The Pure Report

The Pure Report welcomes Mark Wilkinson, a Consulting Field Solutions Architect at Everpure and a former Database Administrator (DBA) and manager. Mark shares his unique perspective on the changes reshaping the Database Administrator role from the perspective of a DBA practitioner. Drawing on his experience as a 10-year Everpure customer who was freed from storage concerns, Mark highlights that the DBA function has not been eliminated but rather has been elevated and broadened in scope. Mark explains how the role continues to shift from routine, fire-fighting tasks to high-value, strategic contributions.

The modern DBA role is expanding beyond traditional relational databases and SQL Server dominance, now intersecting with big data, AI, and unstructured data. We discuss how adopting technologies like cloud for data mobility, containers (which force teams to prioritize resilience), and automation (leading to self-service workflows) creates more time for the DBA team to grow their expertise. Automation, often driven initially by laziness, is seen as the key force multiplier, enabling DBAs to stop asking "Am I adding any value right now?" and start using their knowledge to benefit the business.

Crucially, the entire evolution points to the necessity of building stronger relationships throughout the organization—with developers, finance, and leadership. This shift allows DBAs to move from a stereotypical gatekeeper role to a business partner, gaining a seat at the table and increasing their visibility and impact. While new challenges like AI accuracy (especially for new DBAs) and compliance (GDPR) exist, the expansion of the role makes it a cool time to be a DBA, with many options to specialize, build skills (e.g., via open source), and drive corporate success.

To learn more, visit: https://www.everpuredata.com/solutions/databases.html

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Everpure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

05:05 Career Journey

09:55 Everpure Benefit for App Environments

15:01 Stat of the Episode

20:05 Slow Storage Impact on DBAs

25:05 Key Changes to DBA role

30:15 Containers and DBAs

35:15 Automation and Workflows

41:10 Observability and Telemetry

43:43: AI and DBAs

55:08 Hot Takes

The Pure Report welcomes Dan Kent, Everpure’s new Field CTO for Federal, to the studio to discuss the critical intersection of advanced technology and public services. Dan, who recently joined Everpure, brings decades of experience in the Federal space, including senior roles at companies like Cisco and as a CTO, where he developed a passion for leading teams and tackling challenging engineering problems. Our conversation kicks off by exploring the unique complexities and high stakes of working with government agencies, which range from managing the massive data sets of the Social Security Administration (supporting 300 million citizens) to deploying mission-critical IT components in the most extreme environments, such as on battleships, in military vehicles, and even in space.

Dan asserts that the Federal AI tipping point has passed, driven by the competitive global landscape, executive orders, and the government’s immense data holdings—which require AI to glean insights. With an estimated 4,000 AI use cases already in pilot across various agencies (from Air Force platform maintenance to IRS fraud detection), the biggest obstacles remain the outdated infrastructure and the pervasive challenge of data quality. Dan highlights that infrastructure is not yet generative AI-ready, with data locked in silos and complicated by time-sensitive, duplicated, or decades-old information, leading to self-induced mistakes and ethical concerns like misidentification.

Our discussion shifts to how Everpure is positioned to solve these foundational issues. Dan explains the necessity of modern infrastructure that enables automated data pipelines for continuous cleaning, classification, and transformation into vector databases (RAG). This automation is key to ensuring AI applications have accurate, timely context, thereby eliminating security risks and self-inflicted errors. Finally, we address the critical human element, emphasizing that while a skills gap exists, the outlook is positive: AI should be treated as a co-worker to boost efficiency and help the federal workforce achieve its citizen-focused missions more effectively.

To learn more, visit: https://www.everpuredata.com/solutions/industries/government/cost-efficiency.html

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Everpure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

01:15 Dan’s Career Journey

04:41 Supporting Federal Agencies

09:35 AI Tipping Point for Fed

13:31 State of Government Infrastructure

19:47 AI Trust and Compliance

25:25 Workforce Impacts of AI

33:11 Everpure for AI in Fed

36:45 Hot Takes Segment

This week we sit down with Field Solution Architects Anthony Nocentino and Justin Emerson explore an interesting convergence happening in data architecture—the blending of traditionally separate block and file/object storage systems. Likening the experience to a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Anthony (a database expert focused on block storage) and Justin (an expert in unstructured data and file/object storage) discuss how the clear historical distinctions between structured and unstructured data are rapidly blurring. This shift is fueled by modern challenges like high-scale analytics, data governance, and the rise of technologies like Large Language Models (LLMs) and agentic interactions, which no longer care where the data lives.

