Pure Accelerate 2025: How the Enterprise Data Cloud is Revolutionizing Storage for Developers
Pure Storage's annual Accelerate conference delivered a treasure trove of announcements that will fundamentally change how developers, engineers, and architects approach data storage and management. From the introduction of the Enterprise Data Cloud concept to powerful new hardware and AI-driven automation tools, this year's event showcased solutions designed to make technology professionals' lives significantly simpler.
The Enterprise Data Cloud: A Paradigm Shift
The marquee announcement at Pure Accelerate 2025 was the introduction of the Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) – a revolutionary approach that transforms how organizations think about data storage. Instead of managing individual storage arrays and dealing with data silos, the EDC enables teams to manage data across their entire estate through a unified, intelligent control plane.
As Pure Storage CTO Rob Lee explained, traditional enterprise storage has fallen behind consumer technology in terms of simplicity and automation. While consumers enjoy seamless, cloud-like data management across devices, enterprise teams still struggle with fragmented systems, manual workflows, and data blindness.
The EDC addresses three critical transformations:
- Storage Automation: Managing thousands of arrays as a single, unified system
- IT Operations Transformation: Shifting from manual steps to declarative workflows
- Data Set Management: Gaining complete visibility into data location, usage, and ownership
Pure Fusion: The Foundation for Unified Management
At the heart of the EDC is Pure Fusion, now enhanced with workload automation capabilities. This distributed intelligent control plane allows developers to:
- Provision resources declaratively: Specify performance and capacity requirements independently, letting the system determine optimal hardware allocation
- Manage fleets programmatically: Every Pure Storage array becomes discoverable and manageable through consistent APIs
- Implement policy-driven workflows: Set business intent and let automation handle the implementation details
The new workload automation features include protocol-agnostic provisioning across file, block, and object storage, plus preset configurations for common database and application scenarios. This means developers can focus on application logic rather than storage infrastructure minutiae.
Next-Generation Hardware for Extreme Performance
Pure Storage unveiled three significant hardware advances designed to handle the most demanding modern workloads:
FlashArray//XL R5: Performance Density Champion
The FlashArray//XL R5 delivers unprecedented performance density, doubling IOPS per rack unit compared to the previous generation while increasing maximum raw capacity by 50%. Key specifications include:
- Up to 1.9PB raw capacity (7.4PB effective with data reduction)
- Support for up to 200% more database transactions than competitive solutions
- Capability to run up to 300 more VMs per TB than alternative systems
For developers working with large OLTP databases, virtualized environments, or in-memory applications, this translates to significant consolidation opportunities and reduced infrastructure complexity.
FlashArray//ST: Ultra-Low Latency Specialist
The new FlashArray//ST targets the most latency-sensitive workloads, delivering over 10 million IOPS per five rack units through an optimized I/O path. This makes it ideal for:
- In-memory databases
- High-frequency trading applications
- Real-time analytics platforms
- Scale-out NoSQL databases requiring sub-microsecond response times
FlashBlade//S R2: Scale-Out Performance Leader
The FlashBlade//S R2 provides up to 30% better performance than competitors across critical workloads like genome sequencing, AI inference, and electronic design automation. This enhanced platform accelerates time-to-insight for data-intensive applications and supports the massive datasets required for effective AI reasoning.
Unified Protocol Support: Simplifying Architecture
A significant development for developers is Pure Storage's extension of object support to FlashArray, creating a single architecture supporting block, file, and object protocols. This unified approach:
- Reduces architectural complexity: Eliminates the need for separate storage systems for different data types
- Simplifies data management: Consistent experience across all storage protocols
- Enables flexible application design: Developers can choose optimal data access patterns without infrastructure constraints
AI Copilot Goes General Availability
The AI Copilot has moved from beta to general availability, providing developers and administrators with an always-on assistant that delivers personalized, fleet-aware insights. Key capabilities include:
- Natural language queries: Ask "Find my performance bottlenecks" or "Show me security vulnerabilities"
- Proactive recommendations: Automatic identification of optimization opportunities
- Knowledge base integration: Instant access to CLI guides, API documentation, and troubleshooting resources
This tool significantly reduces the learning curve for storage management and accelerates problem resolution, allowing teams to focus on higher-value activities.
