How channel products come to market is an evolutionary process, and the ones that flash storage vendor Pure Technology produces are no different.
As part of a press and analysts tour of Pure’s research and development European operations in Prague this week, IT Europa visited the giant Foxconn factory in the Czech forests that enables Pure’s data storage kit to reach partners and their customers.
Taiwan-owned Foxconn has been present in the Czech Republic since 2000, and has been involved in the final assembly of Pure kit since 2016. Pure also uses a Foxconn factory in Texas, US too.
Foxconn execs told us that Foxconn was now the second biggest exporter of goods leaving the Czech Republic after car maker Skoda. Only a relatively small amount of those goods are down to Pure, but it is an important contribution to the expanding all-flash storage market, with analyst house IDC reporting that Pure is the number two provider of flash storage in the enterprise market globally.
Foxconn employs a total of 4,500 staff in the Czech Republic, with 3,500 spread across the facility that produces Pure kit, and another 1,000 working at a different factory in another location.
Components for the Pure kit assembled in Prague are sent from countries including the US, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia and a number of other countries, with only around 5% coming from China, which may surprise some. We were told that for “geopolitical reasons”, Pure wanted to eventually avoid Chinese components altogether.
A daily 8-hour shift in one corner of the 1m square foot Foxconn facility assembles a typical amount of Pure kit, built to the different requirements of individual customers. This normally consists of 34 flash arrays and four flash blades a day.
The exact number of Foxconn staff doing it is confidential, and they are supported by a smaller number of Pure staff in inventory, quality control, and delivery. Once the products are assembled, they are shipped globally by Pure’s team.
It was an interesting view into the world of one part of channel fulfilment, and Pure’s Czech portion of product assembly and quality control is expected to grow steadily as the flash market worldwide continues to grow.