Our conversation dives into the technical tipping point enabled by data virtualization, referencing features like SQL Server 2022's object integration, which allows a database engine to access data stored efficiently on object storage. This capability is far more than an archival play; it helps customers achieve scale-out analytics, improve data governance by maintaining one canonical copy of data across different performance buckets, and simplify tedious operations like SQL backups by bypassing legacy file system complexities. Anthony and Justin highlight how Everpure’s platform aligns perfectly with this new reality.

Finally, Anthony and Justin discuss the path forward, noting that the technology is underutilized due to organizational silos and an awareness problem. The next big evolution will focus on security and governance for this distributed data via open table formats like Iceberg and catalogs such as Polaris. We close with what currently excites them: Anthony on collaborating with AI (Claude) to create code and speed up outcomes, and Justin on Everpure’s core philosophy of simplicity, efficiency, and treating customers like people, particularly in the context of the current economic conditions.

To learn more, visit: https://www.everpuredata.com/platform.html

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Pure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Career Journeys

04:30 Customer Engagement and SKO

09:55 Vacation Recap

13:45 History of Block and Object Storage

16:04 Why Convergence Now?

20:30 Data Virtualization

25:55 Exploring Access Patterns

29:05 What’s Holding Back Adoption

36:02 Simplicity for DBAs

This week the Pure Report welcomes Principal Technologist Rob Quast and Principal Field Solution Architect for AI and Analytics Ian Saunders to discuss the explosive and rapid changes transforming the world of coding and artificial intelligence. Our conversation centers on the shift from what was previously called vibe coding to agentic systems, a development moving AI from a more academic concept to a real-world driver for organizations and individuals.

We explore how AI is breaking down barriers, effectively democratizing coding by allowing non-programmers to achieve complex outcomes simply by describing their desired results. We talk about how the accessibility factor of AI has flipped the industry in the last 18 months, forcing companies to address governance, security, and compliance. Ian connects parallels between the current state of AI adoption and the early days of the internet, where people were figuring out the use cases for a new technology. We share personal examples, such as Rob Quast using OpenClaw as a virtual assistant for his family calendar and Ian using it to test technical materials against industry thought leaders.

Turning to Everpure, we talk about the company's strong position as an API-first platform, making it efficient for participating in massive technological shifts like agentic AI. Overture’s acquisition of 1touch is viewed as a pivotal strategic move, adding a semantic layer for data classification, privacy, and cyber resilience, which helps customers avoid the garbage in, garbage out problem when training AI models. Ultimately, Rob and Ian advocate for viewing agentic AI as a powerful tool to augment and accelerate existing capabilities, focusing on automating a majority of routine tasks to free up time for more valuable work.

To learn more, visit: pure.ai

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Pure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Career Journeys

05:28 Shift in the AI Conversation

08:10 Vibe Coding Move to Agentic

11:45 Why Now for Agentic

16:48 Rise of OpenClaw

23:05 Trust and Compliance

31:40 Everpure API-first and Agentic AI

35:02 1touch and AI Data Context

40:15 Summarizing the Agentic Trend

45:16 Hot Takes Segment

This week we welcome Nihal Mirashi, Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Database solutions at Everpure, to unpack the key findings of the new 2026 State of Database Infrastructure report, which surveyed over 500 infrastructure and data professionals globally. Our discussion starts with a look at Nihal’s professional journey, including his transition from focusing on the SaaS vertical to building out the go-to-market strategy for open-source databases, and his current work in helping customers with their database environments and exploring AI tools. Our conversation frames the context for modernization initiatives, noting that while organizations understand they must modernize (with platforms like Oracle26.ai), they are often slowed by outdated approaches.

