Pure Storage Inc (PSTG) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Pure Storage Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Paul Ziots, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎來到 Pure Storage 2023 財年第四季度收益電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。 （操作員說明）此時，我想將電話轉給投資者關係副總裁 Paul Ziots。請繼續。

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Pure's Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. On the call, we have Charlie Giancarlo, Chief Executive Officer; Kevan Krysler, Chief Financial Officer; and Rob Lee, Chief Technology Officer. Following Charlie's and Kevan's prepared remarks, we will take questions. Our press release was issued after close of market and is posted on our website where this call is being simultaneously webcast. The slides that accompany this webcast can be downloaded at investor.purestorage.com.

謝謝。大家下午好，歡迎來到 Pure 的 2023 財年第四季度收益電話會議。在電話會議上，我們有首席執行官 Charlie Giancarlo；首席財務官 Kevan Krysler；和首席技術官 Rob Lee。在 Charlie 和 Kevan 準備好的發言之後，我們將接受提問。我們的新聞稿是在收市後發布的，並發佈在我們的網站上，該電話會議同時進行網絡直播。此網絡廣播附帶的幻燈片可在 investor.purestorage.com 下載。

On this call today, we will make forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These include statements regarding our financial outlook and operations; our strategy, technology and its advantages; our current and new product offerings; and competitive industry and economic trends. Any forward-looking statements that we make are based on facts and assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. Our actual results may differ materially from the results forecasted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. A discussion of some of the risks and uncertainties relating to our business is contained in our filings with the SEC, and we refer you to these public filings. During this call, all financial metrics and associated growth rates are non-GAAP measures other than revenues; remaining performance obligations, or RPO; and cash and investments. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are provided in our earnings release and slides.

在今天的電話會議上，我們將做出前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到各種風險和不確定性的影響。這些包括關於我們的財務前景和運營的聲明；我們的戰略、技術及其優勢；我們現有的和新的產品；以及具有競爭力的行業和經濟趨勢。我們所做的任何前瞻性陳述均基於截至今日的事實和假設，我們不承擔更新這些陳述的義務。我們的實際結果可能與預測結果存在重大差異，報告的結果不應被視為未來業績的指標。我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中包含對與我們業務相關的一些風險和不確定性的討論，我們建議您參閱這些公開文件。在此次電話會議中，所有財務指標和相關增長率都是非 GAAP 指標，而非收入；剩餘履約義務，或 RPO；現金和投資。我們的收益發布和幻燈片中提供了與最直接可比的 GAAP 指標的對賬。

This call is being broadcast live on the Pure Storage Investor Relations website and is being recorded for playback purposes. An archive of the webcast will be available on the IR website and is the property of Pure Storage. Our first quarter fiscal '24 quiet period begins at the close of business, Friday, April 21, 2023. With that, I'll turn it over to Charlie.

該電話正在 Pure Storage 投資者關係網站上直播，並正在錄製以供回放。網絡廣播的存檔將在 IR 網站上提供，並且是 Pure Storage 的財產。我們第一季度的 24 財年靜默期從 2023 年 4 月 21 日星期五營業結束時開始。有了這個，我將把它交給查理。

Thank you, Paul. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our Q4 and fiscal year 2023 call. We were pleased with our Q4 year-over-year revenue growth of 14%, and we're very pleased with our annual revenue growth of 26% and annual subscription ARR growth of 30%, especially considering the challenges of the steadily increasing global economic slowdown. Revenue growth, operating leverage and operating discipline helped drive strong annual profit and cash flow in FY '23, with operating cash flow up over 85% and non-GAAP operating income up almost 100% for the full year. We achieved solid growth as we continue to take share driven by our best-in-class portfolio of products and services, our innovative Evergreen business model and leading customer centricity proven by our industry-leading Net Promoter Score.

謝謝你，保羅。大家好，歡迎來到我們的第四季度和 2023 財年電話會議。我們對第四季度收入同比增長 14% 感到滿意，我們對年收入增長 26% 和年度訂閱 ARR 增長 30% 感到非常滿意，尤其是考慮到全球經濟穩步增長的挑戰慢下來。收入增長、經營槓桿和經營紀律幫助推動了 23 財年的強勁年度利潤和現金流，全年經營現金流增長超過 85%，非 GAAP 營業收入增長近 100%。我們實現了穩健的增長，因為我們繼續通過我們一流的產品和服務組合、我們創新的 Evergreen 商業模式和我們行業領先的淨推薦值證明的領先的以客戶為中心來推動市場份額。

In FY '23, we expanded our core product offerings with the new FlashBlade//S through our Fusion and Portworx Data Services offerings. We also expanded our as-a-service offerings, adding more service tiers and SLA guarantees to Evergreen//One and extending our as-a-service model across the full suite of Portworx solutions. Pure's sustainable competitive advantage lies in our highly consistent product lines, all based on our Purity operating system, DirectFlash modules, Pure1 cloud management and Evergreen subscription model. Competitors have tried for years to imitate our differentiated Evergreen business model but have been unable to deliver the combined benefits of continual, nondisruptive upgrades and Forever Flash through a transparent and flat and fair subscription agreement.

在 23 財年，我們通過我們的 Fusion 和 Portworx 數據服務產品擴展了我們的核心產品系列，推出了新的 FlashBlade//S。我們還擴展了我們的即服務產品，為 Evergreen//One 添加更多服務層和 SLA 保證，並將我們的即服務模型擴展到整套 Portworx 解決方案。 Pure 的可持續競爭優勢在於我們高度一致的產品線，所有這些都基於我們的 Purity 操作系統、DirectFlash 模塊、Pure1 雲管理和 Evergreen 訂閱模型。多年來，競爭對手一直試圖模仿我們差異化的 Evergreen 商業模式，但一直無法通過透明、平坦和公平的訂閱協議提供持續、無中斷升級和 Forever Flash 的綜合優勢。

Pure, for the first time, had a presence at the World Economic Forum in Davos this past January. The largest topics at Davos this year were the war over Ukraine, digital currencies and sustainability. Our participation focused on promoting the important role that Pure will play in reducing technologies and IT's demand for energy and its production of e-waste. Just prior to the event, the World Economic Forum produced a study stating that digital electronics of all types contribute 4% to 5% of all carbon emissions. Other studies identify that data centers use between 1% and 2% of all electrical power generated in the world. It is further estimated that data storage accounts for 20% to 25% of data center power usage, increasing to as much as 40% by the end of the decade. The vast majority of data centers, over 80%, remains trapped on magnetic hard disks.

今年 1 月，Pure 首次出席達沃斯世界經濟論壇。今年達沃斯最大的話題是烏克蘭戰爭、數字貨幣和可持續性。我們的參與側重於促進 Pure 在減少技術和 IT 對能源的需求及其產生的電子垃圾方面發揮的重要作用。就在此次活動之前，世界經濟論壇發表了一項研究，指出所有類型的數字電子產品佔所有碳排放量的 4% 至 5%。其他研究表明，數據中心使用了世界上所有發電量的 1% 到 2%。據進一步估計，數據存儲佔數據中心用電量的 20% 到 25%，到本世紀末將增加到 40%。絕大多數數據中心（超過 80%）仍然被困在磁性硬盤上。

As we have stated for the past year, Pure's flash-optimized systems generally use between 2x and 5x less power than competitive SSD-based systems and between 5x and 10x less power than the hard disk systems we replace. Simple math then shows that replacing that 80% of hard disk storage in data centers with Pure's flash-based storage can reduce total data center power utilization by approximately 20%. That same math shows that both data center space and e-waste would also be reduced by similar amounts, with reduced labor costs and increased reliability as additional benefits. Reducing the world's data center power, space and e-waste by 20% is a very significant reduction in the world of sustainability and needs to be recognized and amplified. This opportunity is resonating not only within the highly specialized field of IT data storage teams, but now also with the entire C-suite, including CIOs, CFOs and even CEOs.

正如我們在過去一年中所說的那樣，Pure 的閃存優化系統的功耗通常比基於 SSD 的競爭系統低 2 到 5 倍，比我們更換的硬盤系統低 5 到 10 倍。然後簡單的數學表明，用 Pure 的基於閃存的存儲替換數據中心 80% 的硬盤存儲可以將數據中心的總功率利用率降低大約 20%。同樣的數學表明，數據中心空間和電子垃圾也將減少類似的數量，同時減少勞動力成本和提高可靠性作為額外好處。將世界數據中心的電力、空間和電子垃圾減少 20% 是可持續發展領域的一個非常顯著的減少，需要得到認可和擴大。這個機會不僅在高度專業化的 IT 數據存儲團隊中引起共鳴，而且現在還引起了整個最高管理層的共鳴，包括 CIO、CFO 甚至 CEO。

While our product and technology leadership remains the primary reason by which customers select Pure, the competitive sustainability of our products continues to grow in importance with customers. In Q4, we saw more customers citing energy efficiency as a reason they chose Pure than in any previous quarter to date. Beyond just the environmental benefits we provide, customers are increasingly compelled by their ability to get more out of their storage at a lower total cost of ownership given the backdrop of increasing energy prices. This simple step of replacing hard disk with Pure's flash-optimized storage has significant benefits to any organization but has been out of reach economically for the majority of secondary tier data because of the higher cost of solid-state flash technology compared to the lowest-cost hard disk drives. Large, unstructured data repositories continue to be dominated by 7,200 RPM disks despite their difficulty to manage, relatively low reliability and their substantial power, space and cooling needs because superior all-flash systems were too expensive.

