The Pure Report

Latest Episodes:

Taming the Beast: Managing HPC & AI Data at Scale with Zero Move Tiering on FlashBlade Sep 05, 2025

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Data management in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI environments presents unique challenges, especially with heavy file usage and evolving data lifecycles. This edition of the Pure Report podcast delves into these complexities, exploring how data transitions through development, simulation/training, inference/optimization, and long-term retention phases. Together with Pure technologists Bikash Choudhury and Don Poorman, we’ll tackle the critical problem statement: reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by automatically moving inactive data to different tiers without sacrificing accessibility or performance during crucial operational stages. Join us as we introduce Pure Storage's innovative Zero Move Tiering (ZMT) solution. Discover how ZMT delivers dynamic Service Level Agreements (SLAs) across performance and capacity tiers without data movement, leading to lower TCO and zero operational overhead. We'll also examine how ZMT fits into various data lifecycle stages, from development build workloads to AI-augmented modeling and simulation, and compare Pure's approach to the common deficiencies seen in other vendor solutions.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Proactive and Predictive Support (Pure1) and Non-Disruptive Everything (Evergreen) Sep 02, 2025

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We made it to Episode 6 - the final in our 15 Architectural Decisions series and saved some of the best for last - Predictive and Proactive support (Pure1) combined with our Evergreen architecture and non-disruptive everything. In this episode, JD, Andrew and I dive into Pure Storage's foundational principles that ensure continuous operation and future-proof your storage. We explore the concept of "Non-Disruptive Everything," a core tenet that allows for seamless upgrades and expansions without any downtime. This ties directly into the innovative Evergreen Storage Model, which redefines the ownership experience by eliminating forklift upgrades and enabling independent evolution of performance, capacity, and features over a decade-long array lifecycle. We also discuss how Pure's proactive and predictive support, powered by Pure1, plays a critical role in maintaining this non-disruptive environment. Pure1's advanced analytics, anomaly detection, and data protection assessments provide unparalleled visibility and ensure that potential issues are identified and addressed before they impact operations. This integrated approach, from architecture to support, highlights how Pure Storage consistently delivers a cloud-like experience on-premises, setting a new standard for reliability and longevity in the storage industry. Thanks for watching our series. Series Overview: Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Encryption, Metadata, and Install/Repair/Replace (DIY) Aug 26, 2025

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Episode 5 of our series covers always-on encryption, the smart use of metadata, and our DIY install/repair/upgrade approach. Pure's approach to security is to have it built-in and non-optional, with end-to-end encryption—covering both user data and metadata—using device or software-based AES-256 alongside features like Rapid Data Locking, role-based access controls, and secure erasure methods to protect against breaches and support compliance needs. Next, hear about how metadata serves as the “secret sauce” for Pure, enabling highly efficient, granular data services and powering capabilities like snapshots and instant cloning through a scalable, multi-tiered framework that writes, caches, and protects metadata in ways traditional arrays cannot match. Finally, we touch on installation, repairs, and upgrades which are designed for ultimate simplicity and DIY ease, with non-disruptive software and hardware changes—thanks to Pure’s Evergreen architecture—which allows organizations to grow and evolve storage resources without operational downtime, complex migrations, or compromise. These architectural choices underpin Pure’s promise of secure, resilient, and agile storage that adapts to changing business needs while remaining effortless to manage. Series Overview: Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Snapshots, Realistic Efficiency Metrics, and Adaptive RAID Aug 19, 2025

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Episode 4 of our series around Pure's fundamental design principles dives into aspects of Pure's technology that drive realistic efficiency for users. This episode tackles capabilities most Storage professionals are familiar with - snapshots, efficiency metrics and adaptive flexible RAID. Pure learned from the challenges created by legacy architectures to build better versions of these features into our all-flash array portfolio. Hear about how Pure Storage’s snapshot architecture focuses on instant, efficient, and immutable copies that serve both operational and security needs. Snapshots can be created instantly with no performance overhead and used for rapid recovery, cloning, or replication—each one functions as a “gold copy version” and maintains group consistency, enabling rollbacks to any point in time without dependencies or data duplication. Their design is tightly integrated with metadata, enabling efficient thin provisioning and consistent protection, while SafeMode extends these benefits by enforcing privileged access and retention policies for ransomware resilience. Around realistic efficiency metrics - we deliver transparent and realistic efficiency metrics by directly reporting space consumption trends and physical storage utilization, rather than relying solely on claims about thin provisioning or data reduction. Our user interface distinguishes between budgeted capacity, usable capacity, and used space, with a focus on showing only live user data (volumes and snapshots), and hiding internal system overhead, RAID overhead, and reclaimable space until critical thresholds are reached. Finally, we tackle RAID - Pure’s RAID architecture is built for flash, utilizing a flexible, adaptive structure that never requires manual configuration while continuously ensuring optimal data protection and performance. Series Overview: Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Controller Architecture and Limited Error Paths Aug 12, 2025