Enhanced Security and Automation Workflows
Rubrik Security Cloud Integration
The integration with Rubrik Security Cloud represents a breakthrough in automated cyber recovery. When threats are detected:
- Pure Fusion automatically tags indelible SafeMode snapshots
- Rubrik's ransomware scanning identifies clean data for fast restore
- Near-zero RTO recovery minimizes business disruption
This integration operates through Pure1 Workflow Automation, reducing manual effort and improving compliance posture.
CrowdStrike LogScale Partnership
The validated integration with CrowdStrike's Falcon LogScale provides organizations with:
- Optimized on-premises storage for log analytics
- Accelerated threat detection and investigation
- Scalable, high-performance architecture for security operations
Workflow Orchestration: Full-Stack Automation
The new Workflow Orchestration capability extends automation beyond storage to encompass the entire IT stack. Built on thousands of existing connectors to applications like Cisco, Microsoft, VMware, ServiceNow, and Slack, this feature enables:
- Pre-built application recipes: Standardized deployment patterns for common scenarios
- Custom workflow creation: Tailored automation specific to organizational needs
- End-to-end orchestration: Coordination across storage, compute, network, and application layers
For DevOps teams, this represents a significant step toward infrastructure-as-code maturity and reduces deployment complexity.
Service-Oriented Outcomes: Beyond Generic Tiers
Pure Storage introduced innovative service models that align with business outcomes rather than traditional storage metrics:
Evergreen//One Adaptive Tier
This new service tier allows organizations to:
- Set performance requirements independently of capacity
- Scale resources dynamically without hardware migration
- Pay for actual usage patterns rather than predetermined configurations
Medical Imaging as a Service
In a industry-first approach, Pure Storage announced a medical imaging service billed per imaging study (X-ray, CT scan, MRI) rather than traditional storage metrics. This outcome-based model includes:
- Fixed costs for 10-year data retention
- Automated data lifecycle management
- Compliance with healthcare regulations
Snapshot Packages
The new snapshot add-on service eliminates sizing complexity by providing:
- Predictable, policy-based pricing for snapshot usage
- One year of included snapshot retention
- Transparent billing without capacity surprises
Direct Flash Module Evolution
Pure Storage continues pushing storage density boundaries with 300TB Direct Flash Modules (DFMs) – doubling the density of the largest QLC DFMs in the market. This advancement:
- Increases energy efficiency per TB stored
- Reduces datacenter footprint requirements
- Maintains Pure Storage's independence from commodity SSD market limitations
Implications for Developers and Engineers
These announcements collectively address several pain points that have long plagued development teams:
- Simplified Infrastructure Management: Declarative APIs and policy-driven automation reduce operational overhead
- Performance Predictability: SLA-driven services ensure consistent application performance
- Enhanced Security Posture: Integrated threat detection and automated recovery minimize security risks
- Reduced Time-to-Market: Workflow orchestration accelerates deployment cycles
- Cost Optimization: Usage-based pricing models align costs with business value
The Energy Efficiency Imperative
CTO International Alex McMullan highlighted the critical challenge of energy consumption in modern datacenters. With AI workloads consuming exponentially more power, Pure Storage's approach of delivering dramatically increased capacity and performance within the same power envelope becomes crucial for sustainable operations.
The company's 1,200x improvement in storage capability over the past decade – from 5TB to 6PB systems – while reducing power requirements demonstrates the potential for technological innovation to address environmental challenges.
Looking Forward
Pure Accelerate 2025 positioned the Enterprise Data Cloud not just as a technological evolution, but as a fundamental reimagining of how organizations approach data management. For developers, engineers, and architects, these innovations promise to:
- Abstract infrastructure complexity through intelligent automation
- Provide cloud-like simplicity in on-premises environments
- Enable focus on application value rather than storage administration
- Deliver predictable performance and costs at any scale
The shift from managing storage to managing data represents more than a semantic change – it's a paradigm shift that could free technical teams to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure maintenance.
As AI continues driving exponential data growth, the tools and approaches announced at Pure Accelerate 2025 provide a roadmap for managing this complexity while maintaining the agility and simplicity that modern development practices demand.