Pure Storage, the all-flash storage company, has announced Forever Flash, a new business model that changes the way customers purchase and maintain enterprise storage.
The model is designed to significantly reduce storage ownership and maintenance costs and offer a continual in-place equipment upgrade plan that eliminates storage downtime.
Matt Kixmoeller, VP marketing and product manager at Pure Storage told CBR that storage maintenance is key for businesses but it needn’t cost the earth.
"Forever Flash was designed to end one of the most frustrating storage buying experiences – paying skyrocketing maintenance rates on aging storage systems. The model enables customers to upgrade their storage in place without downtime, keep their maintenance rates low, and periodically refresh their controllers for the best performance – while saving money over the deployment lifecycle."
There are two upgrade options with Forever Flash: ‘Fresh Every Upgrade’ and ‘Free Every Three’. ‘Fresh Every Upgrade’ enables customers who are expanding their storage arrays to reset their maintenance to the then-current first-year rates, allowing customers to experience reduced maintenance costs over time. ‘Free Every Three’ enables storage buyers to receive a controller upgrade every three years when they renew their maintenance agreements in years four or seven (an additional two years of maintenance must be purchased at this time to qualify for the controller upgrade).
Simon Robinson, VP storage at 451 Research believes that customers will respond well to cost-saving storage solutions, such as Forever Flash.
"Our research consistently tells us that maintaining traditional storage infrastructure is a major pain point for IT managers, resulting in additional cost and sometimes risk for the business. Pure Storage has designed the long-term maintenance of its arrays into the product, offering a fresh — and long overdue — alternative to the traditional storage sales model. We believe this approach will be well-received by customers and look forward to seeing how the rest of the industry responds."
