Pure Storage Embraces Next-Generation Networking for AI with Ultra Ethernet Consortium Membership

In collaboration with industry peers, Pure Storage commits to expanding the capabilities of high performance Ethernet for large-scale AI and HPC initiatives

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Storage® (NYSE: PSTG), the IT pioneer that delivers the world's most advanced data storage technology and services, today announced that it joined Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC), a Linux Foundation initiative dedicated to building a complete, open, and accessible Ethernet-based architecture to accelerate critical, data-intensive AI and HPC applications.

As the leading data storage platform serving the most advanced enterprise AI initiatives, Pure Storage commits to further defining and integrating UEC technology standards, while building and delivering a forward-compatible platform to optimize performance for enterprise AI and HPC workloads using Ethernet, supporting rapid innovation and faster time to market.

Industry Significance:
As enterprises strive to achieve their AI goals, they face significant challenges with existing network solutions that are difficult to manage and scale, hindering the flexibility and efficiency needed for growing AI workloads.

To address these challenges, UEC aims to advance Ethernet technology, offering a scalable and efficient solution to support AI innovation.

Ethernet's increased adoption in data centers, due to its lower TCO, extensive interoperability, and proven reliability, has made it the foundation for many of the world's largest AI clusters. The advancement of new Ultra Ethernet standards will allow enterprises to maximize their existing AI and HPC investments while deploying performance-intensive applications, driving innovation, boosting productivity, and enhancing operational efficiency.

News Highlights:
By contributing to the standardization and growth of high performance Ethernet for large-scale AI and HPC initiatives, Pure Storage will accelerate platform development to support UEC standards long-term, delivering:

• Faster Time to Innovation: As AI and HPC workloads are accelerated, AI infrastructure powered by Ultra Ethernet will enable lower job completion times and higher frequency iterations that speed model building, training and inference, translating into faster time to innovation, faster time to market, and shorter time to insight.
• Cost-Effective, Efficient Operations: Faster compute, network, and link speeds, as well as lower latency and higher network utilization provides enterprises with high performance AI and HPC networking and storage built on cost-effective and easy to manage Ethernet-based switches and storage.
• Enhanced Choice for Customers: Customers will have greater choice between IB and Ethernet networks, allowing them to extend their Ethernet networking investments into the AI and HPC applications they are adopting.

Executive Insight:
"Since its inception, Pure Storage has committed to delivering flexible, reliable, and high performance data storage technologies and services to simplify the enterprise data experience. Joining the UEC provides Pure with the opportunity to work alongside leaders in compute, networking, and storage to drive the development of a new ultra-Ethernet architecture for the most advanced AI and HPC workloads." - Maciej Kranz, GM, Enterprise, Pure Storage

"The UEC is a leader in driving the evolution of Ethernet technologies, accelerating innovation and setting new benchmarks for performance, reliability, and scalability in networking. As a member of the steering committee, Arista strongly supports the UEC, and Arista is excited to have Pure Storage's deep data storage expertise, in collaboration with other industry leaders, to advance Ethernet standards and ultimately empower organizations to meet the ever-growing demands of AI and HPC." - Hugh Holbrook, Chief Development Officer, Arista Networks

"Ethernet stands as the leading networking technology for AI due to its unmatched performance and scalability. UEC has emerged as a unifying force, bringing together industry leaders to evolve Ethernet technology for the next generation of AI and HPC. Given the critical role of data storage and protection in a comprehensive AI solution, we are thrilled to see Pure Storage join the consortium, bringing their valuable expertise in these essential areas." - Ram Velaga, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Core Switching Group, Broadcom

"Intel strongly believes in an open ecosystem driven approach. Intel is working with its ecosystem partners and customers to adapt Ethernet for highly scalable AI / HPC fabrics. We are excited to see our valued, long-time partner Pure Storage joining the UEC and looking forward to keeping working together on joint solutions driving AI everywhere." - Dorin Vanderjack, VP & GM, U.S. OEM & Strategic Accounts, Intel

Additional Resources:

• Blog: Pure Storage Has Joined the Ultra Ethernet Consortium 
• Learn more about UEC

About Pure Storage
Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) delivers the industry's most advanced data storage platform to store, manage, and protect the world's data at any scale. With Pure Storage, organizations have ultimate simplicity and flexibility, saving time, money, and energy. From AI to archive, Pure Storage delivers a cloud experience with one unified Storage as-a-Service platform across on premises, cloud, and hosted environments. Our platform is built on our Evergreen architecture that evolves with your business – always getting newer and better with zero planned downtime, guaranteed. Our customers are actively increasing their capacity and processing power while significantly reducing their carbon and energy footprint. It's easy to fall in love with Pure Storage, as evidenced by the highest Net Promoter Score in the industry. For more information, visit www.purestorage.com.

Pure Storage, the Pure Storage P Logo, and the marks in the Pure Storage Trademark List are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pure Storage Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. The Trademark List can be found at purestorage.com/trademarks. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About the Ultra Ethernet Consortium
Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) is bringing together leading companies for industry-wide cooperation to build a complete Ethernet-based communication stack architecture for high-performance networking. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) workloads are rapidly evolving and require best-in-class functionality, performance, interoperability and total cost of ownership, without sacrificing developer and end-user friendliness. The Ultra Ethernet solution stack will capitalize on Ethernet's ubiquity and flexibility for handling a wide variety of workloads while being scalable and cost-effective. For more information, please visit us at https://ultraethernet.org.

SOURCE Pure Storage