What You Missed on The Pure Report

If you’re hooked on podcasts, you won’t want to miss The Pure Report, a podcast series that brings you direct access to Pure Storage thought leaders, technology experts, alliance partners, customer insights, and our latest product news. 

Hosted by Rob Ludeman, Pure’s Senior Director of Solutions Strategy and Competitive Intelligence, the podcast features fantastic guests and thrilling topics, such as:

• Tales From The Script: Solving Scary Database Management Problems (50:21): As we exit the spooky season, we’re checking in with our resident database expert and Field Solutions Architect, Anthony Nocentino, to revisit the common problems that plague data management. Anthony shares customer anecdotes around several places that DBAs struggle to maintain consistent database operations and how Pure can help alleviate these challenges. Why is it important to businesses to deliver consistent response times to end users? What are the impacts of downtime? How can improved and streamlined copy/clone and refresh processes positively impact business value creation and why are snapshots the key to this? And yes, we hit on scripting, PowerShell, and automation – all friends to the DBA to automate daily tasks and spend less time in swivel-chair management. It’s all about satisfying the end users and application owners and their need for consistent and reliable data where and when they need it – and Pure does it best.
• Letters To My 22 Year Old Self with Shawn Rosemarin (1:07:58):On this episode we take a pause on deep technology dives and deliver career introspection via our own Shawn Rosemarin, VP R&D, Customer Experience. Shawn is in the midst of writing a series of Letters to his 22 year old self as a way to celebrate 25 years of working in technology. No matter where you are in your career – whether you’re just getting started or are in the midst of a transition – there’s some great advice here on behaviors to develop and guidance to help you improve the way you work and interact with others. Consider this a Part 1 where we tackle the first 7 of his letters including managing energy levels, prioritization, and focusing on towering strengths while focusing on developing gaps and blind spots in your skillset.
• Healthcare Health Check: Trends Driving New Storage Approaches in the Healthcare Sector (57:50): The intrepid Unplugged crew returns for an exciting Volume 14 where Andrew Miller, JD Wallace and I take on another of Pure’s architectural decisions – this time we dig deep into the use of Metadata in the software stack. The extensive use of Metadata enables FlashArray to deliver efficiency across data reduction, compacting, and snapshot capabilities. We also riff on experience at the latest activities – VMware Explore and a fun disk retirement webinar roast.
• VMware, VMware Everywhere with Jason Langer (43:39): VMware has been in the data center for ages and is now aggressively moving into the hybrid cloud space. In this episode, we’ll take a look at the current state of the market with VMware and discuss Pure integrations for the ubiquitous solution. 
• Unplugged Vol. 11: Realistic Efficiency Metrics, Deeper Purity Dive, and More (50:04): It’s time to get real about efficiency metrics. In this episode, we take a close look at data reduction, snapshots, CPU utilization, and monitoring, and the ways they can help you evaluate the performance and value of your storage solutions. We’ll also dive into the latest Purity 6.4 updates. 
• Veeam V12 and Pure, Better Together: Faster Recovery and Better Cyber Resiliency (48:57): You thought Veeam and Pure were good before, now it’s even better with the addition of enhanced snapshot orchestration, improved ransomware protection and recovery, cloud and S3 object updates, and so much more. Discover more about these exciting features in this episode. 
• Better Science Vol. 2: Maps, Metadata, and the Pyramid (46:03): Enterprises today are storing quadrillions of bits of data in dense flash storage. How do they find anything in this vast ocean? Better Science is back with the answer, featuring a compelling interview with FlashArray™ engineer Feng Wang about how Pure is uniquely suited by mapping data at scale with a single, scalable data structure. 
• New Purity//FB 4.1 – Innovation for File and Object at Scale (42:32): Get the latest buzz on Pure’s newest version of Purity//FB—including new capabilities on object lock and quotas, file scaling enhancements, snapshot policies, and more. You’ll see how version 4.1 goes even further in helping you solve your most complex scale-out challenges with unstructured data. 
• Empowering Sustainable Tech Infrastructure (37:36): In case you missed them, tune in wherever you listen to podcasts and catch up on the latest episodes: Pure envisions a future in which all of our stakeholders can thrive in a sustainable environment. Listen as we catch up with the cerebral and thoughtful Jeff Pickett, FlashArray Marketing Manager and one of the leads for Pure’s outbound ESG initiative. You’ll come away with greater insight into how to become a more sustainable—and successful—organization.
• Adam Apps, Author of Sh*tty Sales Leaders: And How to Not Be One (35:32): Tune in to hear our own sales leader Adam discuss his book that offers guidance and best practices for sales leaders to build, nurture, and run high-performing teams. He’ll talk about his motivation behind the book and personal views and insights on strong leaders he’s worked with in the past—and much more. Your sales team will thank you!
• The Power Of As A Service – Go Beyond the Commercials (55:50): The notion of as-a-service or utility is often something promoted as a commercial and reflects more of a buying option. But the truth reveals that it’s far more than that. Tune in to hear from Pure’s Director of Subscription Portfolio, Abraham Barnes, as we take on the myths and the reality of what Storage as-a-Service means for business transformation and operations. What’s revealed is that lines of business and business owners are truly the beneficiaries of an as-a-Service data consumption model. But this also requires a vendor/supplier that can effectively combine the underlying non-disruptive architecture with flexible and agile consumption to deliver outcomes directly aligned to business objectives, and that must scale up or down quickly as required.
