Pure Storage unveils Enterprise Data Cloud & flash upgrades

Pure Storage has announced the launch of its Enterprise Data Cloud platform and a series of flash hardware updates designed to address the demands of modern data management and high-performance workloads.

Enterprise Data Cloud platform

The newly introduced Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) aims to simplify data and storage management for organisations, enabling a focus on business outcomes rather than infrastructure concerns. The platform, delivered by Pure Storage, facilitates centralised management of data across on-premises, public cloud, and hybrid environments through a unified control plane.

According to the company, the EDC model is intended to combat the fragmentation and inefficiencies often associated with traditional storage solutions, which can result in silos and uncontrolled data sprawl. Pure Storage claims that their approach provides IT teams with agile, efficient, and simplified data governance on a broad scale.

Charles Giancarlo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pure Storage, said:

"It's time to stop managing storage and start managing data. With AI increasing the potential value of enterprise data, and cyber-threats imperiling it, data storage architectures and the tools for managing data have not kept pace. Only Pure Storage has innovated an architectural approach that enables enterprise customers to manage their global data estate. Pure Fusion allows customers to create their own global Enterprise Data Cloud empowering them to manage their data with the control, automation and tracking needed to lead in a data-driven world."

At the core of the EDC is Pure Fusion, a capability which virtualises storage resources and provides autonomous management. Pure Fusion is embedded within storage arrays, allowing for self-discovery and centralised management across an array fleet, minimising the need for manual configuration.

Automation and security enhancements

The introduction also brings expanded automation options to Pure Fusion, including workload-aware provisioning of file, block, and object storage across the fleet, and automated workflow orchestration. These features are intended to minimise manual operations, reduce non-compliance risks, and improve application resilience.

Workflow orchestration now leverages existing integrations with a range of third-party applications such as Cisco, Microsoft, VMware, ServiceNow, and Slack. Users can deploy pre-defined or custom workflows to automate storage, compute, network, database, and application configuration processes.

Security is further strengthened through integrations with partners like Rubrik and CrowdStrike. Rubrik Security Cloud is now integrated with Pure Fusion, enabling automated tagging of backup snapshots and improved cyber recovery in response to detected threats. CrowdStrike's Falcon LogScale, combined with Pure Storage infrastructure, aims to provide high-performance, on-premises log analytics and threat detection.

Additional enhancements include new disaster recovery options for VMware workloads via Pure Protect and the general availability of an AI Copilot that provides fleet-level insights across topics such as security, performance, and sustainability.

Matt Kimball, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, observed, "Pure's Enterprise Data Cloud represents a tangible shift in how enterprises manage data and represents real change at the architectural level. By abstracting the complexity of hybrid environments into a unified, policy-driven platform, Pure is enabling organizations to bring clarity and control to data management at scale. With automation, intelligence, and simplicity built in, Pure is delivering on the vision of an enterprise data cloud in a way that's actionable today. It's a bold, thoughtful approach — and one that sets a new bar for the industry."

Flash hardware updates

In a parallel announcement, Pure Storage detailed upgrades to its FlashArray and FlashBlade product lines to support performance at larger scales and new storage workloads.

The new FlashArray//XL R5 is designed to double Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) per rack unit and increase maximum raw capacity by 50% compared to previous models. Steven Allgeier, Vice President, Distributed Infrastructure Group at Fiserv, commented, "At Fiserv we recognize our customers' urgent need to manage escalating data demands with greater efficiency. With Pure Storage FlashArray, we are able to continuously deliver an optimal all-flash performance with reliability for most mission-critical workloads. We are excited to see the benefits of the next-gen FlashArray//XL R5 and how they will empower our customers to scale for extreme demands."

The FlashArray//ST supports latency-sensitive workloads, delivering more than 10 million IOPS per five rack units. Meanwhile, the upgraded FlashBlade//S features controller blades that Pure Storage claims boost performance by up to 30% over competitors in tasks like genome sequencing and AI-driven analysis.

Pure Storage has also consolidated its approach to unstructured data by extending object support to FlashArray, allowing block, file, and object management within a single platform.

John Colgrove, Founder and Chief Visionary at Pure Storage, said, "In an era where data is king and IT complexity remains a major hurdle to accessing and using data for optimal business value, Pure Storage is once again redefining what's possible for customers. Pure Storage delivers the magic by rejecting the norms we've come to accept for storage infrastructure; they are what's holding us back within this new era of exponential data growth and logarithmic growth of insight value."

He added, "Pure Storage was born to disrupt the industry, as we introduced new capabilities to reliably achieve better and better performance at any scale. We are unwavering in our mission to enable our customers' ambitions, providing the most innovative and reliable foundation they need to confidently meet any future challenge or opportunity."