Creating that next great product is similar to developing a box office hit on Broadway. There’s that moment of anticipation when the entire cast steps back on opening night—waiting for the sound of applause from the audience. If the crowd roars in excitement, the show is undeniably a success.
When it comes to a new product, customer interest is the applause, and the accolades from analysts are the standing ovation. In the case of FlashArray//XL, we’re thrilled with the reception we’re receiving after its debut.
Why the Excitement and Buzz about FlashArray//XL?
From the moment our engineers first began designing FlashArray//XL, our goal has been to deliver new levels of performance and scale for the most demanding enterprise workloads. And the response has been overwhelmingly positive, with customers and analysts echoing the media’s bold headlines, praising its enterprise muscle.
“Helps customers move over their last remaining workloads that require high levels of scale.” –ZDNet
“Completes the puzzle for on-prem storage.” –TechTarget
Reception has been incredibly positive with many looking to replace big-name legacy storage for mission-critical databases. We’re seeing a big focus on workload consolidation with many customers looking for enterprise strength without the enterprise complexity.
Bigger and More Powerful Storage for Top-tier Applications
Storage analysts have recognized FlashArray//XL as a game-changer for Pure and its customers. This includes Eric Burgener of IDC, who has tracked Pure technology developments and market expansions for over a decade. Burgener sees FlashArray//XL as bringing the Pure experience that “customers consistently love” to large enterprises that previously needed bigger, more powerful storage. He highlights how FlashArray//XL will enable Pure to go after new business from customers, retiring high-end arrays, such as Dell EMC PowerMax and Hitachi Vantara.
“FlashArray//XL brings with it a customer experience program that customers consistently love to large enterprises.” –Eric Burgener, IDC
Burgener also recognizes how customers who need powerful storage for demanding applications also want cloud-like control of their data center. He cites how enterprise-class FlashArray//XL, coupled with Pure Fusion’s cloud operating model, can help give customers the best of both worlds.
Expect More Customers to Use Pure’s Full Range of Products
Justin Warren, founder and chief analyst of PivotNine, has covered Pure since our IPO in 2016. In a recent article for Forbes, he noted how FlashArray//XL fills in a gap in the Pure portfolio and makes “all Pure, all the time” an easier choice for customers. Warren praised how we’ve brought together our products in a more coordinated portfolio to help customers achieve complex business outcomes, with less focus on “speeds and feeds.”
[pullquote author=”Justin Warren, PivotNine”] FlashArray//XL makes all Pure, all the time an easier choice for customers. [/pullquote]
Warren also noted that Pure Fusion™ and the expanded Pure portfolio make it easier for customers to shift resources after their initial investment. With Pure, storage and infrastructure teams don’t need to spend as much time on up-front planning, knowing that Pure makes it easier to adapt to changing requirements. And the Evergreen™ subscription model eliminates the pressure to make large purchases at the end of a depreciation cycle.
Moving into the Highest Echelons of Enterprise Storage
In a review of FlashArray//XL, Steve McDowell and Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights focused on the benefits of workload consolidation, noting the challenges of finding high-performance, high-capacity storage that seamlessly integrates into an organization’s overall storage architecture.
They praised Pure for moving its performance-optimized architecture up the stack to the high end of enterprise storage, which they cite as an expanding market segment due to data growth and storage consolidation. They also recognized FlashArray//XL as not only “a compelling entrant into the competitive, top-tier storage market” but also as an extension of a storage line that’s known for its winning combination of power and simplicity.
[pullquote author=”Moor Insights”]“No other tier-one storage provider has one platform with this overarching reach.” [/pullquote]
FlashArray//XL stands in contrast, they say, to other high-end storage providers that offer isolated products that don’t integrate well with buyers’ existing mid-range and cloud storage solutions. Furthermore, they cite that as IT demands grow over time, legacy storage solutions have time and again failed to adapt to serve their customers’ needs.
Moor Insights didn’t balk at calling out long-term storage vendors, such as Dell Technologies and NetApp, for segregating their high-end products into siloed architectures. They complimented Pure for delivering a consistent operating experience across its block storage products, including Pure as-a-Service™ and Pure Cloud Block Store™.
Brisk Early Sales Show Strong Customer Demand
What matters most for us at Pure? It’s the reaction of our customers. Brisk early sales are showing pent-up customer demand for FlashArray//XL. In fact, we sold multiple units the first day we opened up the system for ordering to customers who wanted to replace their legacy high-performance storage arrays.
One early customer was experiencing a 50% increase in performance requirements. FlashArray//XL enables them to consolidate production databases, reduce footprint, and reduce complexity. There’s also the customer who joked how FlashArray//XL offers them “more ports than Rotterdam!” More seriously, they stated it would provide immediate value to their company.
“More ports than Rotterdam!” –FlashArray//XL customer
Then there’s the FlashArray//XL purchaser who stated that managing this much data would be impossible with any other technology, given their skeleton IT crew. FlashArray//XL, along with their other Pure solutions, helps them grow their business with confidence.
That’s what Pure is all about—providing our customers with a full range of storage solutions to give them confidence today and tomorrow, as their businesses grow. And considering the reaction so far, from analysts and customers alike, it looks like FlashArray//XL just may become a record-setting hit.
Learn more about FlashArray//XL.