雖然我們的產品和技術領先地位仍然是客戶選擇 Pure 的主要原因，但我們產品的競爭可持續性對客戶的重要性持續增長。在第四季度，我們看到更多的客戶將能源效率作為他們選擇 Pure 的原因，比以往任何一個季度都要多。除了我們提供的環境效益外，在能源價格上漲的背景下，客戶越來越希望能夠以更低的總擁有成本從存儲中獲得更多收益。這個用 Pure 的閃存優化存儲替換硬盤的簡單步驟對任何組織都有顯著的好處，但對於大多數二級數據來說在經濟上是遙不可及的，因為與成本最低的相比，固態閃存技術的成本更高硬盤驅動器。大型非結構化數據存儲庫繼續以 7,200 RPM 磁盤為主，儘管它們難以管理，可靠性相對較低，並且由於高級全閃存系統過於昂貴而需要大量電力、空間和冷卻。

Well, I'm pleased to announce that our founders' vision of the all-flash data center is finally here, and the days of hard disk dominance of data are coming to a close. Today, Pure announced FlashBlade//E, a scale-out, unstructured data repository built for large capacity data stores, which provides a lower total operating costs compared to secondary tier disk. FlashBlade//E will ship late this quarter. FlashBlade//E will be priced under $0.20 per gigabyte at a system level and costs even less when measured on effective capacity. Let me repeat that. FlashBlade//E will be priced under $0.20 per gigabyte at a system level inclusive of the first 3 years of subscription, which directly competes with lower-performance, all-hard disk systems. And operating costs for FlashBlade//E are significantly lower than the hard disk systems that it will replace with its 5x to 10x reduction in cost for power, space, cooling and labor.

好吧，我很高興地宣布，我們的創始人對全閃存數據中心的願景終於實現了，硬盤主導數據的時代即將結束。今天，Pure 宣布推出 FlashBlade//E，這是一種橫向擴展的非結構化數據存儲庫，專為大容量數據存儲而構建，與二級磁盤相比，它的總運營成本更低。 FlashBlade//E 將在本季度晚些時候發貨。 FlashBlade//E 的系統級定價低於每 GB 0.20 美元，如果按有效容量衡量，成本甚至更低。讓我重複一遍。 FlashBlade//E 的系統級價格將低於每 GB 0.20 美元，包括前 3 年的訂閱，直接與性能較低的全硬盤系統競爭。 FlashBlade//E 的運營成本大大低於它將取代的硬盤系統，其在電力、空間、冷卻和勞動力方面的成本降低了 5 到 10 倍。

FlashBlade//E, the second in our series of cost-optimized products after FlashArray//C, opens up a massive new opportunity for us and allows us to expand further into our total available market. FlashBlade//E enables Pure to significantly penetrate many segments of the storage market currently dominated by disk, which has been inaccessible to Pure until now. FlashBlade//E is a perfect example of how we are investing our R&D dollars in a focused and strategic manner to maximize long-term growth opportunities in one of the world's largest IT categories. We are extremely excited about how this new product complements our innovative portfolio and strengthens our opportunity to drive Pure's growth over the long term.

FlashBlade//E 是繼 FlashArray//C 之後我們成本優化產品系列中的第二款產品，它為我們打開了巨大的新機遇，使我們能夠進一步擴展到整個可用市場。 FlashBlade//E 使 Pure 能夠顯著滲透目前由磁盤主導的存儲市場的許多細分市場，而這些領域是 Pure 迄今為止無法進入的。 FlashBlade//E 是一個完美的例子，說明我們如何以有針對性和戰略性的方式投資我們的研發資金，以最大限度地提高世界上最大的 IT 類別之一的長期增長機會。我們對這款新產品如何補充我們的創新產品組合併加強我們推動 Pure 長期增長的機會感到非常興奮。

While we are excited about the prospects for our products and the competitiveness of our organization, we are also well aware of the challenges of the current economic environment and the strains that it places on our customers. Since our Q2 earnings call, we have discussed seeing instances of longer sales cycles and caution with large purchases, especially in the enterprise segment. As expected, these conditions continued through Q4, and close rates of our advanced stage deals continue to be consistent with the earlier quarters. While we were able to generate considerable new opportunities and pipeline during Q4, the development and progression of these new opportunities slowed substantially, especially in our enterprise segment. This recent slowdown in customers' purchasing expectations in conjunction with heightened concerns around further tightening monetary actions by the Fed and other central banks and governments has impacted our growth outlook for the coming year.

雖然我們對我們產品的前景和我們組織的競爭力感到興奮，但我們也很清楚當前經濟環境的挑戰及其給我們的客戶帶來的壓力。自我們第二季度的財報電話會議以來，我們討論了銷售週期更長的情況以及對大筆採購的謹慎態度，尤其是在企業領域。正如預期的那樣，這些情況一直持續到第四季度，我們後期階段交易的成交率繼續與前幾個季度保持一致。雖然我們能夠在第四季度產生大量新機會和管道，但這些新機會的發展和進展大幅放緩，尤其是在我們的企業部門。最近客戶購買預期放緩，加上對美聯儲和其他中央銀行和政府進一步收緊貨幣行動的擔憂加劇，影響了我們來年的增長前景。

We also believe that our successful sales motion over the last few years will need to adapt to the additional scrutiny that customers are now placing on purchases. We are, therefore, adjusting our sales motion for the additional economic analysis that customers need to justify purchases with tightened budgets. In particular, focusing our efforts on steps our customers can take to reduce their costs, both capital as well as operational, while improving their human productivity. Evergreen//One, FlashBlade//E and FlashArray//C will all play a large role in this new economy.

我們還認為，過去幾年我們成功的銷售活動將需要適應客戶現在對購買進行的額外審查。因此，我們正在調整我們的銷售動議，以進行額外的經濟分析，客戶需要在預算緊張的情況下證明購買的合理性。特別是，將我們的精力集中在客戶可以採取的措施上，以降低他們的資本成本和運營成本，同時提高他們的人力生產力。 Evergreen//One、FlashBlade//E 和 FlashArray//C 都將在這個新經濟中扮演重要角色。

We have high confidence in our long-term growth and strategy but have made operational changes for what we believe will be near-term economic headwinds. We have already taken action to reduce spending across the company and have reduced our spending and budgetary growth plans for FY '24 until we see improvements in the environment. As Kevan will cover in a few moments, we are maintaining our operating margin guidance for FY '24 even after taking into account lower revenue growth expectations than previously anticipated. We are very excited about the innovations we delivered in the year and are particularly excited about the introduction of FlashBlade//E, which will further fuel our ability to make the all-flash data center a reality, a benefit for both our customers and our planet.

我們對我們的長期增長和戰略充滿信心，但我們已經針對我們認為將成為近期經濟逆風的因素進行了運營調整。我們已經採取行動減少整個公司的支出，並減少了 24 財年的支出和預算增長計劃，直到我們看到環境有所改善。正如 Kevan 將在稍後介紹的那樣，即使考慮到低於先前預期的收入增長預期，我們仍維持 24 財年的營業利潤率指導。我們對我們在這一年交付的創新感到非常興奮，尤其對 FlashBlade//E 的推出感到興奮，這將進一步推動我們實現全閃存數據中心的能力，這對我們的客戶和我們的客戶都有利行星。

We expect to continue to be share takers in FY '24. What we provide in terms of energy efficiency, total cost of ownership and best-in-class technology strongly resonates with our customers, especially in the current environment where organizations need to do more with less. Despite the lower-than-anticipated revenue guide for fiscal year '24, we are confident that: we will continue to grow faster than the overall storage market and continue to take share from our key competitors, we will continue to lead the market in meaningful innovation in data storage and management, we will increase our relevance and opportunities with the world's largest technology companies and we will further leverage our leadership position to accelerate the drive to the all-flash data center. I'll now turn it over to Kevan to cover our financial performance and outlook in more detail.

我們預計將在 24 財年繼續成為股票接受者。我們在能源效率、總擁有成本和一流技術方面提供的產品引起了客戶的強烈共鳴，尤其是在組織需要事半功倍的當前環境中。儘管 24 財年的收入指南低於預期，但我們有信心：我們將繼續以高於整體存儲市場的速度增長，並繼續從我們的主要競爭對手那里奪取份額，我們將繼續以有意義的方式引領市場在數據存儲和管理方面的創新，我們將增加與世界上最大的科技公司的相關性和機會，我們將進一步利用我們的領導地位來加速向全閃存數據中心的發展。我現在將其轉交給 Kevan，以更詳細地介紹我們的財務業績和前景。

Thank you, Charlie, and good afternoon. We delivered strong financial results in Q4 with revenue growing 14% and operating margin of 19.6% while navigating the increased challenges of the macroeconomic environment. Also, as a reminder, for comparability, our Q4 last year included an additional week of revenue and expenses. For the year, we grew revenue 26% to $2.8 billion and substantially expanded our operating margins from 10.8% to 16.6%. Subscription annual recurring revenue, or subscription ARR, continues to be strong, exceeding $1.1 billion, up 30% year-over-year. Evergreen//One once again represented a key driver of our subscription ARR growth in Q4 and resonate strongly with customers as they navigate tighter IT budgets without having to compromise performance and value. Also, consistent with last year, our subscription net dollar retention, or NDR, at the end of the year exceeded 120% compared to our long-term target of 115% as a result of expansion from existing customers.