A central theme of the report is that modernization is failing because the traditional, event-based model is broken, creating a disruption paradox. The report data shows that 85% of professionals are concerned about modernization initiatives because they associate them with disruption, and 70% find even planned downtime unacceptable. Success is no longer defined solely by performance—which is now considered table stakes with the move to all-flash solutions—but by operational assurance and efficiency. This focus on operations is critical given the complexities of hybrid environments: 93% of organizations operate one, and 73% find them harder to manage today than three years ago due to data silos and multiple workflows.

Operational friction translates directly into significant hidden costs and missed innovation opportunities. A staggering 80% of Database Administrators (DBAs) spend more time on re-validation than on innovation, with 55% of their time consumed by maintenance, preventing them from becoming data strategists. Furthermore, 60% of respondents are not confident in predicting their three-year infrastructure costs, and 71% have received budget surprises from vendors. Our episode concludes by drawing an analogy between database modernization and the ability of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees to adapt their sound, emphasizing that continuous evolution and learning from peers—not disruptive, rip-and-replace events—is the way forward.

To learn more, visit: https://www.everpuredata.com/solutions/databases.html?utm_campaign=db

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Pure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Nihal’s Career Journey

06:06 Exploring AI for Marketing

08:40 State of Database Infrastructure Report

11:30 Concerns about DB Modernization

16:20 Hybrid Database Environments

19:15 How Data Silos Hold Back Innovation

21:30 Disruption Paradox

27:15 Cost Uncertainty of DB Operations

33:33 Hot Takes Segment

In this episode of the Pure Report, we sit down with longtime colleague Robert Quimbey, Consulting Field Solution Architect, known to many as "Q." Q shares with us how his role has evolved from a back-end problem solver focusing on Microsoft integrations to a customer-facing strategist dedicated to understanding the entire solution set for customers, not just fixing siloed problems. Drawing on his deep history with Microsoft technologies, including his time on the Exchange team, Q discusses Everpure’s strategic moves to simplify the modern data center.

Our conversation dives into two major capability developments: ActiveCluster for File and Azure Local. ActiveCluster for File is designed to provide high availability for file services, inheriting the core benefits of the original Everpure ActiveCluster— with ease of setup and no extra licensing costs—while solving hard problems in the file space. Q explains how ActiveCluster for File implements file storage at a cousin layer to block storage, avoiding the performance and scalability issues common in competing solutions. The new capability includes continuous availability to ensure persistent sessions for VMs on SMB shares, even during non-disruptive upgrades, and is launching right as the NAS market is projected to nearly double, driven largely by AI-related unstructured data growth.

Next, we explore Azure Local, formerly Azure Stack HCI, a project Q has championed for years. This initiative is key to customers looking to modernize their virtualization strategy. The new integration, which is near GA, allows customers to connect virtual machines and containers directly to FlashArray via Fibre Channel (FC), avoiding the complexities of HCI storage. Ultimately, the focus remains on the power of the core Purity foundation to deliver agility, predictable costs (like Evergreen//One), and superior performance for all hybrid-cloud workloads.

To learn more, visit: https://blog.purestorage.com/products/microsoft-azure-local-and-flash-array/ and https://blog.purestorage.com/products/introducing-activecluster-for-file/

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Pure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Q’s Career Journey

07:17 Key Development Projects

09:59 Stat of the Episode on NAS Storage

12:51 ActiveCluster for File Discussion

27:45 Protocols and Arrays Supported

34:19 Intro to Azure Local

53:04 Hot Takes Segment

The Pure Report welcomes Andrea Moccia, VP of AI and Data at Options Technology, and Robert Alvarez, AI Solution Architect at Everpure, to discuss the cutting edge of AI deployment right after the energy of NVIDIA GTC. We dive into sobering statistics that show a high failure rate for generative AI pilots—95% fail to scale to production—and discuss how the root cause is a fundamental data strategy problem. Our discussion shift to focus around the unique, high-stakes challenges faced by the financial services industry (FSI), which contends daily with massive data volume (tens of petabytes of market data), strict global compliance and regulatory requirements, and the need for near real-time, low-latency answers from AI models.

