Cisco turns to titanium spoons and sand dunes to build a better … box?

Two prominent tech companies, Cisco and the newly rebranded Everpure (formerly Pure Storage), have recently unveiled significant shifts in their brand and product design strategies, offering a glimpse into evolving industry priorities.

Key takeaways

• Cisco has reimagined the physical design of its Room Kit Pro G2 appliance, drawing inspiration from titanium camping spoons and sand dunes.
• The redesign focuses on enhanced aesthetics, durability, and a reduction in material use, resulting in a lighter, sturdier, all-metal enclosure.
• Pure Storage has undergone a rebrand, changing its name to Everpure, to signify an evolution beyond traditional storage into broader data management.
• The Everpure rebrand aims to convey a commitment to "living, resilient, and built to grow" data systems, despite sharing its new name with an Australian purified water company.
• The physical re-branding of boxes and email domain changes will accompany Everpure's strategic shift.

What happened

Cisco has announced a significant redesign for its Room Kit Pro G2, a device integral to meeting room connectivity. The new physical enclosure prioritizes both visual appeal and structural integrity, moving away from typical datacenter aesthetics. This effort was led by Cisco's VP for design, Gavin Ivester.

Concurrently, Pure Storage officially rebranded itself as "Everpure." This move marks a strategic shift for the company, which has historically focused on scalable storage solutions. The rebrand aims to align the company's identity with a broader vision of data management.

Why it matters

Cisco's design innovation for the Room Kit Pro G2 signals a growing emphasis on industrial design even for enterprise-grade hardware that is visible to end-users. By using less material and creating a more robust product, Cisco also highlights a focus on sustainable design and efficiency within its supply chain.

For Everpure, the rebrand is a strategic declaration of intent to expand its market presence beyond its traditional storage offerings. CEO Charlie Giancarlo explicitly states this shift is about "rethinking data management" and helping customers "unleash the power of data." The adoption of a new name, despite potential brand confusion with an existing company, underscores the ambition behind this repositioning.

Key details / context

Cisco's design team, spearheaded by Gavin Ivester (who has a notable background, including designing the first Apple PowerBook and serving as Gibson Guitar’s chief creative officer), sought inspiration from unexpected sources. Titanium camping spoons and car bodies, known for their stamped sheet metal shapes that increase stiffness, informed the new design. By incorporating "subtle, dune-like ridges" into the top surface of the chassis, Cisco was able to halve the wall thickness of the main enclosure. This resulted in a lighter, ultra-sturdy, all-metal box, constructed from just two main pieces instead of four, and free of plastic faceplates. The redesign successfully passed all strength and safety tests, saving one kilogram of metal per unit and eliminating the mass equivalent of 16 vintage Volkswagen Beetles from Cisco's supply chain.

Everpure's rebranding, while described by CEO Charlie Giancarlo as a "non-disruptive upgrading of our brand," will necessitate changes to the company's email domain and the physical re-branding of all its hardware boxes. The new name, Everpure, is intended to represent a commitment to transforming static storage into a "living, resilient, and built to grow" system. The company's new logo, however, shows minimal divergence from Pure Storage's previous visual identity.

What happens next

Cisco is expected to integrate the new design into its Room Kit Pro G2 products, with the updated, aesthetically pleasing, and more durable hardware becoming available to customers. This design philosophy may influence future hardware development for devices meant for visible installations.

Everpure will proceed with the operational aspects of its rebrand, including updating email domains and refreshing the branding on all physical products. The market will observe how this strategic shift from "redefining storage" to "rethinking data management" translates into new product offerings, services, and market perception under the new Everpure identity.