Pure Storage: EMC customers 'utterly confused' at latest launch

Storage vendor makes feisty analysis of storage industry at Accelerate event

Pure Storage has branded EMC's flash strategy "utterly confusing" at its inaugural partner summit, at which it ratcheted up the war of words with its rivals.

At its Accelerate partner and customer event in San Francisco, the firm's vice president for product Matt Kixmoeller told partners that although a number of competitors have made attempts to capture the flash market, he doesn't think any have been successful.

"One of the views in the market today is that he big guys are finally entering the [flash] market and are finally starting to catch up," he said. "In our view, that couldn't be further from the truth. What I see right now is a lot of confusion among large vendors.

"We saw Hitachi launch an all-flash array that was sourced from OEM components, and we saw NetApp try to build their own, and then decide all-flash FAS was ok, and then acquire a different one [SolidFire] - really unclear what they're betting on."

Last month, EMC launched VMAX All Flash, its latest product it claims coincides with 2016 being "the year of flash".

Pure's Kixmoeller was not convinced by the product.

"We saw an enormous reversal from EMC - they worked as hard as they could to scorch the earth with VMAX to bring out XtremIO in the last few years, and now it is back to VMAX three [VMAX All Flash] with flash," he said. "Customers we talked to are utterly confused. If you look at that VMAX three, it is the same VMAX - it still has SSDs in it - it is not fit to go after this market. So this is a huge opportunity to go into customers who have seen the EMC story change so much in the last few years and to explain there's a very consistent offering from Pure."

Neither EMC not NetApp were immediately available to comment on Pure's claims, but the latter recently told CRN its SolidFire acquisition was going well, and EMC claims to be a market leader.

EMC's name cropped up a number of other times during the first day of the Pure Storage conference, most notably when the firm's former chief marketing officer Jonathan Martin, who recently defected from EMC to Pure Storage, took a stab at his former employer.

When introducing Kristian Segerstrale, chief operating officer of gaming firm Super Evil MegaCorp - a speaker at the event - Martin said: "I thought Evil MegaCorp was the company I used to work for," prompting cheers from the audience.

Pure's chief executive Scott Dietzen followed on stage quickly to restore order, thanking partners for their commitment to his company.

"We are leading the industry and [even though] we are a seven years old, we are one of the safest bets in storage," he said. "Pure is the company by which the veterans benchmark their product."

"Most importantly today I want to say thank you. None of this happens without you and your faith. Some of you staked your reputation and even your careers on that early bet on the orange [Pure Storage's branding colour]. All of our success has been mutual. We are so profoundly grateful."