The Pure Report

In this episode, we sit down with Solution Architect Robert Alvarez to discuss the technology behind Pure Key-Value Accelerator (KVA) and its role in accelerating AI inference. Pure KVA is a protocol-agnostic, key-value caching solution that, when combined with FlashBlade data storage, dramatically improves GPU efficiency and consistency in AI environments. Robert—whose background includes time as a Santa Clara University professor, NASA Solution Architect, and work at CERN—explains how this innovation is essential for serving an entire fleet of AI workloads, including modern agentic or chatbot interfaces.

Robert dives into the massive growth of the AI Inference market, driven by the need for near real-time processing and low-latency AI applications. This trend makes the need for a solution like Pure KVA critical. He details how KVA removes the bottleneck of GPU memory and shares compelling benchmark results: up to twenty times faster inference with NFS and six times faster with S3, all over standard Ethernet. These performance gains are key to helping enterprises scale more efficiently and reduce overall GPU costs.

Beyond the technical deep dive, the episode explores the origin of the KVA idea, the unique Pure IP that enables it, and future integrations like Dynamo and the partnership with Comet for LLM observability. In the popular “Hot Takes” segment, Robert offers his perspective on blind spots IT leaders might have in managing AI data and shares advice for his younger self on the future of the data management space.

To learn more about Pure KVA, visit purestorage.com/launch.

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

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

02:21 Background on Our Guest

06:57 Stat of the Episode on AI Inferencing Spend

09:10 Why AI Inference is Difficult at Scale

11:00 How KV Cache Acceleration Works

14:50 Key Partnerships Using KVA

20:28 Hot Takes Segment

In this episode, we welcome Lead Principal Technologist Hari Kannan to cut through the noise and tackle some of the biggest myths surrounding AI data management and the revolutionary FlashBlade//EXA platform. With GPU shipments now outstripping CPUs, the foundation of modern AI is shifting, and legacy storage architectures are struggling to keep up. Hari dives into the implications of this massive GPU consumption, setting the stage for why a new approach is desperately needed for companies driving serious AI initiatives.

Hari dismantles three critical myths that hold IT leaders back. First, he discusses how traditional storage is ill-equipped for modern AI's millions of small, concurrent files, where metadata performance is the true bottleneck—a problem FlashBlade//EXA solves with its metadata-data separation and single namespace. Second, he addresses the outdated notion that high-performance AI is file-only, highlighting FlashBlade//EXA's unified, uncompromising delivery of both file and object storage at exabyte scale and peak efficiency. Finally, Hari explains that GPUs are only as good as the data they consume, countering the belief that only raw horsepower matters. FlashBlade//EXA addresses this by delivering reliable, scalable throughput, efficient DirectFlash Modules up to 300 TB, and the metadata performance required to keep expensive GPUs fully utilized and models training faster.

Join us as we explore the blind spots in current AI data strategies during our "Hot Takes" segment and recount a favorite FlashBlade success story. Hari closes with a compelling summary of how Pure Storage's complete portfolio is perfectly suited to provide the complementary data management essential for scaling AI. Tune in to discover why FlashBlade//EXA is the non-compromise, exabyte-scale solution built to keep your AI infrastructure running at its full potential.

For more information, visit: https://www.pure.ai/flashblade-exa.html

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

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

04:30 Primer on FlashBlade

11:32 Stat of the Episode on GPU Shipments

13:25 What is FlashBlade//EXA

18:58 Myth #1: Traditional Storage Challenges for AI Data

22:01 Myth #2: AI Workloads are not just File-based

26:42: Myth #3: AI Needs more than just GPUs

31:35 Hot Takes Segment

This episode of the Pure Report features a conversation with Eugene McGrath, a nine-year veteran of Pure Storage and a Field Solution Architect. Our discussion delves into Gene’s diverse background, starting from his early days in IT racking and stacking servers at companies like Microsoft and Pixar, and how that hands-on experience shaped his career. We compare the evolution of his role and the industry, emphasizing the importance of a versatile skill set in the ever-changing tech landscape, particularly with his focus now on converged infrastructure solutions like FlashStack.

