Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

When Pure Storage Inc. began to get signals from its contacts in China that a virus was spreading throughout the country and shutting down plants, the all-flash data storage hardware and software provider began taking steps to minimize the impact to its supply chain.

As the coronavirus wreaks havoc on people and the world’s economy, Pure Storage is responding to customer needs on a global basis, especially with increased demand for virtual desktop infrastructure.

“Within early January we started to hear whispers out of the Far East that there were going to be some implications with the supply chain,” said Mike Fitzgerald, vice president of operations at Pure Storage. “We did a lot of work on making sure that our alternate sites across the globe were able to absorb what we couldn’t get out of our China suppliers. We have plenty of supply available right now.”

Fitzgerald spoke with Dave Vellante, chief analyst at SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon Inc. and co-host of SiliconANGLE Media’s video studio theCUBE. They discussed rising demand for technology to support work-from-home needs and the company’s adjustments to its global supply chain. (* Disclosure below.)

Demand for VDI

While statistics are not definite yet, Global Workplace Analytics has forecast that 60 to 70 million Americans will telecommute during the coronavirus pandemic, and that does not include similar situations in other countries. This has placed companies such as Pure Storage, with its scalable all-flash performance for VDI, in critical demand.

“We’ve seen an uptick in some of the demand streams, specifically in VDI, as well as in Pure as-a-service,” Fitzgerald said. “Over the last three days, we’ve had three separate installs in locations on an emergency basis. We’ve responded in less than 24 hours, gotten product onsite and installed, and saved the customers from running into situations where their work-from-home staff was not able to come up.”

Since January, Pure Storage has leaned into its network and increased capacity to absorb surges in demand, according to Fitzgerald. It’s a decision that proved to be prescient given the current situation.

“We’re in a different environment than we were in three months ago,” Fitzgerald said. “What we’re really focused on right now is that we can provide product into critical infrastructure, essential customer sites. It’s all about availability.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations. (* Disclosure: Pure Storage Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Pure Storage nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE