Pure Storage's would-be Data Domain killer out in March – but it's still shy about the internals

DD goes to cloud too

I don't use DD, I use HPE StoreOnce. But DD has a cloud tier option, looking at their specs it ranges from a usable capacity of 96TB on low end to 3PB on the high end.

HP on the low end starts from 94TB usable cloud capacity to 5.2PB on the high end. On the HP end there are some restrictions on how this can be used. e.g. all of my usage of StoreOnce is over NFS, which means no cloud tier available even if I wanted to use it.

I've got no idea what if any restrictions there may be on the DD stuff.

(I haven't used the HP or anyone else's cloud backup stuff)

With the likes of Veeam the initial target should generally be a undeduped (immediate copies, say a weeks worth), with a secondary target as deduped (the long term stuff, for some that may be 7, 10 or more years, but i have never understood why they do that, good luck with the restores and support costs on the old software.... just ask yourself what the backups are actually for, do you actually need a seven year old copy of that DB and if you only keep the end of year backups what chance is it that the data is actually there?).

Not sure where flash based deduped storage fits in to that, it could be quite quick compared to DataDomain which is eyewateringly slow to rehydrate stuff. It will be one to watch

FrankenBackup

Just reading this you can see the Technical Debt that exists in Flashblade!

There are significantly better integrated solutions out there.

Sorry I'll pass

Buh Bye Rubrik and Cohesity

This puts Pure's cross hairs directly on the two CI backup products Cohesity and Rubrik. Looks like they aren't so friendly anymore

FlashBlade challenges

There is no doubt FB is having revenue challenges and the StoreReduce acquisition was in part done to create a price competitive backup target. The larger problem is in the backup space you tend to compete against "cheap, deep and adequate". Positioning FB as a backup target is a total niche play.

FlashBlade sales failures

FlashBlade came to the market with fanfare and bravado. They put their best sales leader in charge and off they went. The Flash sales team was tasked to try and sell a product that no one had any idea how to sell. Then, they build a sales team to try and sell it as an overlay. Then, you hear all about the goals, growth, and strategy on an earnings call; lots of buzz. Then, the next earnings call someone asks about FlashBlade and its growth and leadership says "we are not discussing the revenue for FB" OK, why not?

It has failed miserably. The only way it grew sales was to a very small base of Pure customers, that could afford it, or to bury it in a larger deal of flash sales and call it a Rapid restore product; the most expensive in history!

Voila, Object engine appears... another turd to circle the Pure toilet bowl....