We finally chased down the smart and savvy Rob Quast, Principal Technologist at Pure, to discuss the latest trends in the tech world around AI, Networking and Cloud storage. Our conversation kicks off with Rob's journey, from his time at ePlus and working in sys admin roles, to a memorable experience at Pure's NYC Accelerate event where he saw the stock exchange firsthand. We touch on the various aspects of a PT's role, including Rob’s experience showing demos and helping customers understand complex solutions. 

Our conversation shifts to some of Rob's most passionate work, including involvement in a large AI solution for Coreweave. He walks through the intricacies of a massive deal and how it required close collaboration with the product management team, post-validation work, and strategic networking. Rob also shares insights from a hyperscaler win for Pure Storage, explaining what "hyperscaler" means and how they’re used in the industry. We dive into the technical details of large AI deals, such as GPUDirect, and discuss how Pure can better connect with networking professionals. A key theme here is the intersection of data storage and networking, with Rob revealing why NVMe TCP is a game-changer for the future of cloud infrastructure, particularly when compared to technologies like Infiniband.

We close with conversation looking toward the future, exploring the realities of cloud storage and hybrid cloud solutions, and what customers are trying to achieve and the challenges they face. The episode wraps up with a focus on object storage, where Rob discusses how Pure Storage's Fusion platform helps manage global namespaces and facilitates multi-tenant cloud environments.

Inside the World of Large-Scale AI Solutions, Networking, and Cloud Innovation with Rob Quast

Our series around Pure's fundamental design principles continues. Episode two of the series centers in on the choice to use exclusively Flash memory and how best to leverage it.  Next, the team dives into innovations in a wide range of data reduction technologies and advantages for users across a spectrum of business applications.  Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. 

These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise.  This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.


15 Architectural Decisions Series: Flash and Data Reduction

Our series around Pure's fundamental design principles continues. Episode 3 discusses three key architectural decisions: stateless controllers, the second controller, and limited error paths. Hear from co-hosts JD Wallace and Andrew Miller about how stateless controllers mean no identity or state is stored within the controller itself, allowing for easy replacement and upgrades without downtime. This design philosophy simplifies maintenance, reduces support costs, and enables seamless technology migrations, allowing Pure customers to upgrade hardware generations without impacting business operations. This is a significant shift from older storage array methods that required complex, time-consuming manual processes and often led to downtime.

We then further explore the strategic decision behind having a second controller in an active-standby configuration, prioritizing consistent performance and uptime over maximizing raw performance from both controllers simultaneously. This approach ensures that performance remains stable even during failovers or planned upgrades, eliminating unpredictable results and reducing the need for constant monitoring by IT admins. By focusing on reliability and simplicity, Pure Storage aims to provide a "cloud-like" experience for on-prem and cloud connected storage, significantly reducing operational complexity and enabling faster adoption of new technologies and features. The Pure Report podcast is now available on video - bookmark the playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5d3ZupjTzE150O6sjbVLhrAP3kpC1QEm

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Controller Architecture and Limited Error Paths

Episode 4 of our series around Pure's fundamental design principles dives into aspects of Pure's technology that drive realistic efficiency for users. This episode tackles capabilities most Storage professionals are familiar with - snapshots, efficiency metrics and adaptive flexible RAID.

Pure learned from the challenges created by legacy architectures to build better versions of these features into our all-flash array portfolio. Hear about how Pure Storage’s snapshot architecture focuses on instant, efficient, and immutable copies that serve both operational and security needs. Snapshots can be created instantly with no performance overhead and used for rapid recovery, cloning, or replication—each one functions as a “gold copy version” and maintains group consistency, enabling rollbacks to any point in time without dependencies or data duplication. Their design is tightly integrated with metadata, enabling efficient thin provisioning and consistent protection, while SafeMode extends these benefits by enforcing privileged access and retention policies for ransomware resilience. Around realistic efficiency metrics - we deliver transparent and realistic efficiency metrics by directly reporting space consumption trends and physical storage utilization, rather than relying solely on claims about thin provisioning or data reduction. Our user interface distinguishes between budgeted capacity, usable capacity, and used space, with a focus on showing only live user data (volumes and snapshots), and hiding internal system overhead, RAID overhead, and reclaimable space until critical thresholds are reached. Finally, we tackle RAID - Pure’s RAID architecture is built for flash, utilizing a flexible, adaptive structure that never requires manual configuration while continuously ensuring optimal data protection and performance.

