Pure Storage Tweaks Partner Program

Pure Storage has tweaked its partner program to better reflect EMEA partners across the region.

Pure Storage's Geoff Greenlaw

Geoff Greenlaw, VP, EMEA & LATAM channel sales said the changes were based on feedback from the vendor’s EMEA Partner Advisory Council.

They have been introduced ahead of a forthcoming global program relaunch next year. Greenlaw believes the updated partner program will help drive more profitability for partners.

“We’ve made massive inroads in terms of simplification of our processes, which were pretty U.S.-centric. A lot of those laws and regulations don’t apply in EMEA, but yet those processes still existed,” he said.

The changes include replacing previously manual processes, such as Purchase Order placement, with automation. “Rather than Pure trying to do everything, making [partners] a lot more independent to the front end by empowering them with more tools, capabilities,” said Greenlaw.

Partner Program to Reflect Move to Subscriptions

The new partner program will also reflect changes to how customers are purchasing IT, he said.

“You’ll see the move to subscription, as an example. How do you compensate subscriptions? When you sign a 36 month deal, do you pay the partner every month? Or do you pay them all up front in terms of margin? I know what the partners want, but it’s sometimes very difficult for a vendor to pay everything upfront.”

However, Greenlaw said being paid in monthly increments isn’t attractive to a salesperson, as they don’t recognize all the money upfront. “So, we’re really looking to adapt our model to try and compensate as much as we can to the partner upfront where possible.”

Additionally, the partner program will lay the groundwork to help establish Pure Storage’s partner network in new countries.

“We’re not in every country today. I look to Africa is probably our biggest growth opportunity in terms of country expansion. The program will help partners set up and start to sell in those countries where we’re not activated today. It’s just getting wider and deeper in countries where we’re not present is really how the program will evolve.”

Gaining Market Share

Greenlaw maintained that Pure Storage is riding a wave of momentum in the industry. The vendor shared statistics from IDC that it said show it is gaining market share from the competition.

According to the data, from 2014 to 2022, Pure Storage was the only top six storage vendor to increase its market share (+5.6%). It pointed out that competitors meanwhile have lost market share during this time, including HPE (-1.8%), Hitachi (-3.6%), NetApp (-4.7%), IBM (-7.5%) and Dell EMC (-9.4%)

“The conversations that I’m hearing in the field play right into our sales strategy at the moment,” said Greenlaw. “I believe we’ve never been more relevant. I’m hearing the number one consideration is cost reduction – this move from Capex to Opex. In the move to subscription models, and how do you take assets off the balance sheet?”

AI Driving Demand for Computing Power

To that question, Pure Storage launched its storage-as-a-service (STaaS) offering last month. It sees the vendor promise to pay power and rack charges, and expanded guarantees to support customers.

“We’re so confident in the power savings that you will receive, which by the way more is than 85%, that we’re now going to pay for your electricity and racks pace in the data center. We’re putting our money where our mouth is, rather than the customer taking a gamble. That’s gone down the like a house on fire with the partner ecosystem, because it’s totally game changing.”

Pure’s latest offering comes as the need for computing power is surging, driven by AI adoption. The company’s new research shows 73% of IT buyers were not completely prepared for the energy requirements of AI. Eighty-eight percent of those who have adopted AI say the need for computing power is up dramatically. Nearly half (47%) have had to double their computing power or more since adopting AI.