Pure Storage Announces Pure1, Single Platform for Cloud-Based Storage Management

Pure Storage, Inc. announced Pure1, a single platform for cloud-based storage management and support that improves productivity by giving IT staff the freedom to monitor storage across the globe from mobile devices.

Pure1 brings the previously fragmented management and support processes together into one cloud-based experience, enabling customers, partners, and Pure staff to work together to provide seamless coordination and ultra-proactive support. It reduces costs by eliminating dedicated storage management servers at each site where arrays are located and simplifies integration with applications in virtualization and cloud computing environments. It is built on the foundation of the Pure1 Cloud, an expansion of company’s existing CloudAssist technology, and consists of four elements: manage, support, connect and collaborate.

CloudAssist
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Company’s FlashArrays are managed via Pure1 and powered by the Purity Operating Environment. The FlashArray is modular and scalable all-flash array, designed from the ground up for solid-state storage, which runs the Purity Operating Environment. When FlashArray and Purity are paired with Evergreen Storage model, the customer experience related to the procurement, upgrade, expansion and ownership of storage is reinvented for simplicity.

“Storage management is a key component to architecting an effective flash deployment strategy,” said Eric Burgener, research director, IDC. “Cloud-based management solutions are the wave of the future because of their ease of use and flexibility, and with Pure1, Pure Storage now has a strong entry in this space that frees customers of the restrictions of legacy management models.“

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Storage management simplicity, delivered to any web browser
Designed to remove decades of accumulated complexity from the management model of legacy storage, Pure1 brings the simplicity and cost savings of the SaaS model to storage management. Most legacy storage vendors and other all-flash array vendors require customers to set up dedicated management servers at each site where arrays are located. With Pure1 Manage, IT staff members only need a web browser to monitor globally distributed FlashArrays on a single screen from anywhere, and a connection through their firewall enables full administration. The user interfaces are simple and intuitive, empowering a general IT administrator to master FlashArray management within minutes.

With Pure1 Manage, mobile productivity is a reality, as IT staff is no longer tied to desks or laptops to monitor storage. Customers have the information needed to troubleshoot potential application issues at their fingertips, giving them back valuable time to apply to more strategic projects. Additionally, customers save significant OPEX and CAPEX costs because they need not install and administer dedicated storage management servers, and the Pure1 features and experience can be iterated rapidly by company because of the SaaS-based model.

“Traditional storage management and support leaves a lot to be desired with complex and expensive management software tools, a reactive telephone-driven support experience and the expectation that the customer is responsible for bridging the gap to make it all work. Pure Storage knew that a fundamental change was necessary, and the entire model for storage management and support could be unified, and innovated using a cloud-based approach, a proactive philosophy and technology automation,” said Matt Kixmoeller, VP, products, Pure Storage. “The future of data center infrastructure management is in the cloud and we are investing in Pure1 to lead this change in storage management. Pure1 continues our track record of innovating in enterprise storage by bringing customer support, multi-array management, and partner collaboration into the cloud era.“

We’ll call you if there’s a problem
Pure1 Support combines technology and cloud automation with skilled engineers to deliver a proactive support experience. By using automation to monitor customers’ arrays, Pure1 Support detects and alerts customers proactively of potential problems — 83% of cases are opened proactively by Pure1, and Pure initiates the first call to the customer 58% of the time when the customer is involved. When one customer has an issue, it can be quickly pin-pointed and the entire installed base analyzed, so other customers potentially at risk are identified and notified. Issues identified by Pure1 Support can often be resolved in conjunction with a customer before they have an impact on the overall environment, and the RemoteAssist capability enables company’s support personnel, with customer approval, to login to FlashArrays and perform resolution and routine maintenance tasks, so customers don’t have to.

“Pure1 Manage allows us to monitor our storage arrays from anywhere, so we are always aware of the performance and capacity of our global storage footprint, which gives us peace of mind,” said David Moruzzi, director, infrastructure operations, Lithium Technologies, Inc. “We are no longer tethered to our desks and it has changed the way we think about managing our arrays.“

Pre-built integration and extensible automation
Pure1 Connect helps customers integrate FlashArrays with existing software and hardware in their data centers. Customers can tap into a growing ecosystem of application connectors including complete FlashArray management within vSphere, vRealize Operations Manager, and Site Recovery Manager, a pre-integrated OpenStack Cinder driver, and more. Pure1 Connect includes a REST API, which gives customers the power to automate FlashArray management for cloud environments. Development of customized workflows can be accelerated with automation toolkits that include starter scripts and PowerShell commandlets.

Pure1 Collaborate: Fostering a community
Pure1 Collaborate Community Site provides resources and discussion forums to build connections between customers, technology and channel partners, and Pure Storage employees so it is easy to share information and mutually benefit from the Pure Storage ecosystem. For example, application connectors, automation scripts and best practices are often developed by community members and shared within the group.

Pure1 Manage, Connect, and Collaborate are available and are included at no additional cost when purchasing a FlashArray, while on an active maintenance and support contract.

Pure1 support is available in two maintenance and support service tiers, Pure1 support advanced and Pure1 support premium, both offering 24×7 support globally with varying SLAs for onsite hardware replacement.