Inaugural Boston, Pure User Group (PUG) at Trillium - Fort Point!
Simplify IT, Empower Data - Over a Pint at Trillium - Fort Point Join us July 15, 2025, and connect, learn, and engage with your fellow IT pros for an afternoon filled with exciting announcements from the recent Pure//Accelerate event and our vision for the Enterprise Data Cloud, as well as an engaging discussion on modern virtualization and a demo of Fusion. Fusion is a fully integrated platform that federates multiple arrays—such as FlashArray and FlashBlade—into a unified fleet, enabling centralized, cloud-like management, streamlined resource provisioning, and enhanced visibility across multi-array environments. Rob Quast, Principal Technologist and David Stevens, Field Solutions Architect both from Pure Storage will be presenting on the above topics with additional input from other Pure technologists. The complete agenda is below. Please register if you plan on attending at the following link: https://info.purestorage.com/2025-Q2AMS-COMRECHCOMA-PUG-LP_01---Registration-Page.html Agenda 2:00 PM - Welcome & Cheers 2:15 PM - Accelerate Highlights: What You Missed (or Want More Of) 2:45 PM - Enterprise Data Cloud: The Vision and The Why 3:15 PM - Fusion in Action: Simplifying Storage with Intelligence 3:45 PM - Break & Bites 4:15 PM - Rethinking Virtualization in 2025 4:45 PM - Ask Me Anything (AMA) Panel 5:15 PM - Cheers & Networking We look forward to seeing you!If DBs in Containers is Cool, Consider me Miles Davis
Are your cool friends all running databases in containers? Well its not about being trendy, it's about consistency and velocity. Running databases as a containers allows you to: Use the same tooling as your application stack Use declarative configurations through GitOps Use the same platform to provide networking, storage, and scaling - hint: Its Kubernetes Use identical platform APIs everywhere Enjoy faster startup and shutdown procedures Provide Fine-grained control over CPU and memory, not wasted on operating systems Less patching OK, thats as much of a pitch as you'll get from me. VMs are a tried and true method for running your databases, but it might be worth testing out DBs in containers if you're a Kubernetes shop. You might find some additional efficiencies.
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 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!Virtualization Anonymous - Pittsburgh PUG
Welcome to Our 2nd Pure User Group (PUG) Discussion on Server Virtualization! We’re excited to bring our community together again for our second PUG session focused on server virtualization — a topic that's constantly evolving and critical to modern infrastructure. This is part of our ongoing effort to host these discussions every six months, continuing as long as there's interest from our user community. Whether you joined us for the first session or you're new to the group, we’re glad to have you here. Let’s learn, share, and grow together — and as always, your feedback helps shape future PUG topics! Event Details This will be a customer driven and customer focused discussion to hear from people like you related to the experiences and journey you have been on as we all seek the recovery we need to build a virtualization strategy for the future. Pure Storage and Expedient will provide experts and guidance to take that first step with you. After our presentation, we invite you to join us for happy hour and appetizers at the Federal Galley located here. Prizes will be provided to help encourage open collaboration. Space is extremely limited for this event. Sign up now to grab your spot to this exciting event. Parking Enter the Parking garage on level 2 off of S Commons, Take the east or west stairs to the Plaza Level, Exit the plaza level by the information desk to the outdoor plaza, walk towards the Federal Galley, The conference center entrance is located to the left of the Federal Galley. (follow Pure Storage Signage) Agenda 2:00PM Check In 2:30PM - 4:30PM Presentation 4:30PM - Giveaway Raffle (Pirate Tickets, Pure Swag, Autographed Pirate Baseballs) 5:00PM - 6:30PM Happy Hour with Pure aOn-Demand Webinar: Get Ready for SQL Server 2025 with Pure Storage
SQL Server 2025 is coming. Watch this on-demand webinar to get insights into how the Pure Storage platform can directly support key database priorities: accelerating AI and analytics close to the data, sustaining predictable performance under pressure, and enabling reliable backup, recovery, and HA/DR patterns that SQL Server was built to support.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!Pure//Launch Event: Next-gen FlashArray//XL - Unmatched Performance Density
Join us for this exclusive launch event to discover how Pure Storage is redefining power, scale, and simplicity. What to expect: In-depth look at the superior performance density and capabilities of the next generation of FlashArray//XL Customer fireside chat on practical outcomes and lessons learned Industry-focused panel offering sector-specific insights Live Q&A session to talk topics like hardware, high performance and vector databases, electronic health records, and virtualization consolidation Whether you're growing your Pure Storage environment or exploring your future, enterprise-grade storage platform, don’t miss this opportunity to see what’s possible. July 23, 2025 | 11:00 AM PT • 2:00 PM ET July 23, 2025 | 11:00 AM CEST July 23, 2025 | 1:00 PM SGT Register Now!Boston Meetup - July 15, 2025 Trillium - Fort Point
Hey everyone, I want to let you all know we have scheduled a Boston Meetup for July 15, 2025 at Trillium - Fort Point in the seaport. You can view the meetup details at the following link: Join Pure Storage over a Pint at Trillium - Fort Point I hope to see you there!