謝謝查理，下午好。我們在第四季度取得了強勁的財務業績，收入增長了 14%，營業利潤率為 19.6%，同時應對了宏觀經濟環境日益嚴峻的挑戰。另外，提醒一下，為了便於比較，我們去年第四季度的收入和支出增加了一周。這一年，我們的收入增長了 26%，達到 28 億美元，營業利潤率從 10.8% 大幅提高到 16.6%。訂閱年度經常性收入或訂閱 ARR 繼續保持強勁，超過 11 億美元，同比增長 30%。 Evergreen//One 再次代表了我們第四季度訂閱 ARR 增長的關鍵驅動力，並在客戶應對更緊縮的 IT 預算而不犧牲性能和價值時引起強烈共鳴。此外，與去年一致，由於現有客戶的擴張，我們的訂閱淨美元保留率 (NDR) 在年底超過了 120%，而我們的長期目標為 115%。

Remaining performance obligations, or RPO, grew 24% to $1.8 billion. Similar to the remarks we've made in previous quarters, our RPO growth is impacted by product shipments for an outstanding commitment with one of our global system integrators. Excluding these product shipments, RPO grew 28% year-over-year. Our headcount increased to approximately 5,100 employees. As the macro backdrop persists, our investment in incremental headcount next year will be focused on quota-carrying and critical business hires. International revenue in Q4 grew 39% to $258 million, and U.S. revenue of $552 million grew 6% year-over-year. U.S. revenue growth reflects caution in IT spending that customers are exercising, most notably in the enterprise segment.

剩餘履約義務 (RPO) 增長 24% 至 18 億美元。與我們在前幾個季度發表的言論類似，我們的 RPO 增長受到產品出貨量的影響，因為我們與全球系統集成商之一做出了傑出的承諾。排除這些產品出貨量，RPO 同比增長 28%。我們的員工人數增至約 5,100 人。由於宏觀背景持續存在，我們明年對增量員工的投資將集中在配額和關鍵業務招聘上。第四季度國際收入增長 39% 至 2.58 億美元，美國收入為 5.52 億美元，同比增長 6%。美國收入增長反映出客戶對 IT 支出的謹慎態度，尤其是在企業領域。

Q4 product revenue grew 11%, and subscription services revenue increased 23% year-over-year and comprised approximately 1/3 of total revenue for the quarter. Adjusting for the extra week in Q4 last year, subscription services revenue would have grown 31% year-over-year. We acquired approximately 490 new customers during the quarter, which was strong despite the challenges of the macro backdrop. Contributions from both product and subscription services gross margins continued to be strong as total gross margins were nearly 71% in Q4. We expect that product margins will continue to be resilient, benefiting from our ability to leverage raw flash and our increasing mix of QLC flash.

第四季度產品收入增長 11%，訂閱服務收入同比增長 23%，約佔本季度總收入的 1/3。調整去年第四季度的額外一周，訂閱服務收入將同比增長 31%。我們在本季度獲得了大約 490 名新客戶，儘管面臨宏觀背景的挑戰，但仍表現強勁。產品和訂閱服務毛利率的貢獻繼續強勁，第四季度總毛利率接近 71%。我們預計產品利潤率將繼續保持彈性，這得益於我們利用原始閃存的能力以及我們不斷增加的 QLC 閃存組合。

We are also pleased with the strength of subscription services gross margin of 74% for the quarter and nearly 73% for the year driven by increasing efficiencies as we grow and scale our Evergreen subscription offerings. We remain focused on profitability as reflected in our strong Q4 operating profit of nearly $160 million and operating margin of 19.6%. We are very pleased with our substantial operating margin expansion this year, and we will continue to be very focused on our spending. Approximately 2 points of our operating margin in FY '23 was attributable to tailwinds that we do not expect will occur next year. This included higher attrition and slower-than-planned hiring that we experienced during the first half of FY '23 as well as lower-than-expected sales costs in Q4.

我們還對本季度訂閱服務毛利率為 74% 和全年接近 73% 的實力感到滿意，這是由於隨著我們增長和擴展 Evergreen 訂閱產品而提高了效率。我們仍然專注於盈利能力，這反映在我們強勁的第四季度營業利潤近 1.6 億美元和營業利潤率 19.6%。我們對今年營業利潤率的大幅增長感到非常高興，我們將繼續非常關注我們的支出。我們 23 財年營業利潤率的大約 2 個百分點歸因於我們預計明年不會發生的順風。這包括我們在 23 財年上半年經歷的更高的人員流失和慢於計劃的招聘，以及第四季度低於預期的銷售成本。

We have a very strong balance sheet that includes approximately $1.6 billion in cash and investments. We generated significant cash flows from operations during the quarter of approximately $230 million and approximately $770 million for the year as a result of strong collections and increasing profits. Capital expenditures in Q4 were $60 million and during the year represented approximately 6% of revenue. Factors driving our higher capital expenditures include the strength of our Evergreen//One solution as well as test systems for our new product offerings. In Q4, we repurchased over 2.4 million shares of stock, returning approximately $67.5 million to our shareholders. For the year, we repurchased approximately 7.8 million shares, returning nearly $219 million in capital to our shareholders. We have approximately $31 million remaining on our existing $250 million repurchase authorization, and we are announcing today a new share repurchase authorization of an additional $250 million.

我們擁有非常強大的資產負債表，其中包括大約 16 億美元的現金和投資。由於強勁的收款和不斷增加的利潤，我們在本季度產生了約 2.3 億美元的大量運營現金流，全年產生了約 7.7 億美元的現金流。第四季度的資本支出為 6000 萬美元，佔全年收入的 6% 左右。推動我們增加資本支出的因素包括我們 Evergreen//One 解決方案的實力以及我們新產品的測試系統。在第四季度，我們回購了超過 240 萬股股票，向股東返還了約 6750 萬美元。這一年，我們回購了大約 780 萬股股票，向股東返還了近 2.19 億美元的資本。我們現有的 2.5 億美元回購授權還剩下大約 3100 萬美元，我們今天宣布新的 2.5 億美元股票回購授權。

Turning to revenue guidance for FY '24. We believe the current macro uncertainties will continue to persist, creating headwinds to enterprise IT spending. And as such, we expect revenue growth to be in the mid- to high single digits. This revenue guidance considers the macro backdrop and uncertainties that we are currently seeing today. As Charlie mentioned, the progression of new and early-stage sales opportunities are taking a longer period of time to close due to increased customer diligence, approvals and tightening budgets. We expect this to continue through FY '24, with some moderation later in the year as our sales teams adjust their selling motions to more closely align with evolving customer buying motions. During Q4, we did not receive new product orders for Meta, and this is reflected in our forecasted growth rate for next year. Also, our FY '24 revenue guidance assumes a modest ramp during the second half of the year from sales of our newest FlashBlade//E.

轉向 FY '24 的收入指導。我們認為當前的宏觀不確定性將繼續存在，對企業 IT 支出造成不利影響。因此，我們預計收入增長將處於中高個位數。該收入指引考慮了我們目前看到的宏觀背景和不確定性。正如查理所提到的，由於客戶盡職調查、批准和預算緊縮，新的和早期銷售機會的進展需要更長的時間才能結束。我們預計這種情況將持續到 24 財年，並在今年晚些時候有所緩和，因為我們的銷售團隊會調整他們的銷售動作，以更貼近不斷變化的客戶購買動作。在第四季度，我們沒有收到 Meta 的新產品訂單，這反映在我們對明年的增長率預測中。此外，我們的 24 財年收入指引假設我們最新的 FlashBlade//E 的銷售在今年下半年出現適度增長。

Turning to operating margin guidance for FY '24. We remain very focused on profitable growth while continuing to support our highest, long-term growth opportunities, such as our announcement today of FlashBlade//E. As a reminder, last quarter, we shared a preliminary view of operating margins in the range of 14% to 15% for FY '24. At the time, our preliminary view contemplated key considerations, including higher revenue growth assumptions. With our expectations of slower revenue growth, we adjusted our spending budgets for next year to align with an expected operating margin of 15%, representing the high end of the range of our preliminary view. We expect to achieve this operating margin by exercising strong focus and discipline on both hiring and spend management.

轉向 FY '24 的營業利潤率指導。我們仍然非常關注盈利增長，同時繼續支持我們最高的長期增長機會，例如我們今天宣布的 FlashBlade//E。提醒一下，上個季度，我們初步認為 24 財年的營業利潤率在 14% 至 15% 之間。當時，我們的初步觀點考慮了關鍵考慮因素，包括更高的收入增長假設。鑑於我們對收入增長放緩的預期，我們調整了明年的支出預算，以符合 15% 的預期營業利潤率，這是我們初步看法範圍的高端。我們希望通過在招聘和支出管理方面高度關注和遵守紀律來實現這一營業利潤率。

Now turning to revenue guidance for Q1. As we have mentioned on multiple occasions in prior earnings calls, Q1 of last year reflected $60 million of product revenue impacting seasonality as this revenue had been contemplated for the second half of FY '23. Excluding the seasonality impact to product revenue of $60 million, we expect that Q1 revenue this year will be flat at $560 million when compared to Q1 of last year. Our Q1 revenue guide of $560 million takes into consideration that newer, early-stage opportunities will require a longer period of time to close. Again, we expect this impact will moderate later in the year. While we are confident and committed to achieving 15% operating margin for the year, we expect that our operating profit in Q1 will be approximately $10 million. Operating profit in Q1 reflects a significant investment for our first in-person sales kickoff event since 2020 as well as higher costs as a result of our planned hiring in both Q3 and Q4 of last year.

