Pure Accelerate 2026 | Keynote Analysis

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Christophe Bertrand

Principal Analyst

SiliconANGLE & theCUBE

Alison Kosik

Host

theCUBE

Three insights you may have missed from theCUBE’s coverage of Pure Accelerate

As enterprises advance their artificial intelligence initiatives, they’re discovering that the real constraint isn’t model sophistication — It’s data. AI outcomes now depend on whether organizations can access, mobilize and operationalize data as an active system rather than a passive repository.This shift was a defining theme at Pure Accelerate 2026. The challenge is not simply whether organizations can store data, but whether they can mobilize and operationalize it to achieve meaningful AI outcomes, according to Christophe Bertrand, principal analyst for cyber resiliency and data management at theCUBE Research.“This is not about storage anymore

Data primacy becomes central to enterprise AI: theCUBE’s Pure Accelerate 2026 keynote analysis

As AI transforms the enterprise, the old model of managing data in application-controlled silos is breaking down. The companies that will win in the AI era are those that embrace data primacy by treating data, rather than the applications sitting on top of it, as the primary asset.That shift was on full display at Pure Accelerate 2026, where Everpure Inc., the company formerly known as Pure Storage, made clear that its ambitions now extend well beyond flash storage into intelligent data management

play_circle_outline Everpure Emerges: Pure Storage Rebrands, Adds Universal Data Intelligence Layer, Posts $1B Q1 and $2.04B ARR

play_circle_outline From Storage to Data Primacy: Building AI Infrastructure to Break Legacy Silos and Power Transformation

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Keynote Analysis

Christophe Bertrand

Principal Analyst SiliconANGLE & theCUBE

Alison Kosik

Host theCUBE

In this keynote analysis from Pure Accelerate 2026 in Las Vegas, theCUBE's Christophe Bertrand and Alison Kosik break down the opening keynote and the company's sweeping rebrand from Pure Storage to Everpure. Bertrand highlights the business momentum behind the shift — a first-quarter revenue milestone of $1 billion, an ARR of $2.04 billion, nearly 15,000 customers and an NPS score of 84 — before turning to the more consequential strategic pivot. CEO Charlie Giancarlo was unambiguous: this is no longer a storage company. Everpure is positioning itself as a da... Read more

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What were the key takeaways about the company's rebranding, strategic focus, and recent financial performance from the CEO's address? add

What is causing the fragmentation in data systems, and how can a universal data intelligence layer and a unified data plane address that fragmentation? add

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Keynote Analysis

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Alison Kosik

>> Welcome to Pure Accelerate 2026. We are streaming live right here in Las Vegas. I'm Alison Kosik joined alongside by Christophe Bertrand, who is an analyst and host of theCUBE. We are so excited, aren't we, to get this day started?

Christophe Bertrand

>> Yes, the keynote is wrapping up and there have been a number of interesting announcements, and I think we'll hear a lot more detail during the day today.

Alison Kosik

>> What's jumped out at you so far? We both have been watching the keynote on the stream. Talk about a couple things that really have stuck with you.

Christophe Bertrand

>> A couple of things. It's not Pure Storage anymore. It's really Everpure. So there's been a rebranding. We'll talk about that with the CMO, with Lynn Lucas, later today. More importantly, I think the most important point is that this is not about storage anymore, it's about data. And that was very clear in the CEO's address. Charlie was very clear about that and he also mentioned a few interesting points and I want to make sure I quote him correctly. First of all, first quarter at $1 billion in revenue, pretty good, right? I mean, you have to say the business is doing really well. ARR of $2.04 billion, which is obviously very substantial, almost 15,000 customers. NPS score event of 84, which is very, very desirable. Look, the business is definitely doing really well based on these numbers. More importantly, it's also operating a shift fully focused now on AI, AI infrastructure. A number of acquisitions and innovations have come into play as well and were covered, such as the universal data intelligence layer, which now compliments not only the architecture, but the unified data plane.

Alison Kosik

>> Charlie Giancarlo also spoke about the fragmentation that's happening and what the solutions are to that fragmentation. Talk me through some of that.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Right. This is where this universal data intelligence partially comes into play and of course the unified data plane. So here's the thing. Historically, what's happened is that every application vendor wanted all of your data because they were going to help you with everything. And in reality, what it's created over time is a series of silos. A lot of fragmentation. So there's a new data dynamic which makes data this sort of primary, and they call it data primacy. I think it's a very good term where data is really central to everything. Because in the age of AI, you can't go talk to 25 different systems to figure out what a customer means because a customer may mean something for a CRM system, maybe it's something totally different for another, for an accounting system. So you want to have that universal truth about the actual data and relate it back to the business. So in the age of AI, it becomes very, very critical to have that. And that's really what I think Everpure is now trying to tackle by providing an architecture, a data plane, and of course the intelligence on top of that to make that possible and available.

