When it came to plans for the disruption brought by the coronavirus pandemic, Pure Storage Inc. was very fortunate indeed.

Unlike other enterprises that were caught having to close offices on short notice in March, Pure had an early alert in January, based on its contacts in China, that it should prepare for significant business disruption.

This preparation involved not only ensuring a stable supply chain, but also taking the steps necessary to move the majority of Pure’s employees into a remote work environment. For the company’s information-technology organization, that meant extending a model that had already been established.

“We are a small, nimble organization, and our IT is very lean,” said Cathy Southwick (pictured), chief information officer at Pure Storage. “We immediately moved towards executing plans. We have a fair amount of employees who are very productive and successful working remotely, so we needed to provide that level of service across the board.”

Southwick spoke with Dave Vellante, chief analyst at SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon and co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. They discussed the process for educating employees in the use of remote tools, Pure’s spending plans for IT, the role of startup companies as vendors, and preparing for a post-COVID-19 world.

Need for education

While Pure was prepared to deal with the sudden crisis, a survey conducted by Glassdoor Inc. late last month found that 28% of employees contacted had been sent home with no support tools to continue their work. The survey also found that 68% of employees ages 18 to 34 were confident about working remotely, versus 44% in the 55 to 64 age bracket.

Despite providing a much-needed support structure for its employee customers, Pure’s IT staff still found that education in the use of remote tools was essential.

“We have spent an enormous amount of time with our human-resources partners doing training or best-practice sessions,” Southwick said. “Most users only touch the surface of the kinds of tools you provide. Everyone kind of does enough to get themselves started, but when you move into an environment where you are all-remote, you have to rely on those tools so much more.”

One of the outcomes from the global pandemic has been a projected slowdown in IT spending. Enterprise Technology Research has reported a -4% spending rate for IT budgets in 2020, down from +4% at the start of the year.

This will not impact Pure as much as some other enterprises, according to Southwick.

“We actually had made this an investment year for IT and, right now, we’re still on track for that,” Southwick said. “That was to deal with opportunities we saw and better alignment with the business. I feel very fortunate that we came in pretty strong and we’re still at that point, but we are reassessing some of our priorities.”

Startups in the mix

When making spending decisions, IT organizations will need to choose between products and services offered by established vendors, and those from smaller startups that could provide a different approach. One study completed just prior to the virus outbreak, found that IT decision makers expected artificial intelligence, automation, and Internet of Things devices to have the greatest impact on spending choices in the coming year, areas where emerging technologies are being fueled by smaller firms.

In her role as CIO, Southwick prefers to keep an open mind about selecting a startup over a more established vendor based on needs of the business.

“Pure has worked with startups over the years,” Southwick noted. “They’re very curious on what problems you are trying to solve, so they’re not trying to sell you a widget of some sort. I think it’s really important to keep them in the mix.”

As the global effects of the coronavirus pandemic move well into a second month, companies are left to ponder what the longer-term effects might be in a post-viral world. One outcome that is receiving a great deal of current discussion is how many employees may prefer not returning to the office at all.

A Harvard Business School study conducted last year examined results of flexible work arrangements at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Researchers found that “work from anywhere” led to a 4.4% gain in productivity at USPTO, with an estimated contribution of $1.3 billion in annual value for the U.S. economy.

These kinds of results and expected reluctance on the part of some portion of the workforce to return to a close-quarters office environment are what Pure and other companies are considering.

“It’s one of the top questions that we’re trying to grapple with right now,” Southwick said. “We’re going to have to continue to expand how we think about the ‘beehive’ concept versus having more work from home. I think you will see more work from home across the board.”

Here’s the complete video interview, one of many CUBE Conversations from SiliconANGLE and theCUBE:

Photo: SiliconANGLE