• Unplugged Vol 12 – Adaptive Flexible RAID, FlashBlade//E and Auto-On SafeMode (47:52): The Unplugged crew is back with Andrew Miller and JD Wallace continuing to take you through the 15 Pure Architectural Decisions. On this episode, we tackle Pure’s adaptive flexible RAID, including a spin thru the history of RAID and how took out the need for user intervention to provide a more intuitive solution. Then we hit on the field perspective for the recent FlashBlade//E announcement and implications for data repositories and the inefficiencies of disk.
• Discover Actual Data Resiliency Solutions You Can Use Daily (42:33): Data protection strategies designed for disasters, accidental deletions, or data corruption don’t always hold up against ransomware and cyberattacks. in short, backup and recovery is no longer enough to keep your business online and ensure access to critical data. Hear from Matt Bradford, Digital Experience Technical Marketing Director, about a new set of offerings to help enterprises mitigate and assess risk with multi-layered strategies. First, hear about a new Evergreen//One Storage as-a-Service ransomware recovery SLA that guarantees a clean storage environment to recover to following a ransomware incident.
• The First Truly Unified File and Block Platform (38:13): 70% of IT organizations will be unifying their storage and data protection infrastructure to make it more cost effective and add new capabilities. Historically, consolidation has always represented trade-offs and compromise… until now. Hear from Don Poorman, FlashArray Technical PMM about Pure’s first truly unified block and storage platform built from the ground up with unified as its goal.
• Top 6 Ways Pure Solves Common Database Challenges (37:30): Database administrators and data architects continue to encounter challenges as they administer systems with different requirements and behavioral patterns. Hear from Andrew Sillifant, Database Solutions Manager, about how Pure Storage is well-suited as a partner for database management systems and helping organizations scale business applications faster. We tackle the top 6 ways practitioners can get past DB management hurdles, including managing scale within budget, consistent performance, end-to-end protection of data, simplifying migrations, and more.
• Unplugged Vol 13 – Security/Encryption, Unified Block & File, Accelerate Recap (49:42): It’s time for another edition of Unplugged with Andrew Miller and JD Wallace bringing you the 15 Pure Architectural decisions and more. We start out with a quick recap of Pure’s recent Accelerate industry event and some of the key highlights and takeaways. Then hear about how Pure addresses security and encryption via the Purity operation environment.
• Astrophysics, Dinosaurs, and Data Analytics with Dr. Kirk Borne, Data Science and Big Data Expert (50:48): Dive into the mind of astrophysicist and data science pioneer Dr. Kirk Borne as we discuss the history of big data and analytics leading up to current challenges organizations face in leveraging data for predictive and prescriptive insights about business. We navigate through the hype cycles of related technologies, and dig into the “why” behind using data and the insights of data including newer trends in security analytics, observability and monitoring. Hear various stories and anecdotes from Kirk as he relates his vast experience as an astrophysicist working at NASA on the Hubble telescope and also heading up one of the first formal data science degree programs in the world.
• Azure VMware Solution: Cost-Effective, Performant, and Resilient Hybrid Cloud Powered by Pure (37:45): In this episode, we dig further into the exciting news around Pure Storage’s Azure VMware Solution announcement leveraging our strong partnerships with VMware and Microsoft to deliver faster, more cost effective adoption of cloud services. Hear from our own Jason Langer, Sr. Cloud Solutions Manager and VMware guru about how Pure Storage brings unique capabilities to AVS that solve common customer challenges around cost reduction, higher resiliency and application modernization based on Pure Storage’s robust Cloud Block Store offering.
• Making the Cloud Fit Your Business – The 6 States of Cloud Deployment (53:07): We often hear that the cloud is not a destination but rather a journey. But we continue to hear from customers that the journey is not linear and various phases of cloud maturity are becoming clearer. To learn more, we brought back VP of Cloud Alliances (and former Pure customer) Jack Hogan to share what he’s been hearing from customers and the 3 types of challenges (past, present, and future technologies) driving more strategy around cloud deployment.
• Kyndryl Distinguished Engineer Mark Chitti on Cyber, AI, and IP-Based Storage (54:06): The Pure Report is pleased to welcome Kyndryl Distinguished Engineer Mark Chitti who joins to share his thought on trends impacting data storage and where the combination of Kyndryl and Pure Storage can help. We first chat about the Distinguished Engineer role and where Mark focuses his time to stay up on trends and engage across Kyndryl teams to make an impact. From there, we dig into AI and what type of impact it will have on the market in the next 5-10 years before diving into the latest security and cyber considerations for enterprises.

Put Away Your Spacesuit: Insights from a Customer Who Became a Puritan (45:56)

What happens when a long-time admirer of Pure culture and products joins the company? Find out with this latest episode featuring Pure System Engineer Scott Nawalaniec, a former customer who joined Pure around a year ago. Hear about Scott’s career journey including how he came to consider Pure and the technical and business reasons that led to his now 8 year relationship with the company. Scott provides deep insight into the evaluations he made at his prior company between the incumbent storage compared to Pure and the notion that every competitive storage model required him to put on a different “spacesuit” to manage and tune the product.

Things Legacy Storage Made You Worry About (That You Shouldn’t Have To) (54:56)

Ever wondered about the origin of certain storage or IT administrative tasks? Because of legacy architectures, IT practitioners have been forced to worry about and repeatedly carry out certain administrative tasks because, well, “that’s how it’s always been with this product.” Join Justin Emerson, Principal Product Manager, for a journey through 10-12 different legacy worries that are solved by Pure’s intuitive and simple design. Remember, our founder Coz set out to “fix everything wrong with storage.” We touch on power buttons (or the lack thereof), RAID groups, rebuild times, nerd knobs, download logs, capacity planning and much more.