Welcome to our storage vendor profile, where we take an in-depth look at Pure Storage, a company that stands out among the big six storage players by coming closest to being a startup.
Having emerged unencumbered by legacy technology, Pure Storage benefits from the advantages of a late entrant to the market. Despite struggling to turn a profit in its first decade, the company shows no signs of slowing down.
Pure Storage is known for its flash storage expertise, with proprietary array/drive technology that boasts superior flash storage density compared to competitors. Its focus on rapid access aligns with structured mission critical data as well as unstructured data workloads. The company also has a well-developed hybrid cloud strategy and innovative storage purchasing models.
In this article, we’ll delve into Pure Storage’s origins, key storage products, and approach to cloud, containers, and storage purchasing models.
Where did Pure Storage come from?
Unlike the other big six storage players, Pure Storage was established in the flash era in 2009 under the code name Os76 Inc. Its founders, John Colgrave and former Yahoo! CTO John Hayes, worked tirelessly to maximize capacity and endurance from the then emerging multi-level cell (MLC) flash media.
How does Pure Storage rank against other storage players?
Despite being ranked last among the big six storage array makers, Pure’s market share is on par with competitors like Hitachi and IBM. Although it struggled to turn a net profit during its first decade, Pure Storage saw impressive revenue growth from $440 million in 2015 to $2.7 billion in 2023.
What are Pure Storage’s key storage products?
Core to Pure’s flash storage hardware products are its DirectFlash Modules.