Series Overview: Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise.  This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Snapshots, Realistic Efficiency Metrics, and Adaptive RAID

Episode 5 of our series covers always-on encryption, the smart use of metadata, and our DIY install/repair/upgrade approach. Pure's approach to security is to have it built-in and non-optional, with end-to-end encryption—covering both user data and metadata—using device or software-based AES-256 alongside features like Rapid Data Locking, role-based access controls, and secure erasure methods to protect against breaches and support compliance needs. Next, hear about how metadata serves as the “secret sauce” for Pure, enabling highly efficient, granular data services and powering capabilities like snapshots and instant cloning through a scalable, multi-tiered framework that writes, caches, and protects metadata in ways traditional arrays cannot match.  Finally, we touch on installation, repairs, and upgrades which are designed for ultimate simplicity and DIY ease, with non-disruptive software and hardware changes—thanks to Pure’s Evergreen architecture—which allows organizations to grow and evolve storage resources without operational downtime, complex migrations, or compromise. These architectural choices underpin Pure’s promise of secure, resilient, and agile storage that adapts to changing business needs while remaining effortless to manage.

Series Overview: Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Encryption, Metadata, and Install/Repair/Replace (DIY)

We made it to Episode 6 - the final in our 15 Architectural Decisions series and saved some of the best for last - Predictive and Proactive support (Pure1) combined with our Evergreen architecture and non-disruptive everything. In this episode, JD, Andrew and I dive into Pure Storage's foundational principles that ensure continuous operation and future-proof your storage. We explore the concept of "Non-Disruptive Everything," a core tenet that allows for seamless upgrades and expansions without any downtime. This ties directly into the innovative Evergreen Storage Model, which redefines the ownership experience by eliminating forklift upgrades and enabling independent evolution of performance, capacity, and features over a decade-long array lifecycle.

We also discuss how Pure's proactive and predictive support, powered by Pure1, plays a critical role in maintaining this non-disruptive environment. Pure1's advanced analytics, anomaly detection, and data protection assessments provide unparalleled visibility and ensure that potential issues are identified and addressed before they impact operations. This integrated approach, from architecture to support, highlights how Pure Storage consistently delivers a cloud-like experience on-premises, setting a new standard for reliability and longevity in the storage industry. Thanks for watching our series.

Series Overview: Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products. Join Pure Report podcast hosts Rob Ludeman, Andrew Miller, and J.D Wallace for this fun technical retrospective on Pure Storage.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: Proactive and Predictive Support (Pure1) and Non-Disruptive Everything (Evergreen)

Data management in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI environments presents unique challenges, especially with heavy file usage and evolving data lifecycles. This edition of the Pure Report podcast delves into these complexities, exploring how data transitions through development, simulation/training, inference/optimization, and long-term retention phases. Together with Pure technologists Bikash Choudhury and Don Poorman, we’ll tackle the critical problem statement: reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by automatically moving inactive data to different tiers without sacrificing accessibility or performance during crucial operational stages.

Join us as we introduce Pure Storage's innovative Zero Move Tiering (ZMT) solution. Discover how ZMT delivers dynamic Service Level Agreements (SLAs) across performance and capacity tiers without data movement, leading to lower TCO and zero operational overhead. We'll also examine how ZMT fits into various data lifecycle stages, from development build workloads to AI-augmented modeling and simulation, and compare Pure's approach to the common deficiencies seen in other vendor solutions.

Taming the Beast: Managing HPC & AI Data at Scale with Zero Move Tiering on FlashBlade

We finish off our 15 Architectural Decisions series with a special guest - VP of Product Management and early Pure employee Chadd Kenney joins to discuss the origin story of Pure Storage's 15 Architectural Decisions. Chadd will take us back to the early Pure startup days, revealing the drivers behind documenting these crucial decisions. We'll explore his favorite decisions, hear stories that solidified them, and discover how this foundational work continues to influence Pure Storage today around the Enterprise Data Cloud and the Pure Platform.