現在轉向第一季度的收入指導。正如我們在之前的財報電話會議中多次提到的那樣，去年第一季度反映了 6000 萬美元的產品收入影響季節性，因為該收入已被考慮用於 23 財年下半年。排除對產品收入 6000 萬美元的季節性影響，我們預計今年第一季度的收入與去年第一季度相比將持平於 5.6 億美元。我們 5.6 億美元的第一季度收入指南考慮到較新的早期機會需要更長的時間才能結束。同樣，我們預計這種影響將在今年晚些時候減弱。雖然我們有信心並致力於實現今年 15% 的營業利潤率，但我們預計第一季度的營業利潤將約為 1000 萬美元。第一季度的營業利潤反映了我們自 2020 年以來首次面對面銷售啟動活動的重大投資，以及由於我們計劃在去年第三季度和第四季度招聘而導致的成本增加。

In closing, I'd like to thank our customers, partners and employees for an incredibly strong FY '23. Although the current macro backdrop presents its challenges, Pure is uniquely positioned to help our customers navigate these challenges, leveraging our innovative, high-performance solutions while providing financial flexibility through Evergreen and reducing total cost of ownership and energy consumption. As we look forward, we are confident in our strategy and ability to continue taking market share and deliver strong operating margin of 15% in FY '24. With that, I will turn it to Paul for Q&A.

最後，我要感謝我們的客戶、合作夥伴和員工，感謝他們在 23 財年取得了令人難以置信的強勁表現。儘管當前的宏觀背景帶來了挑戰，但 Pure 具有獨特的優勢，可以幫助我們的客戶應對這些挑戰，利用我們創新的高性能解決方案，同時通過 Evergreen 提供財務靈活性，並降低總擁有成本和能源消耗。展望未來，我們對我們在 24 財年繼續佔據市場份額並實現 15% 的強勁營業利潤率的戰略和能力充滿信心。有了這個，我將把它交給保羅進行問答。

Thanks, Kevan. (Operator Instructions) Operator, let's get started.

謝謝，凱文。 （操作員說明）操作員，讓我們開始吧。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question for today comes from Amit Daryanani of Evercore ISI.

（操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Amit Daryanani。

I guess there'll be a fair bit of focus on this fiscal '24 revenue guide for mid- to high single-digit growth. I think last quarter, you [didn't obviously give a] formal guide, but I think the expectation was it would be around double-digit growth or thereabouts. So I'd love to understand what's changed in the last 90 days. And to the extent you can talk about, how much of this guide adjustment is due to macro worries versus perhaps something that's more company specific? Do we worry about competition or share gain trajectory kind of slowing that? I'd love to understand the downtick you're seeing, how much is macro versus company specific. That would be really helpful.

我想會有相當多的關注本財政年度 24 年中高個位數增長的收入指南。我認為上個季度，你 [顯然沒有給出] 正式指南，但我認為預期是兩位數左右的增長。所以我很想了解過去 90 天發生了什麼變化。在您可以談論的範圍內，這種指導調整有多少是由於宏觀擔憂而不是更具體的公司？我們是否擔心競爭或份額增長軌跡會減緩這種情況？我很想了解你所看到的下降趨勢，宏觀與公司具體有多少。那真的很有幫助。

Thanks, Amit. Absolutely. This is Charlie. First, let's just say that as we went into last quarter, we were expecting double-digit for Q4, and we were able to deliver on that and feel really proud about the team and what they're able to do. And that really represented the -- a good close rate of our advanced stage opportunities, which continued through the quarter. What did change is, especially as we came into the new calendar year, was a slowing down of progression of the pipeline of this stage opportunities, meaning the progression that we had typically seen in earlier quarters of movement from early stage to later stage in the progression. That has slowed down since the beginning of the year. And we have to assume that, that will be true for at least a couple of quarters going forward. And so that's changed the outlook, if you will, for the year as we go forward.

謝謝，阿米特。絕對地。這是查理。首先，我們只是說，當我們進入上個季度時，我們預計第四季度會出現兩位數，我們能夠實現這一目標，並對團隊和他們能夠做的事情感到非常自豪。這確實代表了——我們高級階段機會的良好收盤率，這種情況一直持續到本季度。真正發生變化的是，尤其是當我們進入新的日曆年時，這一階段機會的管道進展放緩，這意味著我們在前幾個季度通常看到的從早期階段到後期階段的進展進展。自今年年初以來，這種情況有所放緩。我們必須假設，至少在未來幾個季度內都是如此。因此，如果您願意的話，這改變了我們前進的一年的前景。

That being said, we're positive on the year overall. We're positive on our competitiveness in the market. What -- the other thing that's perhaps changed is that we do notice a change in the way that the customers are evaluating their purchases, a lot more focus on economic analyses especially on near-term operating costs. And that's -- of course, we're responding to that now by changing the way our sales teams go about working with the customer on evaluating our products in a much more -- much greater focus on near-term operational costs as a justification for making the choice to proceed forward with a project versus maybe other projects that they have in their consideration.

話雖這麼說，我們對這一年整體持樂觀態度。我們對我們在市場上的競爭力持積極態度。什麼 - 可能發生變化的另一件事是我們確實注意到客戶評估購買的方式發生了變化，更多地關注經濟分析，尤其是近期運營成本。那就是——當然，我們現在正在通過改變我們的銷售團隊與客戶合作評估我們的產品的方式來對此做出回應——更多地關注近期運營成本，以此作為理由選擇繼續進行一個項目而不是他們考慮的其他項目。

Charlie, did you want to mention anything about the expectation to continue to gain share?

查理，您是否想提及有關繼續獲得份額的期望？

I think both Kevan and I mentioned that. But as we've done certainly every year and almost every single quarter, we continue to gain share against our competitors. Everybody is affected by the macro. We're no different than that. But the goal is obviously to continue to outpace the rest of the field.

我想 Kevan 和我都提到了這一點。但正如我們每年和幾乎每個季度所做的那樣，我們繼續獲得與競爭對手相比的份額。每個人都受到宏觀的影響。我們和那沒什麼不同。但目標顯然是繼續超越其他領域。

Our next question comes from Aaron Rakers of Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Aaron Rakers。

I just want to unpack the guidance a little bit in the current quarter and just understand what's implied subsequent to that. So the $560 million, it sounds like, obviously, adjusting for the item you had the year ago quarter, if I take that out of product revenue. It seems to imply an extremely sharp decline sequentially in the subscription revenue. So I guess the first part of that is, is that necessarily how you're thinking about that? Or am I missing something that -- and why would subscription necessarily decline that much? And I guess if I take at face value the mid- to high single digit for the year, to be even mid-single digit, the assumption would be is that your growth actually in the subsequent quarters looks like it's even high single or even double-digit of returning. So I'm just curious how you kind of bridge the seasonality after the first quarter guide to get to that mid- to high single-digit full year guide.

我只想在當前季度稍微解開指導，並了解隨後的暗示。所以 5.6 億美元，如果我把它從產品收入中扣除，這聽起來顯然是對你去年同期的項目進行調整。這似乎意味著訂閱收入環比急劇下降。所以我想第一部分是，你一定是這麼想的嗎？還是我遺漏了什麼——為什麼訂閱量必然會下降那麼多？我想如果我按面值計算今年的中高個位數，即使是中個位數，假設是你在隨後幾個季度的實際增長看起來甚至是高個位數甚至兩倍-返回的數字。所以我很好奇你如何在第一季度指南之後彌合季節性，以達到中高個位數的全年指南。

Aaron, this is Kevan, and appreciate the question. And you're right with the first point around the $60 million that, that really was seasonality and really should be excluded in terms of how we're thinking about the comparability of product revenue as that $60 million, if you recall, we had mentioned that on previous earnings calls, was really planned for the second half of the year. So that's really impacting seasonality. So then after you adjust the $60 million, you still have for Q1 of last year a very strong year-over-year growth of 37%. So that does set up for a tough compare.

Aaron，我是 Kevan，感謝這個問題。關於 6000 萬美元的第一點你是對的，那確實是季節性的，就我們如何考慮產品收入與 6000 萬美元的可比性而言，真的應該排除在外，如果你還記得的話，我們已經提到過在之前的財報電話會議上，確實計劃在今年下半年進行。所以這真的影響了季節性。因此，在調整了 6000 萬美元之後，去年第一季度仍然有 37% 的非常強勁的同比增長。所以這確實為一個艱難的比較做好了準備。

And then the macro backdrop that Charlie mentioned and I mentioned, which really resulted in longer-than-expected sales progression of new and early opportunities, did add additional headwind to that tough compare that we're thinking about specific to Q1. And that's what's leading to the Q1 revenue outlook of flat year-over-year when excluding the impact of seasonality. But look, it really does generally align in terms of seasonality when we think about Q1 and when we think about our overall guide for revenue in the mid- to high single digits. It generally is aligning with our seasonality that we saw with FY '22. So we actually feel pretty comfortable with that.

然後查理提到的和我提到的宏觀背景，這確實導致新的和早期機會的銷售進展比預期的要長，確實給我們正在考慮的特定於第一季度的艱難比較增加了額外的阻力。在排除季節性影響的情況下，這就是導致第一季度收入前景同比持平的原因。但是看，當我們考慮第一季度以及我們考慮中高個位數收入的總體指南時，它確實在季節性方面大體一致。它通常與我們在 FY '22 中看到的季節性一致。所以我們實際上對此感到很舒服。

Yes. Okay. I think I was missing the point on the [flat].

是的。好的。我想我錯過了 [flat] 的要點。

Our next question comes from Meta Marshall of Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的元馬歇爾。

Great. Just on kind of some of the sales marketing changes that you guys are planning on making. Just when did you start making some of those changes as even last quarter, you would have started to kind of see some of this cost sensitivity? And just kind of what gives you confidence that those changes will be kind of impactful towards the back half of the fiscal year?

