Pure Storage Moves Into Cloud Storage With AWS

Jessica Lyons HardcastleNovember 20, 2018
7:53 am MT

All-flash storage vendor Pure Storage made its cloud move with new services that run on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The Pure Storage Cloud Data Services run Pure Storage software on AWS. They include:

• Cloud Block Store for AWS, which takes Pure’s on-premises storage software and deploys it on AWS. This also enables workload mobility between on-premises and AWS cloud storage. It’s currently available in limited public beta with general availability planned for mid-2019.
• CloudSnap for AWS, which allows FlashArray snapshots to be sent to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). This enables cloud-based data protection, which is usually less expensive than storing and maintaining on-premises snapshots. It also allows customers to recover data both on-premises or in the cloud. This service is available now.
• StorReduce, which is cloud-native deduplication technology that enables cloud backup to AWS S3 storage and on-premises flash. This service is also entering a limited public beta with general availability planned for the first half of 2019.

Building a Data Bridge

“We’re really trying to unite the clouds of on premises as well as the public clouds,” said Chadd Kenney, VP of product and solutions at Pure Storage.

This idea of using data to bridge on-premises storage with cloud storage isn’t new. It’s what NetApp has been pitching for a couple years now as it works to transition from a traditional storage vendor to a cloud data services company. And Dell EMC has been building up its hybrid cloud storage software as well. But Kenney says Pure’s approach is unique.

The company’s technology enables applications to move freely between on-premises, private cloud, and AWS public cloud. It does this through purpose-designed integrations between on-premises storage and AWS.

“The core differentiator is that we are very much optimized to user infrastructure,” Kenney said. “NetApp has focused much more on test-dev solutions. Our core focus is optimizing our software infrastructure to Amazon to focus on Tier 1, mission crucial applications.”