Pure Storage launches cloud solution for Azure VMware

Pure Storage has announced the launch of Pure Storage Cloud for Microsoft Azure VMware Solution (AVS), a new block storage-as-a-service offering.

The new service aims to provide customers with a seamless management and deployment experience using the Azure Portal and their Pure Storage environment. It allows users to apply services against their existing Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC).

The announcement comes in the wake of Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, which has resulted in price increases. This has led to uncertainty among customers regarding their virtualisation platforms, with many seeking to migrate VMware workloads to the cloud. Enterprises moving their on-premise VMware environments to AVS often face storage-related challenges, and the new service aims to address these issues.

Shawn Hansen, General Manager of Core Platform at Pure Storage, stated, "Enterprises have struggled for years with the inefficiencies and high costs of migrating VMware workloads to the cloud. Pure Storage Cloud for Microsoft Azure VMware Solution eliminates these obstacles by providing seamless, scalable storage as-a-service that scales efficiently and independently with business needs. With Microsoft, we're committed to helping customers unlock the full potential of their Azure cloud journey while optimising costs and maintaining the enterprise-grade resilience they expect."

The service enables storage-intensive workloads to be easily migrated and managed, maintaining a consistent experience across on-premise and cloud storage. It supports the migration of VMware workloads to the cloud by integrating VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes, leveraging existing protocols to optimise performance, availability, and cost.

According to the company, the integration with Microsoft Azure also offers improved cost efficiencies. It allows enterprises to streamline cloud storage to achieve cost savings that can be redirected towards innovative initiatives. According to Pure Storage, this is expected to lead to savings of up to 40% on Azure VMware Solution costs.

Scott Hunter, Vice President of Microsoft Developer Division, commented, "We're pleased to see Pure Storage's integration with Microsoft Azure Native service. Through this collaboration, Pure and Microsoft can better serve customer needs by enabling them to provision, use and manage Pure Storage on Azure just like other Azure services."

"With this integrated offering, Pure and Microsoft are helping customers to quickly leverage Pure's enterprise-grade storage with Azure cloud services securely to open up a whole new set of possibilities for customers bringing enterprise-scale environments to the cloud. Together, Pure and Microsoft are helping customers save time and operational overhead while driving innovation."

Enterprise-grade data resilience is also a key feature of the new service, with built-in data protection provided by Pure Storage SafeMode Snapshots. This promises recovery from data loss in AVS environments within minutes, thus significantly reducing downtime.

The offering also reduces storage complexity by decoupling compute from storage, creating a unified hybrid environment. This allows IT teams to manage infrastructure more effectively without facing the operational complexity of siloed data systems.

Joe Ervolino, IT Infrastructure Manager at Dupaco Community Credit Union, expressed optimism about the service: "We're excited about the transformative potential of the new Pure Storage Cloud on Microsoft Azure VMware Solution that we recently previewed with Pure Storage. By leveraging Pure's advanced deduplication and compression capabilities compared to our current process, we anticipate significant savings in our Azure storage costs. This efficiency will allow us to allocate our resources more wisely and invest in other strategic areas of the credit union. The fully-managed service provides us the opportunity to concentrate more on innovation and less on operational complexities."

Insight's Director of IT, Shana Meyers, also praised the new offering: "The new Pure Storage Service on Microsoft Azure VMware Solution has been instrumental to Insight's AVS deployment. By separating storage from compute, this solution enables more efficient utilisation of our AVS infrastructure, resulting in better optimisation of our cloud resources. The additional storage options are seamlessly managed within the same familiar Pure Storage tools, allowing our teams to oversee both on-prem and cloud storage in one place."

Raphael Meyerowitz, Partner Go to Market Vice President at Presidio, observed, "The new Pure Storage Cloud on Microsoft Azure VMware Solution will significantly simplify our joint customers' cloud strategies while alleviating operational burdens. Now they can transition their VMware workloads to the cloud smoothly, enjoying the same robust, on-prem storage capabilities they rely on, while also reducing costs. It's an exciting step forward that empowers customers to invest more in the future of their businesses and less in management."