Establishing a strategic partnership with Pure Storage was a decision our team made after considerable evaluation. We did it because we believe Pure is delivering extremely innovative storage technology with radical commitment to excellence. They have a decade of innovation under their belt, an independently verified customer satisfaction index that is higher than Apple’s; and a platform that is as easy to manage as it is high performing. We knew Pure would be a very good fit for most of our clients.
As part of our efforts to introduce Pure’s technology to the region, we hosted Pure’s Vice President & CTO Nathan Hall. Over a peer group networking lunch, Nathan graciously shared not only some of the Pure roadmap, but with a few simple slides helped everyone understand the business Pure believes they are in: making your data intelligent, agile, and most of all ACTIONABLE.
When one hosts the CTO of a major technology company, one expects an innovation discussion. What our audience didn’t expect was to find the conversation leading right back to them. The highlights are definitely worth sharing.
Start With the Data: The Machines Are Here
Within the past 2 years, machines now generate a staggering amount of the data within most organizations. Up to 90% of it. Think that doesn’t apply to you? Think again. Applications, devices, anything connected to the internet or a human is generating tremendous volumes of data. Some of it visible, lots of it in the background. All of it valuable – both as a corporate asset and as the opportunity for insight. For competitive advantage.
Today’s Data-Driven Economy
Just because your company isn’t one of the examples of data driven companies shown here, doesn’t mean that data won’t drive competitive differentiation for you. These are just examples of organizations who leverage data to innovate past the competitors in their sectors. The question is not how can you be the size and impact of these organizations, but instead, what data is your organization collecting? Are you leveraging it? Can you access it easily? Securely? Can you make informed decisions based on the analytics across your data?
Become the “Faster Fish”
The good news is that you don’t have to be Apple or Google to leverage data to get ahead. A key “ah-ha” came from a quote from Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic forum that stresses the modern model of innovation:
“In the new world, it is not the big fish that eats the small fish, but the fast fish that eats the slow fish.”
Across the room, conversations sparked as people recognized that Hall was talking about the reality that all organizations have the opportunity to “be the faster fish”. Right now, competitive differentiation for all.
Think your organization is too small?
Meet the Mercedes Formula One Race Team
This look more like your size organization? By harnessing data, small teams can be mighty. This team is dominating Formula One racing, and they are doing it with data-driven decisions. A lot of them. All powered by Pure Storage. In 2018 alone, the Mercedes Petronas team made more than 25,000 design changes to their car. The agility and insight from their data enabled them to learn, adapt, innovate and ultimately win. (You can read more about them here.)
The Pure Approach
Part of what intrigued us as we assessed Pure for our clients was their approach. They seemed to have started with a clean sheet of paper, not encumbered by old storage technology investments. They asked people what they wanted, and designed for the answers:
- “We want something that just works.”
- “We don’t want something that needs constant attention.”
- “We don’t want a constant cycle of upgrades or migrations.”
- “We want affordable flash performance.”
Disrupting the Traditional Cycle
Before Pure, this is the typical cost model for storage. Big Year 1 investment that drops down for a couple of years, only to be faced with two unpleasant options: another expensive hardware refresh and data migration, or higher maintenance & support costs.
Enter Evergreen
Now Pure’s Flash Array technology not only offers ease of use and predictive technology, but offers predictable expense over time. The Evergreen solution includes predictable expense for years, with continuous upgrades to the storage array built in. No more Year 3 hardware cost spikes. Just continuous performance, at a continuous price.
A Final Word: Back to “What If?”
The through-line of this presentation was really about innovation – but not just Pure’s. They see their technology as enabling organizations to identify opportunities for their innovation, and then support those efforts. What if you could….[insert your idea/dream/nightmare competition scenario]?
This resonated with us at ALI, because we too see our efforts not as mere technology execution, but in playing a part in helping clients meet strategic objectives. It was fun to look around the room and see people thinking about and even sharing the possibilities.
What if:
- We could leverage our sales data faster to see where we are winning and losing?
- We could bring a better product to market faster than our competition?
- We could see insight into our customer behavior to identify areas of opportunity?
- We could organize and data-mine all the metadata from our systems to learn from it?
The list goes on.
So even if you couldn’t join us for this special event, it’s never too late to start addressing those “what ifs”. It could make all the difference.
So let’s talk “what if”. We’re happy to do a complimentary consult and see how ALI and Pure can turn your “what if” into a winning solution.