偉大的。就你們計劃進行的一些銷售營銷變革而言。就在上個季度，你什麼時候開始做出這些改變，你就會開始看到一些這種成本敏感性？是什麼讓您相信這些變化會對本財年下半年產生影響？

Yes. Thank you, Meta. Well, you're correct. I mean, obviously, as we proceeded from Q3 into Q4, we knew that economic concerns would be higher, and we started adding some additional training to the sales force. We do have next week our first full in-person sales kickoff in 3 years since 2020, and a lot of what we've done is prepare the training for that for this new economic reality. So we've had enough forewarning, if you will, and we planned early enough so that the way that the training is working out for our sales kickoff is going to be very much in the mode of selling and creating value propositions in an environment where customers are much more focused on near-term cost savings rather than, let's say, long-term advantage or long-term cost savings. So that's a clear change in the training that we're putting in place in our field.

是的。謝謝你，梅塔。嗯，你是對的。我的意思是，很明顯，當我們從第三季度進入第四季度時，我們知道對經濟的擔憂會更高，因此我們開始對銷售人員進行一些額外的培訓。自 2020 年以來的 3 年裡，下週我們將首次全面啟動面對面銷售，我們所做的很多工作都是為這一新的經濟現實準備培訓。因此，如果您願意的話，我們已經有足夠的預警，並且我們計劃得足夠早，因此為我們的銷售啟動而進行的培訓將在很大程度上以銷售和創造價值主張的方式在一個環境中進行客戶更關注短期成本節約，而不是長期優勢或長期成本節約。因此，這是我們在我們領域進行的培訓的明顯變化。

Yes. I think that's a great point, Charlie. And maybe what we can add, too, is our thoughts around Pure's unique positioning even in this environment and then connecting that with the field as well, which I think is going to be really important.

是的。我認為這是一個很好的觀點，查理。也許我們還可以添加的是我們對 Pure 在這種環境下的獨特定位的想法，然後將其與該領域聯繫起來，我認為這將非常重要。

While our development of FlashBlade//E was not done in anticipation of a recession, it couldn't come at a better time. Its operating cost is well below the operating cost of a hard disk environment that it will be replacing. And Evergreen//One, we should mention Evergreen//One. We did see significant increase in Evergreen//One versus capital purchases. Last quarter, every time we see some economic slowdown, whether it was the early COVID days or now this, we see a pickup in interest in Evergreen//One. So we've already seen that, and we can expect that, I think, for the next several quarters. That will have both short-term and long-term effects. Overall, good for the company. But a transition to Evergreen//One from a capital also has immediate reduction of the revenue line.

雖然我們開發 FlashBlade//E 並不是為了應對經濟衰退，但它來得正是時候。它的運營成本遠低於它將要更換的硬盤環境的運營成本。還有Evergreen//One，應該提到Evergreen//One。我們確實看到 Evergreen//One 與資本購買相比顯著增加。上個季度，每當我們看到經濟放緩時，無論是在 COVID 早期還是現在，我們都會看到人們對 Evergreen//One 的興趣有所增加。所以我們已經看到了這一點，我認為我們可以期待接下來的幾個季度。這將產生短期和長期影響。總的來說，對公司有利。但是從首都過渡到 Evergreen//One 也會立即減少收入線。

Yes. That's great. And I'd add a couple more to that as well, which is FlashArray//C continues to get traction and really is resonating with customers in this environment. And we introduced last year Evergreen//Flex, which is starting to pick up some traction and interest as well, and we do expect some more momentum on that front. But really, what it's getting at is that we've got a lot of solutions for our customers that provide a lot of flexibility both in terms of consumption and financial. And I think that's really going to resonate with customers as we navigate this environment.

是的。那太棒了。我還要補充一點，FlashArray//C 繼續受到關注，並且確實在這種環境中引起了客戶的共鳴。我們去年推出了 Evergreen//Flex，它也開始引起一些關注和興趣，我們確實希望在這方面有更多的動力。但實際上，它的意思是我們為我們的客戶提供了很多解決方案，這些解決方案在消費和財務方面都提供了很大的靈活性。而且我認為，當我們在這個環境中航行時，這真的會引起客戶的共鳴。

Our next question comes from Sidney Ho of Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Sidney Ho。

First of all, I want to clarify to an earlier answer -- to an earlier question. In your fiscal first quarter guidance, what are you expecting for your subscription services revenue to do on a year-over-year basis? And maybe I'll ask a follow-up question here is the subscription ARR has been growing quite steadily at 30% a year. How does that growth rate change, if any, if the hardware sales slow down in the near term? Is there a lag effect that we should consider? That's my follow-up.

首先，我想澄清一個較早的答案——一個較早的問題。在您的第一財季指引中，您對訂閱服務收入的同比預期有何期待？也許我會在這裡問一個後續問題，訂閱 ARR 一直以每年 30% 的速度穩定增長。如果硬件銷售在短期內放緩，該增長率將如何變化（如果有的話）？是否存在我們應該考慮的滯後效應？那是我的後續行動。

Yes, it's a great question. This is Kevan again. Look, we've been very pleased, obviously, with the strength of our subscription business. You see that again in our subscription ARR growth rate. We see that continuing to be strong as we progress through the year. Charlie pointed out the strength that we saw in Evergreen//One in Q3 and Q4 of last year. We expect that to continue. So that's going to be a benefit for us as we continue to navigate. And look, I do expect that overall, our renewals of Evergreen solutions will continue to be very strong. During this time, customers are valuing in a significant way the ability to have their solutions and Pure solutions modernized through the Evergreen offerings. And so we do expect that to continue to be strong, offset somewhat slightly by the attach of Evergreen to new product given the slowdown that we've communicated.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。這又是凱文。看，顯然，我們對訂閱業務的實力感到非常滿意。您在我們的訂閱 ARR 增長率中再次看到了這一點。隨著我們在這一年的進步，我們看到這種情況將繼續保持強勁。 Charlie 指出了我們在去年第三季度和第四季度在 Evergreen//One 中看到的實力。我們希望這種情況繼續下去。因此，隨著我們繼續導航，這對我們來說將是一個好處。看，我確實希望總的來說，我們對 Evergreen 解決方案的更新將繼續非常強勁。在此期間，客戶非常重視通過 Evergreen 產品使他們的解決方案和 Pure 解決方案現代化的能力。因此，我們確實預計它會繼續保持強勁，鑑於我們已經傳達的放緩， Evergreen 對新產品的附加略有抵消。

Our next question comes from Wamsi Mohan from Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Wamsi Mohan。

Charlie, these growth rates are some of the lowest that Pure has seen, probably just excluding COVID, and that was a very, very difficult, uncertain economic environment. And now you're guiding fiscal '24 at the low end, maybe 2, 3 points [above] those growth rates. How can we get confidence that this is purely just macro when these growth rates are historically something that you've well outperformed, taking massive amounts of share historically? Is there something happening either between pricing or between your ability to take incremental share? I mean you're arguably [$1 billion -- $1.2 billion] larger company than [COVID, too]. So what are the different factors that we should be thinking about especially with respect to NAND flash price, share and just the ability to take incremental share?

查理，這些增長率是 Pure 所見過的最低增長率之一，可能只是不包括 COVID，那是一個非常、非常困難、不確定的經濟環境。現在你在低端指導 24 財年，可能比這些增長率高 2、3 個百分點。當這些增長率在歷史上表現出色並佔據大量份額時，我們如何才能確信這純粹是宏觀的？在定價之間或您獲得增量份額的能力之間是否發生了什麼？我的意思是你可以說是 [10 億美元 - 12 億美元] 比 [COVID] 更大的公司。那麼，我們應該考慮哪些不同的因素，尤其是在 NAND 閃存價格、份額以及獲取增量份額的能力方面？

Yes. Wamsi, thank you. We have consistently grown roughly 10% to 15% higher than our competition, than the market as a whole on an annual basis. Obviously, every quarter is a little bit different. But on an annual basis, 10% to 15%. I expect that this year as well. It's just a measure -- a matter of calling out the overall market as a whole. I think that the -- we also are not forecasting Meta because we don't forecast until we get an actual order, and that obviously had an effect on both of our last 2 years. And we do have significant large high-tech customers. And as others have reported, those are down a bit, but they always come back. So on a -- I was -- I think everyone on this call knows that I look at this business on a long-term basis. I have no loss of confidence. I am every bit as confident about our long-term projections as I've had in quarters and years past.

是的。瓦姆西，謝謝你。我們每年的增長率一直比我們的競爭對手高出大約 10% 到 15%，比整個市場高出 10% 到 15%。顯然，每個季度都有點不同。但按年計算，10% 到 15%。我預計今年也是如此。這只是一個衡量標準——一個衡量整個市場的問題。我認為 - 我們也沒有預測 Meta，因為我們在獲得實際訂單之前不會進行預測，這顯然對我們過去兩年都有影響。我們確實有重要的大型高科技客戶。正如其他人所報告的那樣，這些數字有所下降，但他們總是會回來。所以在一個 - 我是 - 我想這個電話中的每個人都知道我從長期的角度來看這個業務。我沒有失去信心。與過去幾個季度和幾年一樣，我對我們的長期預測充滿信心。

Evergreen -- I'm sorry, FlashBlade//E, I think, is going to be a barn burner. Obviously, we're just getting it started, and it's going to be early days. But it opens up a major new part of the market for us. Our field teams have been strong year in and year out, and we're only making them stronger with some of the new programs we're putting in place for this fiscal year in our sales kickoff that will be next week. So no loss of confidence in terms of our overall ability to perform. But we are facing a very uncertain year, as is everybody else, on a variety of fronts. And as we -- hopefully, as we go through the year, we'll pick up confidence as we go along.