We then dive into the partnership between Pure Storage and Cisco, specifically around the FlashStack converged infrastructure solution. Gene explains why this decade-long collaboration works, attributing it to a shared philosophy of simplifying infrastructure and improving the customer lifecycle. Our conversation also touches on the recent shift in Cisco's mindset, with Pure Storage taking a more prominent role, including the recent Nutanix partnership announcement. We further explore the concepts of "Day Zero" and "Day One" challenges in infrastructure deployment, emphasizing how Cisco Validated Design and automation mitigate risks and accelerate implementation for customers.

Our discussion concludes with the "Hot Takes" segment, where Gene discusses the growing trends of "hypervisor fatigue" and the repatriation of workloads from the cloud due to cost and performance issues. He predicts a significant shift towards containerization as companies seek more agnostic and flexible approaches to their IT infrastructure. Gene also shares a memorable "oops" moment from his career, involving 3,000 servers racked upside down, and offers advice to his younger self about the explosion of data and the increasing importance of data management.

For more information, visit: https://www.purestorage.com/products/integrated-platforms/flashstack.html

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

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

04:55 Cisco and Pure Relationship

06:48 Stat of the Episode on Cloud Repatriation

12:35 Solving Day 0 and Day 1 Challenges

17:25 Using Cisco UCS in FlashStack

24:37 Cisco Validated Designs

26:54 Nutanix and Pure Partnership

32:35 Hot Takes Segment

In an era where enterprises are undergoing a significant re-evaluation of virtualization strategies, our episode dives into the new strategic partnership between Pure Storage and Nutanix. Join industry experts Don Poorman and Erin Stevens as we unpack the latest trends in virtualization strategies and why the timing is perfect for a new approach, and how Nutanix, with its AHV hypervisor, is well positioned with Pure to deliver a solution designed from the ground up for high-performance and enterprise scale.

This episode explores the "what" and "how" of the jointly engineered Pure and Nutanix solution, detailing how Nutanix AHV hosts can leverage Pure FlashArray for shared storage, offering an apples-to-apples replacement for traditional setups. We'll cover the details around joint integrations, including the NVMe/TCP connection between Nutanix and Pure FlashArray, and how VMs are managed through Nutanix Prism for a granular vVols-like experience. Learn about the specific workloads and use cases this solution targets, particularly environments needing a balance of computing and networking, and those with high transactional database demands.

Gain insights into the current state of the project, including its early access phase with customer feedback, and what to expect regarding general availability coming soon. Finally, get their "Hot Takes" on industry trends, memorable customer screw-ups, and their predictions for the future of data management.

For more information, visit: https://www.purestorage.com/partners/alliances/nutanix.html

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

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

00:00 Intro and Welcome

04:49 Stat of the Episode

09:53 Current Virtualization Landscape

14:46 Primer on Pure Nutanix Relationship

23:28 Target Use Cases and Workloads

28:12 Details on Integrations and APIs

36:15 Early Feedback on Early Access

40:20 Hot Takes

Join Pure Storage Technical Evangelists Don Poorman and Mike Nelson as we dive into Pure Fusion and how Pure Storage is enabling users to focus less on managing storage and more on managing their data. We start by examining the complexities of managing storage and application workloads in today's rapidly evolving IT landscape. We expose the challenges posed by legacy vendor "portfolios" which often consist of disparate products lacking unified GUIs and APIs. Learn why a fundamental shift is necessary to eliminate silos in enterprise storage, moving beyond mere federation to true integration – a unified management plane with common APIs that seamlessly operate across the entire storage ecosystem. Poorman and Nelson underscore how this integration and automation are not just valuable for traditional workloads but will be absolutely critical for the future of AI implementation, especially for inference.

