Pure Storage takes aim at big storage business practices

The improved Forever Flash program extends the useable life of all Pure Storage FlashArrays indefinitely, for both new and existing customers with current maintenance contracts. This includes consistently flat or better maintenance and service (M&S) pricing with no out-year increases—ever; free controller upgrades with every three year M&S contract renewal to ensure storage investments benefit from ‘Moore’s Law,’ delivering consistent performance advantages and the latest software features; and no-cost proactive replacement of equivalent or better hardware components when needed, including flash in the event of wear.

“Building a fundamentally better storage company means we must continually strive to improve upon our own innovative business best practices,” said Scott Dietzen, CEO at Pure Storage. “Customers are getting a raw deal today from Big Storage. Dramatic escalation in out-year maintenance fees are used to force them into purchasing replacement storage arrays that require moving a half-ton of equipment in and out of their data center every few years, and necessitate complex data migrations and costly downtime. Adding insult to injury, in many cases customers then have to repurchase the same array software they just wrote off. Pure Storage is committed to better serving its customers by offering storage that lives productively forever—without compromises, forced migrations or price hikes. Today, we are liberating them from legacy disk-era business practices with the introduction of ‘perpetual storage.’ Any storage vendor that professes to care about its customers should do the same and we challenge our competitors to follow suit.”

Big Storage Maintenance Extortion and Forklift Upgrades Are Dead – Vive La Flash Révolution!
Forever Flash turns the prevailing storage industry business model on its head, reinventing the customer experience with a fundamentally simpler, fairer and more affordable approach to storage array ownership. The first incarnation of Pure Storage’s Forever Flash program challenged the industry status quo by giving customers the freedom to choose between sustaining low storage maintenance rates for growing arrays, or receiving free controller upgrades every three years.

In response to customer feedback, Pure Storage is now expanding the advantages of Forever Flash and eliminating the need to choose between these options—all of the program’s benefits are now fully extended to every FlashArray customer. Total cost of ownership (TCO) is now further reduced, and maintenance has been permanently flattened and simplified in all array usage scenarios.

“We’ve been extremely pleased with FlashArray’s performance and management simplicity, which has exceeded all of our expectations. It’s a big relief to not have to give storage performance a second thought,” said Donato Cabal, director of network infrastructure and security at Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Inc. “Forever Flash has made maintaining and upgrading our arrays simple and cost effective, which is in stark contrast to my previous experiences with other systems. Forever Flash also demonstrates to us how strongly Pure Storage stands behind their product, and gives us a confident feeling about making a long-term investment in their product and our partnership with them. I only wish all of my systems were so simple to support and maintain.”

The new Forever Flash program is comprised of:
· Flat & Fair, Forever: Flat & Fair offers guaranteed flat or better M&S pricing rates—forever. Customers will never be subjected to increased out-year maintenance fees, and will typically see a reduction in per-TB maintenance rates over time. When a customer’s maintenance renewal is processed, any M&S contracts arising from new capacity upgrades will be consolidated into a single, simple contract – just as if they had purchased a new array – with the same M&S rate they received at the time of their original, or better.
· Forever Maintenance: Many vendors limit flash replacement based upon lifespan and/or customer usage patterns. Forever Maintenance ensures proactive repair or replacement of any hardware components when needed – including flash devices – with components of equal or greater functionality for customers with active maintenance and support contracts.
· ‘Free Every Three’ Controller Upgrades, Forever: In addition to Flat & Fair maintenance pricing and Forever Maintenance, every customer also receives free controller upgrades with every three-year maintenance contract renewal—forever. Combined with FlashArray’s unique non-disruptive upgrade capabilities, customers can now keep their storage current in every dimension: performance, scale and features, without the complexity, risk, inconvenience or costs associated with traditional storage migrations and forklift upgrades.

“Pure Storage continues to delight and surprise us in unexpected ways. Beyond providing a fundamentally better storage that has improved our manufacturing operations and made a profound impact on our overall business, they have extended the life of our storage investments and delivered reliably low maintenance and support costs,” said Justin Ainsworth, IT Manager at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. “FlashArray made the move from mechanical disk to all-flash a viable option; Forever Flash made the move from legacy storage to Pure Storage a no-brainer.”

“The prevailing enterprise storage business model of planned obsolescence continues to force customers to either pay for new storage they may not need, or face hefty year three and four maintenance penalties, ensuring vendors continue to profit while customers get squeezed,” said David Hatfield, President at Pure Storage. “In the beginning of 2014, we took the first step toward changing this paradigm, delivering a more fair and customer-centric business model that has already triggered sweeping changes in the industry. We’re taking it to the next level in 2015, advancing all-flash further into the mainstream as the storage platform of choice.”