Evergreen——對不起，我認為 FlashBlade//E 將成為穀倉燃燒器。顯然，我們才剛剛開始，還處於早期階段。但它為我們開闢了一個重要的新市場部分。我們的現場團隊年復一年都表現出色，我們只會在下週的銷售啟動時為本財年實施的一些新計劃讓他們變得更強大。因此，我們不會對我們的整體執行能力失去信心。但我們和其他人一樣，在各個方面都面臨著非常不確定的一年。當我們 - 希望在我們度過這一年時，我們會在前進的過程中獲得信心。

Yes. And Wamsi, I think the only thing I would add to Charlie's answer is the strength we're seeing on Evergreen//One and Evergreen//Flex is significant and is really resonating with our customer base. And obviously, if that mix changes significantly, that would have a short-term headwind on revenue as well. So that's another factor to be considering when you're thinking about our guide and outlook for revenue next year.

是的。而 Wamsi，我認為我唯一要添加到 Charlie 的回答中的是我們在 Evergreen//One 和 Evergreen//Flex 上看到的實力非常重要，並且確實引起了我們客戶群的共鳴。顯然，如果這種組合發生重大變化，那也會對收入產生短期不利影響。因此，當您考慮我們明年的收入指南和展望時，這是要考慮的另一個因素。

Our next question comes from Pinjalim Bora of JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Pinjalim Bora。

I wanted to go back to the guidance -- full year guidance one more time. Maybe talk about the assumptions behind. It seems like your pipeline is good. Is it mainly a factor of the close rates that's kind of driving then? Are you expecting, to the last point that you made, a higher shift towards Evergreen//One or subscriptions that might put potential pressure? Is that baked into the guidance?

我想再次回到指導——全年指導。也許談談背後的假設。看來你的管道很好。這主要是一種驅動的收盤價因素嗎？就您最後提出的觀點而言，您是否期望向 Evergreen//One 或可能帶來潛在壓力的訂閱有更高的轉變？這是否包含在指南中？

Certainly, more Evergreen//One relative to the overall is baked into the guidance. As we mentioned, we're not including Meta at all. What we did see that was a significant shift was the amount of time it takes to go from an early stage opportunity in the pipeline to a later stage in the pipeline. The close rates of later stage have been consistent, I would say. But it's that progression as you go through a pipeline funnel that's taking longer.

當然，更多的 Evergreen//One 相對於整體而言被納入指南。正如我們提到的，我們根本不包括 Meta。我們確實看到的一個重大轉變是從管道中的早期階段機會到管道中的後期階段所花費的時間。我想說，後期的收盤價是一致的。但是，當您通過管道漏斗時，這種進展會花費更長的時間。

And then I would add on to that just that we're also contemplating a moderate second half ramp of FlashBlade//E as well, and we do expect that to ramp in a manner similar to what we saw with FlashArray//C.

然後我要補充一點，我們也在考慮 FlashBlade//E 的適度下半年斜坡，我們確實希望它以類似於我們在 FlashArray//C 中看到的方式斜坡。

Our next question for today comes from Nehal Chokshi of Northland Capital Markets.

我們今天的下一個問題來自 Northland Capital Markets 的 Nehal Chokshi。

Incredible free cash flow margin quarter and year. You're now at 20-plus percent free cash flow margin. And your last Analyst Day implied you expect to get to a Rule of 40 benchmark in due course, which at this free cash flow margin would require about 20% overall growth rate. So the question is that do you believe you're already there if it was not for the macroeconomic impact?

令人難以置信的自由現金流保證金季度和年度。您現在的自由現金流利潤率超過 20%。你上一個分析師日暗示你希望在適當的時候達到 40 基準的規則，在這個自由現金流利潤率下，這將需要大約 20% 的整體增長率。所以問題是，如果不是因為宏觀經濟影響，你認為你已經在那裡了嗎？

Thanks, Nehal, and it's a great question. And obviously, we made great progress really across the board in terms of performance on both the expansion of our operating margin as well as free cash flow. And yes, you're right. I do think the headwinds that we'll navigate associated with the macro backdrop would be the one factor which has been driving our outlook -- our near-term outlook for FY '24 for revenue growth. But when we think about our free cash flow performance, we're very pleased with that, and we do believe that we'll continue to outpace our free cash flow margin. We'll continue to outpace our operating margin slightly. Now we will have some pressure, if you will, due to the lower outlook growth for product revenue, which will have some impact on that, as well as continued strength of Evergreen//One, which will add to our CapEx needs as we continue to expand. But overall, really happy with the direction we're headed in.

謝謝，Nehal，這是一個很好的問題。顯然，我們在營業利潤率和自由現金流的擴張方面取得了全面的巨大進步。是的，你是對的。我確實認為我們將應對的與宏觀背景相關的逆風將是推動我們前景的一個因素——我們對 24 財年收入增長的近期展望。但是當我們考慮我們的自由現金流表現時，我們對此感到非常滿意，我們相信我們將繼續超過我們的自由現金流利潤率。我們將繼續略微超過我們的營業利潤率。現在我們會有一些壓力，如果你願意的話，由於產品收入增長前景較低，這將對此產生一些影響，以及 Evergreen//One 的持續實力，隨著我們的繼續，這將增加我們的資本支出需求擴大。但總的來說，我們對前進的方向非常滿意。

Our next question comes from Simon Leopold from Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Simon Leopold。

I wanted to see if maybe you could address a longer-term opportunity around artificial intelligence and machine learning. I think that was sort of the root of the use case for Meta. And wondering, particularly with the introduction of the E platform for unstructured data, how we should think about that particular use case broadly affecting Pure Storage over the longer term?

我想看看你是否可以解決圍繞人工智能和機器學習的長期機會。我認為這是 Meta 用例的根源。並且想知道，特別是隨著用於非結構化數據的 E 平台的引入，我們應該如何考慮長期廣泛影響 Pure Storage 的特定用例？

Yes, Simon. This is Rob. I'll take that one. So yes, I mean, certainly, as we've talked about in prior calls, the broader space of analytics and AI continues to be a strong one for us, certainly with Meta but also the broader customer base. And then certainly, within the last several months, a lot of news in that space around new developments, generative AI technology, so on and so forth. Look, at the end of the day, we very much believe that this entire space of technology is extremely dependent on data, on very large corpuses of data.

是的，西蒙。這是羅布。我會拿那個。所以是的，我的意思是，當然，正如我們在之前的電話會議中所談到的那樣，更廣泛的分析和人工智能領域對我們來說仍然是一個強大的領域，當然還有 Meta，還有更廣泛的客戶群。當然，在過去的幾個月裡，這個領域有很多關於新發展、生成人工智能技術等等的新聞。看，歸根結底，我們非常相信整個技術領域都非常依賴數據，非常依賴於非常大的數據集。

And if you step back and you look at where our customers are largely housing those sets of data today, altogether way too often, it's sitting in bulk repositories, trapped on very, very inefficient pools of disk. This is precisely the opportunity that we developed FlashBlade//E to go and attack. And so I think we feel long term that this is a -- it does present a very significant -- well, the bulk data space overall. And certainly, the focus of AI to go and capitalize on those sets of data presents a very significant opportunity for us. And we're going to go pursue that very aggressively as we're now really the only ones that are going to be able to take flash technology and go and modernize those environments.

如果你退後一步，看看我們的客戶今天主要將這些數據集存放在哪裡，通常情況下，這些數據位於大量存儲庫中，被困在非常非常低效的磁盤池中。這正是我們開發FlashBlade//E的契機而去攻擊的。因此，我認為從長遠來看，我們認為這是一個——它確實代表了一個非常重要的——嗯，總體上是一個大容量數據空間。當然，人工智能的重點是去利用這些數據集，這為我們提供了一個非常重要的機會。我們將非常積極地追求這一點，因為我們現在真的是唯一能夠採用閃存技術並使這些環境現代化的人。

Yes. And Simon, I might add on to that. Listeners may recall that the Meta architecture was FlashBlade for the high-performance side, which was approximately, in terms of bytes stored, about 10% of the byte storage, and then FlashArray//C for 90% of the bytes stored, which are, let's say, in hot standby with FlashBlade providing the high-performance side of it and the FlashArray//C providing the warm storage for data that's about to be processed. Well, what we see with FlashBlade//E is the opportunity to expand that even further. So it's a great architecture we have to provide both performance and then lower cost for the warm tier. And so we can get into an all-flash environment as well as an all-Pure environment in these customers rather than having to have a high-performance tier that's flash and then a lower-performance, lower-cost tier that's hard disk.

是的。西蒙，我可能會補充一點。聽者可能還記得，Meta架構是高性能端的FlashBlade，按照存儲的字節數，大約是10%的字節存儲，然後是FlashArray//C，90%的存儲字節，就是，比方說，在熱備用中，FlashBlade 提供了它的高性能方面，而 FlashArray//C 為即將處理的數據提供了熱存儲。好吧，我們在 FlashBlade//E 上看到的是進一步擴展它的機會。因此，這是一個很棒的架構，我們必須為暖層提供性能和較低的成本。因此，我們可以在這些客戶中進入全閃存環境和全純環境，而不必擁有一個高性能的閃存層，然後是一個性能較低、成本較低的硬盤層。

Our next question comes from Matt Sheerin of Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Matt Sheerin。

I had another question regarding your strong free cash flow. Beyond the incremental buyback you announced today, how should we think about your use of cash? And specifically, on M&A, do you continue to see opportunities there?

