Pure Storage revamps service model with Forever Flash

Up until now, Pure Storage sold its flash arrays and maintenance and service contracts (M&S) in the same way as most storage vendors, but things are about to change, with the company announcing Forever Flash, a new enterprise storage business model.

The model has been designed to reduce storage ownership costs over the deployment lifecycle and offer a continual in-place equipment upgrade plan that eliminates storage downtime and the need for traditional costly and risky "forklift upgrades".

"The industry shift from hard disk to flash will drive down data storage costs to the lowest levels we've ever seen," said Scott Dietzen, Pure Storage CEO, who believes that Forever Flash will help address major pain points for IT managers.

"Part of the reduction will come in more efficient equipment, and the other part will come from innovative vendors who put an end to archaic industry practices, including out-of-control maintenance contracts and the need to forklift-upgrade equipment every three to five years."

The Forever Flash model, which can be optimised according to the customers' storage ownership lifecycle and M&S contracts, operates in two dimensions: "Fresh every upgrade" and "free every three".

"Fresh free upgrade" allows customers to re-base their maintenance and support fees to year one maintenance rates every time they upgrade their controllers or expand capacity.

Meanwhile, "free every three" is where storage buyers receive a controller upgrade every three years when they renew their maintenance agreements in years four or seven. The program also allows customers to pre-buy five years of maintenance, receiving a controller refresh on year three.

One company that has already experienced the benefits of Forever Flash is TripPak Services & ACS Advertising. The company's IT infrastructure engineering manager David Abbott said it offers options to extend the life of its systems while simplifying and reducing maintenance and support costs.

"We are already taking advantage of improved lifecycle management through the non-disruptive upgrades provided by Pure's FlashArray, and we look forward to taking advantage of Forever Flash," he said.