Ask Us Everything: Everpure & Databases - From Firefighting to Forward Thinking
Databases aren’t going anywhere—in fact, they’re becoming more important than ever. In this Ask Us Everything session, Don Poorman sat down with Everpure database experts Anthony Nocentino and Ryan Arsenault to talk all things structured data. And while AI continues to dominate headlines, one theme came through clearly: AI doesn’t replace databases—it depends on them. If you’re running Oracle, SQL Server, SAP, or anything mission-critical, here’s what stood out.
Using FlashArray Volume Snapshots with Microsoft SQL Server
FlashArray volume snapshots are an amazing tool for any DBA/DBRE managing SQL Server. You can use them to: Instantly recover from user errors or ransomware attacks Create rapid dev/test copies without full restores Offload CHECKDB to another host to avoid production performance hits Refresh reporting environments on demand Seed Always On availability groups faster, without large full backups Enable point-in-time recovery when paired with SQL log backups And the best part? Snapshots on FlashArray are: Immutable Space-efficient Fast to create and restore Fully automatable through the REST API or SDK tools! I worked very closely with our SQL Server field super stars (Anthony Nocentino, Andrew Pruski and Andrew Yun) on a white paper going VERY deep into the architecture and how to. It includes everything from crash- vs. application-consistent snapshots, to step-by-step restore and cloning procedures, to using SQL Server 2022’s new T-SQL snapshot backup. Did we miss anything ? Let us know!New Reference Architecture: SQL Server on Azure VM's with Pure Cloud Block Store
This is a brand new, weeks-old reference architecture — and I’m really excited about this one. During development, one of the most surprising discoveries was just how much Azure VM performance is limited by the IOPS cap tied to managed disks. It caught me off guard how much planning it takes just to size storage and compute together when you go the native route. With CBS, I was able to bypass those constraints. It felt more like working with enterprise storage (which is what its meant to do!) , I could pull from a pool, scale performance independently of VM size, and provision storage volumes in a clean and easy way. This new RA covers: SQL Server architecture on Azure VMs with Pure Cloud Block Store Snapshot-based backup and restore DR patterns using ActiveDR™ and HA using ActiveCluster™ Dev/test database cloning with volume snapshots Performance benchmarking vs. Azure Premium SSD v2 It prooved: ~40% more transactional throughput (TPROC-C) ~93% better analytical query performance (TPROC-H) (using queries per minute normalization) 3–5x data reduction vs. raw data Download the full reference architecture here Would love to hear your thoughts on this architecture and how we could improve the expirience!New SQL Server with Pure Storage Reference Architecture!
We have a new SQL Server with Pure Storage Reference Architecture! It’s been out for a few months, but this is a great start to your journey to a simpler, high-performance database environment! This reference architecture shows how to: Consolidate transactional and analytical SQL Server workloads using FlashArray Use FlashBlade for rapid, parallel T-SQL backups to file or object storage Enable zero-downtime operations with ActiveCluster and near-synchronous replication via ActiveDR With this RA you will find detailed technical guidance for storage provisioning for SQL Server databases on Windows or Linux as well as best practice guidence on how to take the best advantage of the primary storage layer. Check out the full reference architecture here: Optimizing SQL Server Operations and Scale with Pure Storage (PDF) Have feedback, use cases to share, or questions about implementation? Please reach out!Boosting SQL Server Backup/Restore Performance: Threads and Parallelism
In this post, we’ll discuss day 1 tuning you can do on your database hosts to take full advantage of your new high-performance backup storage. We’ll go over a few tricks around database layout and backup configuration for maximum throughput, discuss some quirks with SMB, and finally discuss using S3 effectively.Ask Us Everything About Storage for Databases!
💬 Get ready for our March 2026 edition of Ask Us Everything, this Thursday, March 19th at 9 AM Pacific. This month is all about Storage for Databases! If you have a burning question, feel free to ask it here early and we'll add it to the list to answer tomorrow. Or if we can't get it answered live, our Everpure experts can follow up here. Anthony Nocentino, rarsenault-pure & dpoorman are the experts answering your questions during the conversation and on the community. See you this Thursday! (Oh, and if you haven't registered yet, there's still time!) Or, check out these great self-serve resources: Solutions Page: https://www.purestorage.com/solutions/databases.html Blogs: https://blog.purestorage.com/perspectives/sql-server-2025-mission-critical-workloads/ https://blog.purestorage.com/solutions/data-platform-oracle-ai-database-26ai/ https://blog.purestorage.com/purely-technical/using-t-sql-snapshot-backup-multi-array-database-snapshots/ https://blog.purestorage.com/products/exploring-modern-data-storage-challenges-and-changes/Spring is Calling, and so is Reds Baseball
I don't know about you, but I am more than ready for Spring; though I could definitely skip the rain. Wiping muddy dog paws after every walk is getting old! On the bright side, who else is ready for some Reds baseball? I have a few exciting updates and resources to share with the community: 🚀 PUG Meeting Update charles_sheppar and I are currently hard at work on the next PUG meeting. Details to come. 🛡️ Strengthening Your Cyber Resilience Given the current geopolitical climate and the rise in cyber threats, now is the perfect time to audit your data protection. Features like SafeMode and Pure1 Security Assessments act as a resilient last line of defense. If you want to see these tools in action, we recently hosted an expert-led demo on building a foundation for cyber resilience. Watch the recording here: https://www.purestorage.com/video/webinars/the-foundations-of-cyber-resilience/6389889927112.html Questions? Reach out to your Everpure SE or partner for a deeper dive. 📅 Upcoming Events March 12: Nutanix Webinar Exploring virtualization alternatives? Nutanix is hosting a session tomorrow focused on simplifying IT operations and highlighting the Everpure partnership. https://event.nutanix.com/simplifyitandonprem March 19: Or perhaps you're interested in running virtual machines alongside containerized workloads within K8s clusters. If that's the case, join Greg McNutt and Sagar Srinivasa for Virtualization Reimagined: Inside the Everpure Journey. https://www.purestorage.com/events/webinars/virtualization-reimagined.html March 19: Ask Us Everything About Storage for Databases. Join experts Anthony Nocentino, Ryan Arsenault, and Don Poorman for a live Q&A session. https://www.purestorage.com/events/webinars/ask-us-everything-about-storage-for-databases.html March 24: Presets & Workloads for Consistent DB Environments. We’re extending the database conversation to discuss how Everpure helps you transition from "managing storage" to "managing data" through automated presets. https://www.purestorage.com/events/webinars/presets-and-workload-setups-for-consistent-database-environments.htmlTaking Snapshots of Databases on VMFS Datastores
Hey friends - hopefully you all are taking advantage of our snapshots for copy data management? Well, those of you who use VMDKs know that there's an extra headache thanks to the VMFS datastore layer. Fortunately, I've just published some new examples in our Github repository and have written up a solution overview on my blog! Check it out! https://sqlbek.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/taking-snapshots-of-databases-on-vmfs-datastores/ Github: Refresh VMFS VMDK(s) with Snapshot Point in Time Recovery – VMFS
Flashcrew Manchester
🤝 Flashcrew Pure Usergroup | Manchester | For our amazing customers! Connect with fellow Pure users and dive deep into the //Accelerate announcements. Learn how to extract even more value from the Pure ecosystem and get your technical questions answered by the experts. Register here: https://info.purestorage.com/2025-Q2EMEA-UKREPLHCOFY26Q3-FlashCrew-Manchester-LP_01---Registration-Page.html We also open these up to non-customers interested in Pure, helping you learn from those already benefitting from the Pure Enterprise Data Platform. Please DM me if you would like an invite.