Alison Kosik

>> Yeah. He spoke about the need to construct a context map, right? What did he exactly mean by that?

Christophe Bertrand

>> Yeah. So let's take a few examples. There's not just context, but also governance and compliance. I mean, you can't just have data, again, without the context of what it means for the business. Otherwise, what you're doing is either you have bad data going into a model or you have non-compliant data going into a model. Or more importantly, you can't have access to enough of the data you need for the actual results you want to get out of your AI endeavors. So I think this is where the innovations and some of the announcements, I've covered the various layers of the architecture, if I may call them . And again, whether it's the data plane with some improvements around the flash array, the intelligent control plane, which I think we had some pretty cool demos on that. I look forward to talking to Chadd about this in a minute with rebalancing mobility, really the nirvana of automation using AI itself in the context of making the control plane more manageable. And of course, the formerly 1touch component, universal data intelligence, which we'll talk about I think with Ashish again in a few minutes. So some very interesting innovations across the architecture that really provide this notion of that you cannot be AI ready without data having all of the context kind of living with itself. And the other part is having the data, having all of its intelligence in one place. And that's the play. That's the place. It's not just storage of data anymore, it's not just this application versus that application. It's really having that data primacy at the center of the conversation.

Alison Kosik

>> Yeah. I also heard at the top of the keynote that the phrase was the goalposts continue to move, and the theme of the day is the new data dynamic, building a new vision together. So the goalpost is always moving, there's always got to be this vision. How do you interpret this?

Christophe Bertrand

>> Well, I think we'll find out more as we go through the day. As a matter of fact, I'd like to cover some of the things we're going to do today because we're going to talk to Chadd Kenney who's the vice president of product management about some of these new innovations. And that's how the posts start moving because the technology has to support the efforts. There's also going to be a very interesting conversation with a number of partners, including NVIDIA, where we're talking about AI factories and some of the combined solutions that are in place. And that's happening, again, later today, and more importantly, some customers and some partners. So if you think about how that happens, it's already happening. It's not just happening now, it's going to be happening moving forward. More importantly, a lot of customers and partners are already in this process of transforming the infrastructure with Everpure at the heart of it. And of course, we'll talk also about some of the changes that have happened in some of the infrastructure with virtualization and some transitions that some customers had to operate. Again, I think there are really two or three lanes happening at the same time, which is maybe a bit confusing potentially for customers because they have to deliver AI today. They have to accelerate. Well, that's the name, the theme for the conference, but in some ways you also have to decelerate in some areas. So how do you manage that? How do you evolve the architecture? How do you evolve your approach to data as you try to meet some of these AI objectives that are essentially business outcome driven?

Alison Kosik

>> What are we looking at the back half of the afternoon? Who's going to be joining us?

Christophe Bertrand

>> So in the afternoon, we'll talk about AI factory. As I mentioned, we'll talk about some of the challenges really in the field and there is a great partner, World Wide Technology that will be coming in to talk to us about that. And then we'll talk to also the CMO, to Lynn Lucas, and a friend of mine also, Phil Goodwin from IDC, well-known analyst. So we'll be talking about what we heard and getting more into some of the market components, especially with some of the recent announcements. I think there will be lots to cover.

Alison Kosik

>> This is definitely a topic or Everpure is definitely a company that you are well versed in because of your background. So walk me through your background before we close on the opening keynote here.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Yes. So I actually competed a little bit with Everpure in the past because I worked for another storage company a few years ago, but what's interesting is the vision that they're delivering now, remember I'm going to date myself maybe about 15, 20 years ago, that sort of similar vision was already starting to appear and it's going to be part of our conversations today because I think a lot has changed, and the way that Pure, Everpure has approached the market is fundamentally different. Instead of storage being sort of this thing that you don't think about first, they really design the technology and with innovation first and redefined how to think about storage to the point where now in this age of AI, by chance, by design, they're at the heart of the transformation with an architecture that actually supports the effort. So very interesting time. We'll talk a little bit about cyber resiliency, I hope as well, because all of this has to be done in a secure-

Alison Kosik

>> Certainly. Yeah, yeah....

Christophe Bertrand

>> and cyber resilient way, but I'm sort of looking forward to it. That's kind of my background, so I feel like I'm having a conversation with all friends here.

Alison Kosik

>> Oh, I'm so glad. Well, I'm so excited to join you in the day and we are in a great spot. We're in the hub, which is a partner area. So a lot of partners of Everpure. I'm seeing also lots of fun things to do. I'm seeing there's an audio testimonial booth and there's a way to win prizes. I mean, it's not just about talking and theater behind me about certain aspects for the playbook for AI especially, but there are a lot of things going on behind us and we're going to see the crowd rushing through soon. Christophe will be back on for our first interview with Chadd Kenney. Until then, this has been the keynote opener. I'm Alison Kosik, joined alongside by Christophe Bertrand. You're watching theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. See you in a bit.