Pure Storage: ‘In 5 years, datacenters will no longer buy mechanical disks’

US data and flash storage company Pure Storage is confident that the memory structure of datacenters around the world will soon be entirely based on flash technology.

“We believe that in five years, datacenters will no longer buy mechanical disks. It will all be flash, in any format and power or size. But it's all going to be flash,” the company's Latin America VP, Wilson Grava (pictured), told BNamericas.

Flash storage is essentially an electrically programmable memory that uses widely available solid-state drives (SSD) and less energy and physical space than traditional mechanical disk storage.

Pure Storage is one of the leading providers of all-flash data storage solutions. It competes with brands such as IBM, HPE, Nutanix and NetApp, among others that also offer these storage solutions.

“We want to eliminate the mechanical disk," said Grava.

The executive reports increases in flash storage at datacenters for telcos, banks and companies. 

Specifically, in the context of hyperscalers, this process is seen as a little more complex, given the particularities of purchasing and maintaining the infrastructure for these companies, he added.

Pure Storage is also developing “big projects” with Meta, said Grava.

The company has production in Latin America, but the location of that cannot be revealed, according to the executive, and BNamericas was unable to independently confirm where that is.

In Grava's view, local manufacturing does not generate any material difference in the final price of products sold, which is why he sees no need to ramp up local production. 

“We have been able to deliver very quickly and at competitive prices. So much so that we're winning several public tenders. Government has been a very important market for us," he added.

The company's chief verticals in the region are datacenters, the public sector, finance, general industries and commerce, in that order. 

The outlook for business is "good", Grava said, because companies need to handle increasingly complex and multi-vendor cloud infrastructure.

“Datacenters, and datacenter managers are desperate with the multiple environments they have to deal with. It's getting more and more complex. A lot of talks we have are along the lines of asking to help simplify things."

From a financial perspective, Pure Storage has healthy figures and is well capitalized to invest regionally, according to Grava.

“Latin America ended 2022 as one of the three fastest-growing areas worldwide. We got additional resources, reinforced the team, our channel management and our support in different languages,” he said, without disclosing hard figures.

For its first fiscal quarter 2024, ended on May 7, the firm's Latin American operations "met all targets," according to the executive. 

Worldwide, Pure Storage reported total revenues of US$590mn for the period, down 5% year-on-year. Subscription services revenues, meanwhile, reached US$280mn, up 28%.