Series Overview: Pure Storage’s foundational approach to product engineering is guided by 15 architectural decisions that were established at the company’s inception and have shaped both the technical and user experience across its product lines. These architectural choices were not made arbitrarily—they stem from a deliberate focus on simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, ensuring Pure could deliver storage solutions that break away from legacy complexity and enable continuous innovation without compromise. This series will guide viewers through all of the 15 principles, helping you understand why certain choices were made, how they impact your operations, and how they compare to other industry features and products.

15 Architectural Decisions Series: The Origin Story with Chadd Kenney

This episode of the Pure Report podcast welcomes back Jon Owings, a long-time Puritan and expert in Kubernetes and data management, to demystify the rapidly evolving world of containerization and AI. We dive deep  into why over 96% of enterprises are adopting Kubernetes, exploring the latest trends like containers as VM alternatives and the advantages of Kubernetes deployments in AI environments. We also shed light on the crucial role of Platform Engineering, helping listeners understand who these professionals are and what they do.

Jon shares insights from his work with Portworx, revealing where they're seeing the most success and why their offering stands out from the competition. Get ready for some "Hot Takes" in a rapid-fire segment covering overlooked industry shifts and even a favorite customer "screwup" story with a successful resolution. Tune in for practical advice on adopting Kubernetes and don't miss the inaugural "Storage Confessions" segment, where Jon shares a memorable challenge and its resolution.


Portworx Revealed: Container Storage Solutions for Kubernetes and AI

Looking for help navigating the changing environment around your VMware investment? What considerations do you need to make relative to staying on VMware versus moving to another solution? We have answers and guidance - check out this episode for an insightful discussion with David Stevens, Field Solution Architect, as we delve into the evolving landscape of virtualization. Despite recent changes from Broadcom, VMware still commands a significant market share, and David unpacks why. We explore the various paths VMware customers are taking today, from sticking with their current setup to exploring hypervisor alternatives, migrating to the cloud, or even transitioning to containers. This episode offers valuable anecdotes and practical insights for anyone navigating the complexities of modern IT infrastructure.

Hear how Pure Storage is strategically positioned to assist organizations through these transitions, highlighting our deep integrations with VMware for over a decade and how investments in Azure VMware Solution provide a cost effective cloud alternative. David also shares his "hot takes" on industry trends, a memorable "screwup" story, and crucial advice for the future of data management. Tune in to gain actionable takeaways on charting the right course for your VMware situation and beyond.

Changing Lanes - What's Driving Virtualization Today?

Welcome to a special launch series of the Pure Report podcast! Join us as we take a deep dive into Pure Storage's Intelligent Control Plane (ICP), a set of groundbreaking innovations redefining IT operations and enabling users to realize the Enterprise Data Cloud. We're thrilled to host Chadd Kenney, VP of Product Management, who helps us unpack how the ICP tackles data silos, operational complexity, and productivity bottlenecks, transforming hundreds of systems into what feels like one virtual cloud of data with Pure Fusion. Discover how Fusion Presets streamline policy-driven deployments, how intelligence extends to modern apps with Portworx native integration, and the exciting possibilities of AI-Copilot and Data Intelligence.

In this episode, Chadd will share insights on how these innovations continue Pure Storage's core hallmark of simplicity in operations, delivering Evergreen architecture at a fleet-wide level. We'll explore how the ICP empowers operators with real-time awareness and workflow orchestration, as demonstrated at Accelerate in Las Vegas and New York, enabling full-stack, application-level outcomes. Plus, Chadd offers his "hot takes" on industry trends, common misconceptions about infrastructure automation, and the evolving role of the IT operator in the next five years. Tune in to understand how the Intelligent Control Plane and Pure Fusion are setting a new standard for data management.


H2 Launch Series: Unpacking the Intelligent Control Plane

Bringing you direct access to Pure Storage thought leaders, technology experts, alliance partners, customer insights, and our latest product news.