Modern information technology is squeezing storage to perform at unprecedented levels. From one side, big data is pushing for more capacity; from the other side, hybrid cloud and multicloud demand that it be everywhere all the time.

This is why some vendors of storage — and data backup and data protection — are undergoing technological makeovers.

“Storage is eating the world,” said Lisa Martin, co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the Pure//Accelerate event in Austin, Texas. During theCUBE’s Day 2 Pure//Accelerate kickoff segment, Martin and co-host Dave Vellante discussed how data-driven and hybrid customers are influencing the course of storage innovation (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Data’s on duty 24/7 in digital business

Data-driven business depends on storage being available when and where opportunities to derive value from it strike. This is pushing some companies out of their comfort zone. They’re searching for the key to modern, hybrid-capable storage in technologies like artificial intelligence and in as-a-service delivery models. It is also inspiring collaborations between companies rooted in on-premises storage and cloud providers.

Pure Storage Inc. is one company in the midst of such transformation. It has partnered with Nvidia Corp. on AI Data Hub to cut across data silos for improved analytics. Also, it just announced a new offering with Amazon Web Services Inc. — Cloud Block Store for AWS. It combines Pure software, AWS S3 storage and EC2 compute instances. The idea is to leverage the speed of flash storage to zip data from on-premises to cloud and back quickly.

Pure is also improving backup and recovery services with flash storage. It is part of a class of providers changing customers’ perspectives on backup data; they argue that it is now a more important business asset than ever.

“Digital business is all about how you use data, and leveraging data in new ways to create new value, to monetize or cut costs,” Vellante said. “So being able to have access to that data and recover from any [loss of] access to that data in a split second is crucial.”

Here’s the complete analysis, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Pure//Accelerate. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Pure//Accelerate event. Neither Pure Storage Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Pure Storage