Andrea explains how the power of simplicity is an operational advantage, following the mantra: "Simplicity is what lets you be brave.” He details how Options is addressing issues like data leakage and data sovereignty with their Private Mind offering—a private, sovereign AI platform where they control the entire stack, from model to metal" Robert and Andrea connect this innovation to the Everpure partnership, specifically how solutions like Data Stream and Everpure KVA (which Robert co-developed) are vital in reducing implementation complexity and accelerating real-world use cases, such as building a powerful knowledge graph on hundreds of thousands of SEC filings efficiently.

Finally, we conclude with our Hot Takes segment to dispel common AI misconceptions. We talk about how companies should stop obsessively chasing the latest frontier models or GPUs for every task, as open-source alternatives and smaller, distilled models are perfectly capable for a majority of use cases. In conclusion, hear how the true key to AI maturity and growth lies not in chasing technological hype, but in removing data silos, fixing the foundational data strategy, and using the rapidly maturing AI ecosystem to streamline business processes.

To learn more, visit: https://www.purestorage.com/customers/options.html

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Pure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

01:50 Recap of NVIDIA GTC

2:40 Overview on Options Technology

3:55 Andrea’s Career Journey

7:14 Robert Alvarez Intro

9:13 Stat of the Episode on AI Pilots

12:20 AI Challenges for FSIs

15:05 Simplicity Let’s You Be Brave

21:05 AI and KVA in Action at Options

23:45 Data Sovereignty and Compliance

30:35 Hot Takes Segment

35:37 Summary and a Look Forward

In this episode we welcome Naveen Neelakantam, Chief Architect of Everpure’s Digital Experience Business Unit. Naveen dives into the origin and evolution of Everpure's Digital Experience (DX), detailing how DX revolutionized storage management by moving beyond reactive support. The foundation of this lies in the phone home telemetry data collected from storage arrays, which first enabled the Cloud Assist capability. This data powers the ability to proactively identify and prevent issues, non-disruptively upgrade systems, and ensure a first-class support experience for every customer.

Naveen explains how the intelligence gathered through telemetry propelled innovations like Pure1 and Evergreen//One. Pure1, the cloud-based platform, uses machine learning to offer predictive recommendations—such as projecting capacity needs to avoid unexpected overages. This predictive power is central to Evergreen//One, the consumption-based storage-as-a-service offering. By managing the physical appliance using telemetry, Everpure allows customers to consume logical storage connected to SLAs, simplifying the procurement process and eliminating the complexity of managing hardware specifics. This subscription model provides predictability and isolates customers from pricing pressures on components.

Our discussion shifts to the future of storage and the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence. Naveen details AI Co-pilot, an agentic AI interface that helps users triangulate performance issues and orchestrate complex operations, such as migrating VMs, through conversational language using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This move to active management is further realized through Pure1 Edge, allowing fleet-level data management and cloud-based upgrades. We then touche on Everpure Protect, a crucial cloud-based Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution. Ultimately, Naveen advises IT leaders to embrace AI as a powerful tool—like the domestication of the horse—that will make people more effective and accelerate innovation.

To learn more, visit: https://www.purestorage.com/products/monitoring-fleet-management.html

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Pure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

01:45 Naveen’s Career Journey

09:29 Origin of Digital Experience

12:45 Proactive Recommendations

16:05 Cloud Management and Subscriptions

18:12 Stat of the Episode on Storage Capacity Growth

21:30 AI Co-Pilot and Automation

32:14 Telemetry

37:01 Pure1 and Subscription Management

39:51 Everpure Protect DRaaS

45:44 Hot Takes Segment

The Pure Report podcast went on location to the Pittsburgh Pure User Group, set against the backdrop of the Ohio River, to celebrate the GA launch of the Everpure and Nutanix solution. We interviewed a lineup of guests—including David Stevens, Expedient’s Rob McCafferty, Don Poorman, and Systems Engineer Adam Hill—who all gathered with customers and partners to discuss the excitement surrounding the new offering. Stevens emphasized the highly integrated nature of the solution, which simplifies setup to just a few operations on the array and in Nutanix . The momentum around the solution is growing - a month after the GA announcement, this event is the perfect forum to answer customer questions and showcase the solution's ease of use and ability to replicate the operational experience virtualization administrators prefer.

