Pure Accelerate 2026: A Refreshingly Focused Technology Conference

At Pure Accelerate, held last week at Resorts World Las Vegas, it felt as though no one was invisible.

Perhaps that is a subtle way of saying the conference was relatively small, with attendance estimated at approximately 1,500 people. That was a refreshing change.

One interesting aspect of Pure Accelerate is that there is no conference registration fee. Attendees provide a credit card when registering but are charged $400 only if they fail to attend without canceling by the stated deadline. It is a smart way to encourage commitment while keeping the event accessible to customers and partners.

As someone who “has” to travel to Las Vegas nearly every year, I noticed a change in the city this time: less crowd density, less noise, less hype and, in some cases, a more manageable environment. Maybe that makes Las Vegas a better venue for a content-rich technology conference.

Many of us have flown home from a 40,000-person conference wondering, “What just happened?” and often for several reasons.

Pure Accelerate felt different. It was not difficult to rub elbows with Pure founder John “Coz” Colgrove, CEO Charlie Giancarlo and other members of the senior leadership team. They were not simply acting as conference ambassadors. They were actively involved in delivering substantive presentations during the daily keynotes.

Manage Your Data, Not Just Your Storage

One keynote message that resonated with me, although I may not have the wording exactly right, was:

“Manage your data, not your storage.” That is a brilliant enablement strategy.

Many organizations do not yet know what their eventual AI strategy will look like. They may not have selected the applications, models, platforms or business use cases that will ultimately be adopted.

They can, however, begin preparing their data now.

Organizations that understand where their data resides, what it contains, who can access it and how it is protected will be in a much better position when an AI initiative is approved. Preparing the data foundation today can significantly shorten tomorrow’s AI roadmap.

Longtime Everpure customers already know and depend on FlashArray and FlashBlade. We are also seeing customers move toward Evergreen//One, Everpure’s consumption-based storage-as-a-service model.

Customers transitioning from a traditional disk-asset model have seen strong results. They appreciate the capabilities of the Everpure platform, along with a more flexible and manageable cost of entry into the Everpure family.

A Renewed Emphasis on Fusion

As an account manager responsible for helping customers solve problems, I returned from the conference with a renewed emphasis on Everpure Fusion.

Fusion is valuable not only because it provides centralized management across a fleet of storage systems. It also helps customers take advantage of policy-based provisioning, automation and integrations with technologies such as ServiceNow, Kubernetes and DevOps workflows.

Hardware Still Matters

One Everpure executive made another important point: hardware is still important, and it is still selling well.

That message was refreshing.

The cloud remains an essential part of most technology strategies, but there are still compelling reasons to maintain infrastructure on premises. Regulatory and compliance requirements, application performance, data sovereignty, predictable economics and the desire to avoid excessive cloud lock-in can all influence that decision.

For many customers, the future is not exclusively cloud or exclusively on premises. It is a hybrid operating model in which organizations place workloads where they make the most operational and financial sense.

Modernizing Epic Infrastructure

I also attended an excellent healthcare session that reinforced some of what we are seeing in the market.

The presenters discussed why some healthcare providers are moving portions of their Epic electronic health record environment to Linux on x86 platforms, with Nutanix-based environments.

This can bring Epic closer to the platform used by the rest of the clinical application environment. As healthcare organizations evaluate new hypervisors, and frequently Nutanix AHV specifically, there may be operational benefits to bringing the EHR platform into a more consistent infrastructure and management model.

These are significant transitions, of course. Epic support, application sizing, availability, storage performance, networking and recovery requirements must all be carefully validated. But the direction is noteworthy, particularly as healthcare organizations seek to simplify infrastructure without compromising resiliency.

The ProActive Value

Now for the portion where I acknowledge ProActive Solutions, my employer for the past 18 years.

As with everything we do, ProActive is an Everpure resource because we have invested in becoming very good at it.

Our team includes experienced storage engineers, including a former Pure engineer. Whether you are an existing Everpure customer or are evaluating the storage market, we can provide a knowledgeable and practical sounding board.

Not every conversation needs to become a formal sales process, and not every piece of consulting requires a statement of work.

We will listen, help customers evaluate their options and make sure the value is present on our side, both in the cost of the solution and in the level of service we provide.

A Conference Worth Considering

During the week, I also had the opportunity to host several customers and prospects at one of my favorite Las Vegas restaurants, Andiamo Steakhouse at The D in the downtown Fremont district.

As Las Vegas continues to evolve, Andiamo remains remarkably consistent.

I would recommend that customers and partners take a close look at Pure Accelerate next year, regardless of where it is held. The accessibility of the leadership team, the quality of the content and the manageable size of the conference made the trip worthwhile.

In an industry filled with massive events, crowded exhibit halls and competing messages, Pure Accelerate succeeded by making it easier to focus on the technology, the strategy and the conversations that matter.