我還有一個關於你強大的自由現金流的問題。除了您今天宣布的增量回購之外，我們應該如何考慮您對現金的使用？具體來說，在併購方面，您是否繼續看到那裡的機會？

We're always evaluating M&A, as we should. And we want to make sure that we always have enough cash in reserve to be able to make especially tuck-ins, but small M&A acquisitions. Obviously, if we were to consider a larger one, that would probably require a more complex transaction. But yes, we continue to consider M&A. And we think that as the current venture environment starts to become much more, let's say, reasonable in terms of expectations, that those types of opportunities will come up a bit more often. I will say, however, that we are extremely fortunate as a company in being very rich in organic opportunities, and that continues to be our preference.

我們一直在評估併購，這是我們應該做的。我們希望確保我們始終有足夠的現金儲備，以便能夠進行特別大的投資，但規模較小的併購收購。顯然，如果我們考慮更大的交易，那可能需要更複雜的交易。但是，是的，我們繼續考慮併購。我們認為，隨著當前的風險投資環境開始變得更加合理，比方說，就預期而言，這些類型的機會會更頻繁地出現。然而，我要說的是，作為一家擁有非常豐富的有機機會的公司，我們非常幸運，這仍然是我們的偏好。

And Matt, one other point just to raise in terms of use of cash. Obviously, we've got our converts coming up for maturity, and use of cash will be contemplated as we work through that as well in April. So another consideration there.

Matt，還有一點是關於現金使用的。顯然，我們的轉換者即將到期，我們將在 4 月份考慮使用現金。所以那裡有另一個考慮。

Our next question comes from Tim Long of Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Tim Long。

It's actually George Wang on for Tim Long. So just I have a couple of questions. First of all, maybe you can kind of unpack, give us some update on the telco customers. In prior quarters, you guys talked about opportunities kind of [flow -- shifting to] telco customers for their 5G deployment. Just curious if you have any latest update on this particular vehicle.

實際上是 George Wang 代替 Tim Long。所以我有幾個問題。首先，也許你可以打開包裝，給我們一些關於電信客戶的最新消息。在之前的幾個季度中，你們談到了 [流向] 電信客戶部署 5G 的機會。只是好奇您是否有關於這輛特定車輛的任何最新更新。

I don't have any to call out. But we did have 5G shipments in the quarter, and it continues to be an area of strong focus and attention for us. We are -- we do have a presence in Barcelona this week and getting a fair amount of attention there.

我沒有什麼可以呼喚的。但我們在本季度確實有 5G 出貨量，它仍然是我們重點關注的領域。我們是 - 我們本週確實在巴塞羅那開展業務，並在那裡獲得了相當多的關注。

Our next question comes from Krish Sankar from Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cowen 的 Krish Sankar。

This is [Eddie] for Krish. Are you contemplating any impact from lower NAND prices on your ASPs in your fiscal '24 guidance? And I have a follow-up, please.

這是 Krish 的 [Eddie]。您是否在 24 財年指南中考慮了較低的 NAND 價格對您的 ASP 的影響？我有一個後續行動，請。

Let me start with that, and then Kevan maybe can provide some additional color. There's always ASP effect from pricing on flash. As you know, we operate in a market where the price per gigabyte generally declines every year, and that's good for us because it allows us to penetrate increasingly the disk market. That being said, I would say that currently, we expect to take advantage of what has been some lower NAND prices. And as callers -- or people who have followed us know, we tend to have an advantage in timing with early reductions in NAND pricing, and that eventually gets -- follows through to the rest of the market and then it comes back into equilibrium. But I think overall, the pricing of NAND is going to operate to our favor as we go through the year.

讓我先從這個開始，然後 Kevan 或許可以提供一些額外的顏色。閃存定價總是會對 ASP 產生影響。如您所知，我們所處的市場每 GB 的價格通常每年都在下降，這對我們有利，因為它使我們能夠越來越多地滲透到磁盤市場。話雖如此，我要說的是，目前，我們希望利用 NAND 價格較低的優勢。正如來電者 - 或關注我們的人所知，我們往往在早期降低 NAND 定價的時機上具有優勢，並且最終得到 - 跟隨市場的其他部分，然後它回到平衡。但我認為總體而言，NAND 的定價在我們度過這一年時將對我們有利。

Yes. And I think that's without a doubt, Charlie. ASPs continue to be strong. It's certainly going to give us -- the NAND pricing will give us a significant advantage as we move out and aggressively market FlashBlade//E as well as FlashArray//C. So when we think about it in terms of product gross margins, we do consider that as an overall favorable factor for us as we navigate through next year. And again, to Charlie's point, it's all about us being able to take a full advantage of raw NAND and flash instead of our competitors who are having to still rely on SSD drives. But we do expect some balance with the favorability we'll get on NAND, again, given the aggressive nature we will pursue FlashBlade//E and FlashArray//C.

是的。我認為這是毫無疑問的，查理。平均售價繼續保持強勁。它肯定會給我們——NAND 定價將給我們一個顯著的優勢，因為我們搬出並積極營銷 FlashBlade//E 以及 FlashArray//C。因此，當我們從產品毛利率的角度考慮時，我們確實認為這是我們明年的一個整體有利因素。再一次，在 Charlie 看來，這一切都是為了我們能夠充分利用原始 NAND 和閃存，而不是我們的競爭對手仍然不得不依賴 SSD 驅動器。但我們確實希望在 NAND 獲得的青睞之間取得一些平衡，同樣，鑑於我們將追求 FlashBlade//E 和 FlashArray//C 的積極性。

And Krish, per our request, we'd like to ask if you'd please get back in queue, and hopefully, we'll have time to take your second question.

Krish，根據我們的要求，我們想問你是否願意回到隊列中，希望我們有時間回答你的第二個問題。

Our next question comes from Eric Martinuzzi of Lake Street.

我們的下一個問題來自 Lake Street 的 Eric Martinuzzi。

Yes, I wanted to get some color just sort of on a month-by-month basis the Q4 linearity and then with February in the books. Obviously, you had already had November in the books when you talked about the Q4 guide. But when you started to see the slowdown, was that in December? Was that in January? And then if you could characterize the advancement through the pipeline of February versus January.

是的，我想在逐月的基礎上獲得一些顏色，即第 4 季度的線性度，然後是 2 月份的賬本。顯然，當您談到第 4 季度指南時，您已經將 11 月記入賬本。但是當你開始看到經濟放緩時，是在 12 月嗎？那是在一月份嗎？然後，如果您可以通過 2 月與 1 月的管道來描述進步。

Yes. I would say that it was most noticeable as we turned the year, the calendar year, that is. As we mentioned, we are able to close the advanced stage deals. And as we went into the new year -- and to some extent, I feel that it probably had to do with the resetting of budgets by our customers as they enter their new -- most customers, obviously, are operating on a calendar year basis, that as they entered their new year, perhaps it's a reconsideration, perhaps they're going into a planning mode that may be slowing things down. Or perhaps it may be simply a tighter budget -- being held to tighter budget restrictions or doing greater analyses.

是的。我想說的是，當我們翻年時，這是最引人注目的，也就是日曆年。正如我們所提到的，我們能夠完成高級階段的交易。當我們進入新的一年時——在某種程度上，我覺得這可能與我們的客戶在進入新的一年時重新設定預算有關——顯然，大多數客戶都是按日曆年運營的，當他們進入新的一年時，也許這是一個重新考慮，也許他們正在進入一種可能會放慢速度的計劃模式。或者它可能只是更緊縮的預算——受到更嚴格的預算限製或進行更多的分析。

A little bit hard -- we're still trying to diagnose this. I would say -- it's very hard to say in the first few weeks of February in the sense that -- as I said, we're having our sales kickoff. All of the new quota and territory assignments are going out. So it's a little bit hard for us to get intelligence in the first few weeks of the fiscal year. But by going through the last month of the -- of last fiscal year, that was when we really started to see this effect.

有點難——我們仍在嘗試對此進行診斷。我會說 - 在 2 月的前幾週很難說 - 正如我所說的那樣，我們正在啟動銷售。所有新的配額和領土分配都將結束。因此，我們在本財年的前幾週很難獲得情報。但是通過上個財政年度的最後一個月，我們才真正開始看到這種影響。

Yes. And Eric, I'm going to add on to this a little bit. So I think a couple of takeaways when we think about how things develop through Q4 and then obviously up and through to when we're talking to you today. As Charlie mentioned, our conversion of advanced stage opportunities were actually consistent with what we've historically seen. So I view that as a significant positive as we think about navigating through Q4. The other significant positive for us is we saw strong volume of new opportunities through Q4. Really what the change was is really that, to Charlie's point, that the sales progression of those new opportunities and early-stage opportunities, that's what substantially slowed down. And that's what we saw really in January and February, which is giving rise to the outlook that we're providing to you today.

是的。埃里克，我要補充一點。因此，當我們考慮事情如何通過第四季度發展，然後顯然一直持續到我們今天與您交談時，我想到了一些要點。正如 Charlie 提到的，我們對高級階段機會的轉換實際上與我們歷史上看到的一致。所以我認為這是一個重要的積極因素，因為我們考慮通過第四季度進行導航。對我們來說另一個重要的積極因素是我們在第四季度看到了大量的新機會。真正的變化是，查理的觀點，那些新機會和早期機會的銷售進展，這就是大幅放緩的原因。這就是我們在 1 月和 2 月真正看到的情況，這導致了我們今天向您提供的展望。

Our next question comes from David Vogt of UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 David Vogt。

I just want to go back to the guidance and not to belabor the point. But presumably, the $60 million in the first quarter last year that was pulled forward, a large percentage of that would have fallen in the fourth quarter. And so if I make that adjustment, it sounds like your 1Q guide is about 4 to 5 points below seasonal. And if that's the case, would you need to have mid-teens growth in the second half if you follow sort of normal seasonality in the second quarter off of 1Q?