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Our series around Pure's fundamental design principles continues. Episode 3 discusses three key architectural decisions: stateless controllers, the second controller, and limited error paths. Hear from co-hosts JD Wallace and Andrew Miller about how stateless controllers mean no identity or state is stored within the controller itself, allowing for easy replacement and upgrades without downtime. This design philosophy simplifies maintenance, reduces support costs, and enables seamless technology migrations, allowing Pure customers to upgrade hardware generations without impacting business operations. This is a significant shift from older storage array methods that required complex, time-consuming manual processes and often led to downtime. We then further explore the strategic decision behind having a second controller in an active-standby configuration, prioritizing consistent performance and uptime over maximizing raw performance from both controllers simultaneously. This approach ensures that performance remains stable even during failovers or planned upgrades, eliminating unpredictable results and reducing the need for constant monitoring by IT admins. By focusing on reliability and simplicity, Pure Storage aims to provide a "cloud-like" experience for on-prem and cloud connected storage, significantly reducing operational complexity and enabling faster adoption of new technologies and features. The Pure Report podcast is now available on video - bookmark the playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5d3ZupjTzE150O6sjbVLhrAP3kpC1QEm

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Flash and Data Reduction Aug 05, 2025

Show notes

Our series around Pure's fundamental design principles continues. Episode two of the series centers in on the choice to use exclusively Flash memory and how best to leverage it. Next, the team dives into innovations in a wide range of data reduction technologies and advantages for users across a spectrum of business applications. Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Simplicity and Scale Jul 29, 2025

Show notes

Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage. Episode one centers around Pure's simplicity in design and capabilities to scale effortlessly.

Inside Public Sector IT: Federal Impacts, Budget Realities, and Public Safety Innovation Jul 14, 2025

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Jump back into the Pure Report as we welcome back Jim Weaver, Pure Storage Strategic Advisor for the Public Sector, to explore how federal policy changes and budget uncertainties are reshaping state and local government IT strategies. Drawing from his extensive experience as a former state CIO, Jim provides insider insights into navigating federal impacts while discussing the shift from CAPEX to OPEX models as agencies seek operational flexibility in turbulent times. The conversation dives deep into Pure Storage's new Public Safety campaign, examining the technology behind video surveillance, body cameras, forensics data collection, and next-generation 911 systems that are transforming how government agencies serve and protect their communities. Don't miss this essential discussion on the intersection of politics, budgets, and cutting-edge technology in the public sector.

Data Defenders: When Storage Meets Security - The Varonis and Pure Storage Partnership May 05, 2025

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In an era where data breaches cost organizations millions and threaten business continuity daily, the intersection of data storage and security has never been more critical. Hear from two industry experts: Nolan Necoechea, Product Marketing leader from Varonis, and returning guest Jason Walker from Pure Storage. Together, we unpack how intelligent data classification, threat detection, and automated remediation are changing the cybersecurity landscape – and why the foundation of effective security starts with how your data is stored and classified. This episode takes listeners from Varonis's fascinating origin story (involving disappearing high-resolution ocean floor images) to the cutting-edge of modern cybersecurity practices. Nolan breaks down Varonis's comprehensive platform that creates visibility and control over data access, while Jason explains why Pure Storage provides the ideal foundation for these security solutions. Learn how real-time threat detection, user behavior analytics, and automated remediation aren't just buzzwords but essential components of modern data protection strategy. As AI-powered threats continue to evolve, this conversation offers practical insights into how organizations can stay ahead of bad actors through strategic partnerships and integrated solutions. Discover why streamlined SecOps and robust data classification are becoming table stakes for business continuity, and get a preview of what's next in the Varonis-Pure partnership. Whether you're a CISO, IT administrator, or business leader concerned about data protection, this episode delivers actionable intelligence on safeguarding your organization's most valuable asset: its data.

Manage Smarter with Pure1: Cool Capabilities and Practical Applications For Every Administrator Apr 28, 2025

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Discover great management capabilities with Pure SE Scott Nalawaniec, a former Pure customer and now a seasoned Systems Engineer from Portland. We dive deep into the world of Pure Storage's management platform, Pure1, and look at Scott's 5 favorite capabilities that make managing arrays a breeze. We first reflect on our recent Sales Kickoff, and then Scott shares his expertise on simplicity and the evergreen nature of non-disruptive upgrades that have become foundational to Pure's offerings. Then we jump into Scott's favorite management and automation features - from VM Analytics that helped Scott identify problematic virtual machines across 17 appliances as a customer to the game-changing Self-Service Updates that have transformed how customers approach array updates. Scott takes us on a journey through Pure1's evolution, highlighting the powerful Appliance Genealogy feature that maps hardware histories like "a giant family tree" and Performance and Capacity analytics that provide crucial trending data. We'll also explore emerging capabilities in sustainability monitoring and the detailed Session and Audit Log that recently helped a customer track a potential security threat. Scott's enthusiasm for Test Drive as a demonstration tool rounds out this comprehensive look at the latest management capabilities. Whether you're a Pure Storage veteran or just curious about next-generation storage management, Scott's firsthand experiences offer valuable takeaways for IT professionals at every level. This episode showcases how Pure1 continues to innovate while maintaining the simplicity and innovation that users have come to expect from Pure Storage solutions.

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