In the expanding world of data, traditional storage solutions are facing a critical challenge. Not only must they adapt to the data explosion that is currently happening, but also need to lead the charge toward a more sustainable and reliable digital landscape.

Many pivotal shifts have been occurring in storage technology offering advantages to both businesses and the global environment, ranging from the obsolescence of legacy systems to the ascendancy of highly efficient flash storage. As organizations continue to grapple with the challenges of managing exploding data volumes, Pure Storage Inc. says it’s committed to paving the way toward a more sustainable and efficient future.

“The biggest driver of [our] share increase is that customers start to see that we deliver compelling outcomes,” said Ajay Singh (pictured), chief product officer of Pure Storage. “SSD return rates versus our return rates are five times better. We tend to be easier to operate, less labor to operate. You talk to a customer, they say, ‘Oh, that Pure Storage array, it kind of just runs.’”

Singh spoke with theCUBE industry analyst John Furrier at “The Next Generation of Storage” event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the current state of the storage industry and the path to the next generation of storage solutions. (* Disclosure below.)

The explosive growth of unstructured data

Unstructured data is on the rise, with data volumes reaching 120 zettabytes in 2023, and it is growing at a staggering rate of 25% per year, according to Singh. However, storage budgets are struggling to keep pace with this exponential growth, leaving many organizations caught in a cycle of “keeping the lights on” rather than driving innovation. Legacy storage systems and traditional hard disk drives are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of this data explosion.

“If you think about storage, especially the unstructured data side of it, it’s truly exploding,” Singh said. “If you think of data, it’s kind of exploding. If you think about the budgets, though, on the storage teams, the budgets are not keeping pace. What ends up happening is a lot of storage teams today end up in this kind of run the treadmill of just kinda keep the lights on, keep storage going.”

Pure Storage has been at the forefront of storage innovation since the early days of flash technology. Flash storage has come a long way, moving from high-end, high-performance applications to becoming a mainstream and sustainable solution. The technology is here to stay, and it offers substantial advantages over traditional hard disk drives, according to Singh.

“Hard disk is on its seventh decade of innovation, done a great job, real workhorse of the industry,” he said. “But the amount of optimization you can eek out of it is now limited. Flash, on other hand, with more than a third decade of innovation … tons of volume happening, tons of innovation that the flash vendors are doing.”

Pure Storage’s path to a sustainable and efficient future

Pure Storage’s innovative approach has enabled the company to offer lower total cost of ownership compared to SSDs, even as early as 2023. This cost-performance ratio positions Pure Storage as a leader in the industry, Singh pointed out. It also invests approximately 20% of its resources into research and development.

The company believes that multicloud storage is the next big trend, and its commitment to innovation positions it as pioneers in this space, according to Singh. Unlike some competitors that have shifted focus to private equity, Pure Storage remains dedicated to driving innovation and transforming the storage industry, Singh added.

“We are really betting for the next decade,” he said. “We think multicloud storage is the next horizontal that is going to become an industry of its own. We are convinced that multicloud storage flash is the media trend transition that’s happening.”

Another area of distinction for the company is its “Evergreen” model, which allows customers to continuously upgrade their storage infrastructure without downtime. This model ensures that customers always have access to the latest technology and software updates, making their storage investments future-proof.

Looking ahead, Pure Storage has a vision of a platform that encompasses traditional and cloud-native applications that offers customers a unified storage solution. This platform will enable seamless data management and integration across multicloud environments, making it easier for organizations to harness the power of AI and drive digital transformation, according to Singh.

“When you start fresh with flash, you have the opportunity to take a break from the past,” he said. “In our case, we have just one Purity operating system, one direct flash module that goes into many different areas … this Purity runs on Azure, AWS and on-prem — that’s Purity Cloud in some sense. And then we have one cloud-native architect with Portworx and a cloud operating model with Evergreen and our evergreen approach.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of The Next Generation of Storage event:

Watch the entire event episode below:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for “The Next Generation of Storage” event. Neither Pure Storage Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE