ITPro.

“At the core of purity is something called a key value store, which is a very modern way of having very scalable metadata,” he added. “So whether it's a block, file, or object, a large file, small file, everything is just a key value that is done as a lookup.

“Having a unified data plane made it easier for us, and the fact that we're on all-flash made it easier for us to be able to finally deliver, for the first time, a virtualized cloud of storage rather than individual arrays.”

It’s this aspect of the Enterprise Data Cloud that differentiates Pure Storage from competitors in the marketplace, Giancarlo noted.

“Now the Data Fabric did not allow NetApp to actually create a global cloud of storage,” he said. “It allowed them to expand their file system somewhat, but not beyond a few arrays.”

Responding to customer needs

Speaking to assembled media at the conference, Shawn Hansen, VP & GM at Pure Storage’s Core Platform Business Unit, described the launch as a “huge moment” for the company.

Hansen added that the motivation behind the platform has come in response to growing demands for flexible, scalable storage solutions in the age of AI. EDC essentially allows users to consolidate and streamline the storage and management of data resources.

“We have the ability to unify all of your data appliances, all your data infrastructure, into one common pool,” he said. “And that gives you the ability to govern.”

According to Hansen, engagement with customers and industry partners highlighted a common recurring theme over the last year - an inability to generate value from data as a result of poor visibility and disparate environments.

“We've met with many CIOs from different banks and large companies around the world…the number one thing they tell us is they feel like they're out of control, that AI is happening so fast they can no longer control the data cycles, and their new problem is they have to aggregate, they have to centralize it, they have to control it and govern it, and then make that data ready and easy to use in their new AI systems.”

Simply put, Hansen insisted that tackling this confluence of challenges for IT leaders is “impossible” without a unified infrastructure approach.

“The world really needs to have something to unify and simplify,” he added.