Pure’s service-led strategy to enable new levels of scale, consistency, preference, and integrity for partners as the only storage vendor to deliver subscriptions entirely through the channel.
In an exclusive interaction to SME Channels, Jithesh Chembil, Head Channels, India at Pure Storage, reveals Pure’s channel strategy; how his company is leveraging the current market opportunities; how Pure is driving more partner benefits; his company’s major channel investment plans; and much more. Edited excerpts…
As a leading player in the data storage space, how do you plan to leverage the immense market opportunity created by the unprecedented data migration to the cloud?
Gartner forecasts that in 2024, worldwide public cloud spending will grow 20.4% to total $675.4 billion, up from $561 billion in 2023. This growth is primarily driven by advancements in generative AI (GenAI) and the ongoing modernization of applications. Data that was originally on-premises only is now a lot more distributed, creating a hybrid infrastructure that causes additional complexity for IT.
Replicating a consistent external block storage architecture in the cloud is a challenge, one that makes cloud migrations needlessly complex. We address this complexity with our Pure Cloud Block Store solution, which offers a scalable storage solution for cloud deployments without a corresponding scale-out of compute resources. It’s a streamlined approach that accelerates the return on investment when transitioning on-premises workloads to the cloud. Cloud Block Store brings Pure’s Purity Operating System, the same software that runs our on-prem storage arrays, to the cloud. This allows cloud users to reap the same benefits found in traditional on-prem SANs in their cloud environment. Pure Storage’s Cloud Block Store is available today on Microsoft Azure and Amazon’s AWS.
Additionally, our cloud data services deliver seamless mobility with consistent storage services, resilience, and APIs across private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments. We offer a single, consistent platform for any application to simplify the customer’s cloud journey. Portworx by Pure Storage provides a fully integrated solution for persistent storage, data protection, disaster recovery, data security, cross-cloud and data migrations, and automated capacity management for applications running on Kubernetes.
“Our enhanced program focuses on automation and building enhanced tools, driving partner empowerment to proactively accelerate the growth of their businesses.”
– Jithesh Chembil, Head Channels, India at Pure Storage
How is your market strategy aligned with your channel policy to drive higher partner benefits?
The ability to adapt to the subscription economy is increasingly defining the success of businesses across industries. In fact, subscription services now make up fifty percent of our revenue and we are uniquely positioned to support partners’ business growth in the as-a-Service era.
Pure Storage has been 100 percent channel-led since its founding, and we recognize the pivotal roles our partners play in delivering innovative storage solutions to customers worldwide. Earlier this year, we announced a series of new updates, incentives and offerings to our robust Partner Program, delivering heightened value and performance to partners, tailored to their unique business outcomes. These enhancements reflect Pure’s service-led strategy to enable new levels of scale, consistency, preference, and integrity for partners as the only storage vendor to deliver subscriptions entirely through the channel. The enhanced program focuses on automation and building enhanced tools, driving partner empowerment to proactively accelerate the growth of their businesses.
What value differentiation does Pure bring to the table? Why Pure?
Pure is the only company in data storage that can address the entire storage price-performance range with all-flash. We alone offer a single, consistent operating and management environment, and deliver a cloud operating model that effectively virtualizes multi-cloud data storage.
Pure Storage continues to lead with cutting-edge technologies, such as our FlashArray and FlashBlade solutions, which offer high performance, reliability, and simplicity. Our Evergreen Storage model provides customers with continuous, non-disruptive upgrades, ensuring they always have access to the latest innovations without costly migrations. With Pure1, our cloud-based as-a-service data-management platform, lets you deliver IT outcomes in seconds vs. hours or days. Further, Pure’s flash-optimized systems use between 2x and 5x less power than competitive SSD-based systems and between 5x and 10x less power than the hard disk systems.
Are you planning any major channel investments? Do you have any plans to expand your channel network soon?
Over the past year, we’ve made key investments in our channel partner program, including refocusing resources and initiatives for different customer market segments through customer segmentation. We evolved rewards and incentives for our top-tier Elite partners and introduced product-specific rebate incentives to promote portfolio adoption. Additionally, we made significant investments in Managed Services as a route-to-market, empowering partners to find new business opportunities and achieve substantial margins. Furthermore, we intensified our efforts to build subscription services that our partners can deliver, enhancing the end customer experience.
What are the current challenges impacting your growth streak in the India market?
To the contrary, we are actually seeing notable growth in the India market, driven by our commitment to innovation, strategic partnerships, and a deep understanding of local business needs. Our advanced storage solutions have resonated well with a wide range of industries, including IT services, financial services, and manufacturing, helping them optimize their data management and drive digital transformation.
The increasing adoption of digital technologies across various sectors in India has created a significant demand for advanced data storage and management solutions. We are well-positioned to capitalize on this trend, helping businesses harness the power of their data to gain competitive advantages.