Our discussion shifts to the business value of the solution, specifically addressing customer challenges like finding alternatives to existing virtualization platforms, reducing costs, and hedging bets against recent industry changes. Guests note that the new architecture helps organizations keep data on-premises to meet regulatory requirements, while still enabling them to burst new workloads into the cloud. The episode features Rob McCafferty, Chief Solutions Officer at Expedient, who details their role as a beta customer and launch partner for the Pure and Nutanix offering. Expedient, a long-time customer of both companies, is thrilled to provide clients with the flexibility and the optionality unlocked by bringing together two industry leaders, with clients already in the queue for deployment. Expedient focuses on delivering reduced risk, cost control, and stability in their platforms for clients.

The episode concludes by focusing on the power of Pure user groups, which are described as crucial venues for peer-to-peer interaction and sharing knowledge about topics like cyber, AI, and virtualization. Technical Evangelist Don Poorman points out that the success of the joint solution is due to the similar customer-focused cultures of Pure and Nutanix. Poorman advises customers to view the new virtualization optionality as a bigger exercise than just cost savings, recommending they consider the long-term effects on automation and cyber security. He also advocates for Pure’s forward-looking technology investment in NVMe over TCP, which he sees as more robust than Fiber Channel for the next 15 years. The team encourages customers to step up and lead future user group events to continue building the community, both physically and on the Pure Community digital platform.

To learn more, visit: https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/category/pure-user-groups

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Pure experts:

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

00:49 Everpure and Nutanix with Davis Stevens

06:01 Value of User Groups

09:15 Rob McCafferty from Expedient

17:01 Don Poorman from Everpure

20:42 Community Momentum

26:09 Pittsburgh SE Adam Hill

This episode of the Pure Report podcast, features Solutions Director Andrew Sillifant where we dive into the implications of Oracle 26ai, focusing on what enterprises must do to prepare for this major long-term support release. Our discussion positions Oracle as part of the database industrial complex, noting its enduring dominance alongside Microsoft SQL Server, together accounting for over 50% of the enterprise market. Oracle 26ai is presented as the latest phase in the database lifecycle—following G for Grid and C for Cloud—which capitalizes on the momentum of artificial intelligence by repositioning the database as a full system. The new version embeds AI vector store capabilities and machine learning models, allowing organizations to combine structured data from legacy systems with unstructured data (like S3 tables) for better context awareness.

Our conversation shifts to a look at the complexity and risk of database upgrades, which extends far beyond the DBA team to considerations around capacity planning, application integration, and platform choices. Andrew notes that while Oracle is mature and its upgrade cycle is well-known, infrastructure modernization, including decisions on virtualization and containers, is now taking precedence due to many economic and regulatory forces. The addition of new capabilities in 26ai —including OLTP, analytics, and vector data types means increased storage consumption and introduces new workload patterns that stress the compute layer. Enterprises face decision paralysis when considering the cost and multifaceted nature of these changes, making a simplified, reliable infrastructure foundation critical.

We close with a look at how the Everpure platform is an essential risk reduction element in the upgrade process, simplifying the storage layer so it reduces complexity in the upgrade process. Key benefits discussed include de-risking capacity bloat through metadata-only snapshots for development, test, and QA copies, and offering extremely fast recovery speeds, with examples citing a two-node Oracle RAC database restore at 68 terabytes per hour. Non-disruptive risk reduction (NDU) capabilities and the Evergreen service model are emphasized as a significant moat against competitors, providing a low-risk platform that allows teams to pivot their focus to the database upgrade itself, rather than the underlying infrastructure.

To learn more, visit: https://www.purestorage.com/solutions/databases/oracle.html

Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Everpure experts: 
https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

02:43 Background on Oracle Database

08:35 Upgrade Considerations

12:17 Maturing Oracle Features

15:16 Database Upgrade Process

21:17 Complex Factors to Consider

25:12 Handling Different Data Types

30:24 Everpure Value for Oracle Operations

36:30 Key Steps for Successful Upgrades