Our discussion pivots to Pure Storage's groundbreaking solution: Fusion. Learn what Fusion is – a powerful capability included in the latest versions of the Purity operating environment that provides an intelligent control plane for a centralized, unified management experience across an entire fleet of arrays. Our experts explain how Fusion inherently adopts Pure's API-First strategy, offering robust automation capabilities through PowerShell SDK, Ansible, and Python. They highlight how Fusion drives management, compliance, and workload configuration consistency from a single pane of glass, and how it's a vital foundation of Pure's Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) vision.

Listeners and viewers will gain invaluable insights into the tangible benefits of Fusion, including the ability to provision storage on any array from any array within the same UI, search and manage storage resources globally, and reconfigure resources without needing to access a specific array. Poorman and Nelson also explore how Fusion simplifies and standardizes workload deployments with pre-configured definitions, enabling end-to-end workload orchestration. They touch upon future enhancements like seamless interoperability across file, object, and block storage in on-site, hybrid, and cloud environments, and the exciting prospect of workload mobility. 


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

In our latest episode, we sit down with Ken Hui, Field Solutions Architect, to discuss his journey at Pure Storage and the evolving landscape of data management. Ken shares his unique perspective on Pure Storage's culture, highlighting the emphasis on collaboration and innovation. The conversation delves into the critical role of unstructured data in today's AI-driven world, exploring how enterprises can strategically manage and protect their ever-growing data assets without falling prey to common pitfalls.

Ken, a seasoned veteran in the storage and cloud space, offers valuable advice on approaching new technologies, stressing the importance of starting with the desired end-state and aligning technology with people and processes. He also revisits his early career frustrations with file storage, explaining how Pure Storage's advancements, particularly with FlashBlade and FlashArray, have transformed the experience, making data management simpler and more efficient. The discussion touches on the power of continuous innovation, self-service upgrades, and the multi-tenancy capabilities that empower customers.

Our episode concludes with Ken's "hot take" on industry trends, where he champions object storage as a scalable solution for large-scale data workloads, especially in the AI and analytics space. He also shares a memorable "oops" moment from his career and offers crucial advice for IT professionals: learn programming to effectively leverage automation and APIs in the future of data management.

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

https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/

The Pure Report welcomes Shawn Rosemarin, VP R&D, Customer Engineering at Pure Storage, to explore the critical topic of workflow optimization in today's IT landscape. Shawn shares his unique perspective on how the industry is moving beyond a product-centric view to embrace a platform mindset, emphasizing the profound impact this shift has on people and processes. Drawing on decades of experience, he highlights how true value is derived when technology actively evolves the way companies operate, making life better for IT professionals and streamlining essential business functions.

Our conversation dives deep into the "death by a thousand cuts" phenomenon, where seemingly minor inefficiencies in IT workflows accumulate into major productivity drains and significant risks. Shawn breaks down key areas such as provisioning and resource allocation, performance management and monitoring, and refresh cycles, illustrating how traditional approaches often lead to wasted time, increased costs, and security vulnerabilities. He uses compelling analogies, from ride-hailing apps to airplane checklists, to underscore the need for automated, consistent, and intelligent solutions that simplify complex tasks and minimize human error.

We ultimately arrive at a discussion around an autonomous operating environment, where human ingenuity is augmented by machine intelligence to proactively identify and resolve issues, reduce risk, and accelerate time to market. Thought the episode we link to how Pure’s platform approach, including innovations like Pure 1 and Evergreen//One, is transforming the way customers manage their data estate, enabling centralized policy controls, self-service upgrades, and seamless cloud integration.

Welcome to episode 3 of our special launch series of the Pure Report podcast. In this episode, we dive deep into the critical topic of cyber resilience with Scott Taylor, Director of the Cyber Resilience Field Solutions Architects Team at Pure Storage. We discuss why traditional, siloed security approaches are failing in the face of escalating cyber threats. From there, we explore the real-world impact of cyberattacks, from significant financial costs and reputational damage to the often-overlooked human toll on IT and security teams.