我只想回到指南，而不是重複這一點。但據推測，去年第一季度提前的 6000 萬美元，其中很大一部分將在第四季度下降。因此，如果我進行調整，聽起來您的 1Q 指南比季節性低 4 到 5 個百分點。如果是這樣的話，如果你在第一季度的第二季度遵循某種正常的季節性，你是否需要在下半年實現十幾歲的增長？

Yes, I think it's a great question, and I think you're thinking about the $60 million, right? Although I would clarify that a little bit. I would put that more in the second half category, so Q3, Q4. I wouldn't put that all into Q4. Seasonality Q1 to Q1, a little bit of pressure as we think about it. But again, that's really as a result of the sales progression of these early opportunities in early stage that we've highlighted on multiple occasions. I think -- our assumption is that, that will start to moderate somewhat as we progress through the year. In addition to that, we're layering on some moderate contribution for FlashBlade//E in the second half as well.

是的，我認為這是一個很好的問題，我認為你正在考慮 6000 萬美元，對嗎？儘管我會澄清一點。我會把它更多地放在下半場類別中，所以 Q3，Q4。我不會把這些都放在第四季度。 Q1 到 Q1 的季節性，我們考慮的時候有點壓力。但同樣，這實際上是由於我們在多個場合強調的早期這些早期機會的銷售進展。我認為 - 我們的假設是，隨著我們今年的進展，這種情況將開始有所緩和。除此之外，我們還在下半年對 FlashBlade//E 做出一些適度的貢獻。

Our next question comes from Ashley Ellis from Crédit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自 Crédit Suisse 的 Ashley Ellis。

I was wondering, could you discuss a little bit more the changes you're making in go-to-market? Is this just kind of a change in the pitch? Are you making any structural changes? And then is it primarily, given the weaker macro, customers taking longer to make a decision? Or are you seeing some incremental competitive pressures that are making you change the way you want to approach customers?

我想知道，您能否再多討論一下您在進入市場方面所做的更改？這只是球場上的一種變化嗎？你在做任何結構上的改變嗎？那麼，在宏觀經濟疲軟的情況下，主要是客戶需要更長的時間來做出決定嗎？或者，您是否看到一些漸增的競爭壓力正在促使您改變與客戶打交道的方式？

Yes. I'll start with the second part. We're not seeing any different behavior by the competitors. So we're not seeing additional competitive pressures. Win rates are holding basically steady. So no concern there. It's changing both the pitch. But also, we're not making -- the second part was we're not making any major structural changes to the sales force either. So no major changes there. We are introducing a lot more training and enablement, but this has been on the books now for quite some time as well as more detailed information down to the -- all the way down to the DM level so they can manage their operations better. We are expecting to see improvement in that overall.

是的。我將從第二部分開始。我們沒有看到競爭對手有任何不同的行為。所以我們沒有看到額外的競爭壓力。勝率基本保持穩定。所以不用擔心。它正在改變音調。但是，我們也沒有——第二部分是我們也沒有對銷售隊伍進行任何重大的結構性改變。所以那裡沒有重大變化。我們正在引入更多的培訓和支持，但這已經在書本上出現了很長一段時間，而且還有更詳細的信息一直到 DM 級別，以便他們可以更好地管理他們的運營。我們期待看到整體上的改善。

As you might imagine, during times like this, inspection gets tighter. And so we are planning for some much more detailed inspection of deals, especially as they progress through the different stages of the pipeline, as you might imagine, given this new environment. But outside of that, I would say it's just general -- improvement in general operational discipline and things, as I mentioned, that had been on the books for a while.

正如您想像的那樣，在這樣的時期，檢查會變得更加嚴格。因此，我們正計劃對交易進行更詳細的檢查，特別是當它們在管道的不同階段取得進展時，正如您可能想像的那樣，鑑於這種新環境。但除此之外，我想說這只是一般性的 - 正如我提到的，一般操作紀律和事情的改進已經有一段時間了。

I'll add one thing to that, which is I think we are, as we work with the sales teams coming to our sales kickoff next week, are really going to be working with them to highlight the cost savings benefits of our products and services. And so whether that's with FlashArray//C, the new FlashBlade//E and really just the potential that, that offers to customers to go and reduce their operating costs, their energy costs, their footprint; highlighting the benefits of the entire Evergreen portfolio, but specifically as we look at Evergreen//One and Evergreen//Flex to create that optionality and flexibility for customers. That's an area we're going to be really focusing on articulating the benefits of the portfolio.

我要補充一件事，我認為我們是，當我們與下週開始銷售的銷售團隊合作時，我們真的會與他們合作，以強調我們產品和服務的成本節約優勢.因此，無論是使用 FlashArray//C、新的 FlashBlade//E 還是真正為客戶提供降低運營成本、能源成本和占地面積的潛力；強調了整個 Evergreen 產品組合的優勢，但特別是當我們關注 Evergreen//One 和 Evergreen//Flex 為客戶創造可選性和靈活性時。這是我們將真正關注的領域，以闡明投資組合的好處。

And it looks like we have time for one more question, and I think that last question is from a person who's rejoined the queue.

看來我們還有時間再問一個問題，我想最後一個問題來自一個重新加入隊列的人。

Our final question for today comes from Aaron Rakers of Wells Fargo.

我們今天的最後一個問題來自富國銀行的 Aaron Rakers。

I'll just ask a real quick follow-up on the FlashBlade//E product as you think about the engagement. Somebody asked -- I think Simon asked about AI earlier in the call. I'm just curious how your dialogue has evolved with other potential cloud opportunities, whether or not it's related to AI or bulk storage now that the E Series product is out?

當您考慮參與時，我將只要求對 FlashBlade//E 產品進行真正的快速跟進。有人問——我想西蒙在電話會議的早些時候問過人工智能。我很好奇您的對話是如何與其他潛在的雲機會發展的，現在 E 系列產品已經推出，是否與 AI 或大容量存儲有關？

Yes, let me give it a start, and then I'm going to invite Rob who's very engaged in those conversations. The interest level around energy and space savings is very high. There's always a question of doing it, that is, in hyperscalers in particular, doing it internally versus using a vendor at a system level. But the conversations continue, which is very promising. I would say that outside of the 3 hyperscalers, the conversations in other, what we might call, cloud service providers and SaaS providers are very promising for both FlashArray//E (sic) [FlashBlade//E] as well as Pure Fusion, which is getting a lot of attention, to enable these cloud service providers to operate much more like the hyperscalers in terms of the operations as well as being able to provide storage as a service to their customers.

是的，讓我先開始，然後我將邀請非常參與這些對話的 Rob。人們對節省能源和空間的興趣非常高。做這件事總是有一個問題，也就是說，特別是在超大規模企業中，在內部做這件事而不是在系統級別使用供應商。但對話仍在繼續，這是非常有希望的。我想說的是，除了這 3 個超大規模外，其他方面的對話，我們可能稱之為雲服務提供商和 SaaS 提供商，對於 FlashArray//E (sic) [FlashBlade//E] 以及 Pure Fusion 都非常有前途，這引起了很多關注，使這些雲服務提供商能夠在運營方面更像超大規模運營商，並能夠為客戶提供存儲即服務。

Yes. And I'll just add on to that, Aaron. I think the conversations we are having with the top hyperscalers definitely continue to progress. And certainly, the introduction -- well, the continued success we're seeing in FlashArray//C in the last fiscal year but now certainly with the introduction of FlashBlade//E, just further proof points highlighting our significant leadership position in being able to work directly with NAND flash. I think that really is having a positive effect for us as we go and pursue those early-stage conversations with the hyperscalers. I think another factor potentially is that the ability for some of these firms to potentially go and try to address their needs directly is perhaps reduced. And so a little bit more willingness to kind of engage and see, hey, how can we go and help accelerate their plans to transition to flash. So net-net, all very positive, and certainly, the introduction of E is only going to move that along.

是的。我還要補充一點，Aaron。我認為我們與頂級超大規模企業的對話肯定會繼續取得進展。當然，介紹——好吧，我們在上一財年看到 FlashArray//C 的持續成功，但現在肯定是隨著 FlashBlade//E 的介紹，進一步證明了我們在能夠做到這一點方面的重要領導地位直接與 NAND 閃存一起工作。我認為這確實對我們產生了積極的影響，因為我們正在與超大規模企業進行早期對話。我認為另一個潛在因素是，其中一些公司可能會去嘗試直接解決他們的需求的能力可能會降低。因此，更願意參與並了解，嘿，我們如何才能幫助他們加快向閃存過渡的計劃。所以 net-net，一切都非常積極，當然，E 的引入只會推動這一點。

Before we conclude, I think Charlie has a few final comments.

在我們結束之前，我想查理有一些最後的評論。

I want to thank you all for joining us on today's call. And I, of course, want to thank our employees for creating and driving our vision and constantly improving our operations and our culture. Thank you to our long-term investors for your support and being part of our mission. And special thanks to our customers and partners for continuing to choose Pure for their business, data storage and management needs. Goodbye, all.

我要感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。當然，我要感謝我們的員工創造和推動我們的願景，並不斷改進我們的運營和文化。感謝我們的長期投資者的支持和參與我們的使命。特別感謝我們的客戶和合作夥伴繼續選擇 Pure 來滿足他們的業務、數據存儲和管理需求。再見，所有。

Thank you. That concludes the Pure Storage Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝。 Pure Storage 2023 財年第四季度收益電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開線路。