Pure shrugs off EMC's flash launch as Q4 sales skyrocket

EMC flash launch 'endorses our position' in flash, firm claims

Pure Storage's CEO has said recent flash launches from its rivals are not a threat and only endorse his company, as it reports its Q4 and full-year results.

For the three months to 31 January, sales at the fledgling flash firm rocketed 128 per cent annually to $150m (£106.4m). Over the same period, it made a net loss of $44.3m, down from $47.3m a year ago. For the full year, sales jumped 152 per cent annually to $440.3m.

The company's chief executive Scott Dietzen (pictured) offered his "sincere gratitude" to partners and customers for their efforts over the past year.

"To our customers and partners, we will continue to give you our best – striving to deliver storage that pays for itself by both unleashing innovation in your business and substantially reducing cost of ownership," he said.

This week, Pure Storage's rival EMC launched a number of new flash-based product updates, declaring 2016 "the year of flash". The move comes after a number of other, more-established vendors have beefed up their position in the market.

Dietzen said that he does not see his rivals' moves as a threat, but is instead flattered by them.

"In 2011, we launched FlashArray, arguing then that all performance applications belonged on flash rather than mechanical disk, and moreover that Pure's recipe actually saved customers money," he said.

"In recent weeks, EMC and NetApp made it clear that they agree. NetApp's [CEO] George Kurian stated that 'flash is becoming the de facto technology for primary workloads'. When incumbents who lead the market for disk-based storage – and hence the vendors with the most to lose – endorse our position, it further validates Pure's founding vision."

On an earnings call with analysts, when asked about recent competitive flash launches from EMC and Nimble, and NetApp's acquisition of flash firm SolidFire, Dietzen said:

"We see these activities as a very broad endorsement of the power of the all-flash and cloud disruption. It is interesting [that] if you survey Dell and EMCs portfolio, we count nine distinct all-flash storage offerings built in there. NetApp has three.

"It's almost like any storage solution now has to have an all-flash story to be relevant. Having that many different competing, internally competing products, ultimately doesn't, in our view, make those vendors' stories more compelling. In fact, it makes them less compelling."