Watch and listen as Scott unpacks Pure Storage's innovative approach to cyber resilience, built on principles of Built-in Security, Connected Threat Detection, and Dynamic Response and Recovery. Discover how Pure's "as-a-service" offerings are changing the game, providing optionality and flexibility to react to rapidly changing environments. We delve into our recent launch announcements, including deep integrations with CrowdStrike and Superna, transforming storage from a passive target into an active defender. Plus, get insights into Pure's new Real-Time Malware Scanning directly at the storage layer and the expanded Veeam partnership for simplified backup and recovery delivered as service.

This episode is a must-listen for IT and security professionals looking to move from a reactive to a proactive security posture. Scott shares his "hot takes" on overlooked aspects of cyber recovery, essential cultural shifts for IT organizations, and how AI is influencing the ongoing battle between attackers and defenders. Learn how to secure your data, minimize downtime, and build a truly cyber resilient enterprise in the era of the Enterprise Data Cloud.

The Pure Report welcomes Anthony Nocentino, Sr. Principal Field Solution Architect, to delve into the future of databases and data management. This episode looks at the explosive growth of relational databases and the impact of SQL Server 2025, Oracle 23ai, and AI-driven demands. We explore how Pure Storage is not just keeping pace with database growth but actively simplifying management, scaling, and protection, moving beyond foundational support to offer operational freedom for DBAs and infrastructure teams.

Anthony tackles the pressing challenges faced by database environments today, including fragmented storage infrastructure, manual provisioning, and the complexities of compliance, disaster recovery, and hybrid cloud strategies. Anthony sheds light on how these issues contribute to real-world burnout among DBAs and infra team members. The discussion will also cover the evolving roles of these professionals as they increasingly become platform performance engineers, cloud strategists, and data ops troubleshooters in a world of multiple database engines and unpredictable resource needs driven by AI workloads.

Hear about how Pure's vision for the Enterprise Data Cloud connects to database operations, including key announcements from our Accelerate Vegas and NYC events. We dive into how Pure Fusion with workflow templates and Pure1 offers intelligent, AI-powered workload and resource management, automated policy-based provisioning, and a unified single control plane across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments. The episode also explores the implications for enterprise-ready storage with the FlashArray platform family, showcasing how products like FA//XL, FA//X, FA//C, and FA//ST simplify workload expansion and provide significant performance benefits. Finally, we'll get Anthony's "Hot Takes" on critical DBA tasks, dream fixes for database environments, and common myths he'd like to debunk, all while looking forward to Pure's presence at Oracle AI World.

Welcome to episode 2 of our special launch series of the Pure Report podcast! In this episode, Chadd Kenney joins again to help us dive into the critical foundation of the Enterprise Data Cloud: the Unified Data Plane. We start with a discussion on why a truly unified data plane is essential for organizations today, managing everything from archive to AI workloads.

Chadd shares insights into the latest innovations across the FlashArray family, including the new FlashArray/XL 190 and FlashArray//ST, enhancements to FlashArray//X and FlashArray//C, and how Pure's platform supports diverse virtualization landscapes and continuing data growth driven by core databases and business workloads.

We then talk about how the virtualization landscape is still in flux, and many customers are evaluating their options. The good news is that Pure's platform is designed to support them, whether they choose to continue with VMware, transition to a new hypervisor like Nutanix, or modernize with containers. Additionally, we delve into new innovations within Pure Storage Cloud, including the Azure Native integration, which rounds out the portfolio and provides comprehensive support across the board.

We also touch on the new Pure KVA integration with NVIDIA Dynamo, Purity Deep Reduce, and how Pure's Evergreen architecture ensures customers can leverage all our Unified Data Plane announcements without disruption. Don't miss Chadd's "Hot Takes" on future data drivers and common data infrastructure mistakes.