Pure Storage puts innovation first at GITEX 2023

Omar Akar, Regional VP for Middle East & Emerging Africa at Pure Storage, tells Anita Joseph how the company is constantly innovating and evolving its products and solutions range to help businesses improve agility, profitability and business continuity.

What is your key focus/theme for this year’s edition of GITEX

Our involvement at GITEX this year holds significant importance for us, and the UAE is a pivotal hub for the whole emerging market. The substantial investments and emphasis on technology development in the UAE are evident, and our participation in GITEX reflects our unwavering commitment to this thriving ecosystem. It’s a unique opportunity for us to spotlight the array of cutting-edge technologies that Pure Storage has been introducing, especially in recent times.

We’ve made some remarkable announcements, some of which are directly related to our all-flash data center solutions. We are dedicated to aiding customers in their transition towards a digitally transformed infrastructure, one that enhances efficiency, elevates service level agreements (SLAs), streamlines operations, and, most importantly, helps them achieve their sustainability goals. The UAE’s strong focus on sustainability, as exemplified by its alignment with United Nations mandate and Vision 2030’s clean energy mandate, makes this even more vital. Our showcase revolves around innovations around the all-flash data center.

Another exciting pillar of our strategy is the subscription model. We’re urging customers to embrace an SLA-driven, Pay-As-You- Go infrastructure to boost agility and reduce overall costs. Our Evergreen model is already well-established as a leading subscription service for infrastructure as a service. Now, we’re taking it a step further by offering to cover your electricity and bills. This isn’t just about delivering SLA commitments; it’s about going above and beyond to provide an end-to-end cloud experience.

What are some of the products and solutions Pure Storage is showcasing at this year’s GITEX?

As much as 20% of our revenue goes back to R&D and so you can see how innovation is a key success factor for us. Pure was known to be a primary storage provider for mission critical applications. Recently, we launched the E Family which delivers a subset of data services for lower tier workloads with easy access to data. For AI to succeed, being able to access data easily is very, very critical. FlashArray//E, the newest addition to the Pure//E family, further extends the energy savings and operational benefits of FlashArray to even more of the data repository market previously served only by disk storage.

Another thing we’re introducing are the new SLA commitments as part of our Evergreen/One SLA-driven infrastructure. Evergreen//One combines the agility and flexibility of public cloud storage with the security and performance of an all-flash sustainable infrastructure. This guaranteed, SLA-driven storage service improves how data is stored, mobilized, and protected.

We’ve also announced a next generation resiliency solution as part of the Pure Protect portfolio, which is a commitment to supporting our customers with their future business continuity strategy. This is primarily what we’re announcing at GITEX.