Pure Storage Enhances Partner Side of Subscriptions, Services

‘Eventually customers will also be able to go into the portal and add their own subscriptions and capacity, all with the partner-set pricing. The deals will flow through to the partners. We want to make it easier to automate the partner community. And we hope our partners will add their own services to what we offer leveraging our automation technology,’ says Andy Martin, Pure Storage vice president of global partner sales.

Pure Storage Thursday unveiled several new channel program updates aimed at making it easier for its channel partners to grow their subscription business via a wide portfolio of subscription-focused offerings.

This included additions to its Pure-as-a-Service storage subscription service, its Portworx Kubernetes-focused management technology, and its Pure1 management portal, said Andy Martin, vice president of global partner sales (pictured) for the Mountain View, Calif.-based cloud and all-flash storage vendor.

The moves come in the wake of Pure Storage’s formation late last year of its new global partner organization, which aimed to bring consistent partner benefits to traditional solution providers, MSPs, global systems integrators, and 43 global distributors, Martin told CRN.

[Related: Pure Storage CEO Outlines What It Means To Be A Software, Cloud Company]

The new services and subscription capabilities were introduced during the Pure//Accelerate Digital conference, held on-line this year because of travel concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company’s Pure-as-a-Service storage subscription service has been a tremendous success for the company as the service, which is available only via channel partners, gives the channel a way to break a siege on services from hyperscale cloud providers, Martin said.

Pure-as-a-Service has always had a lucrative front-end for partners, and earlier this month the company started providing a lucrative back-end as well, he said.

“The partner feedback has been, whoever holds the subscription contract holds the keys to the castle,” he said. “And this is no issue for our partners here. We are 100-percent channel.”

The Pure1 portal is being expanded to be more partner-centric and offer solution providers access to existing and new customers, Martin said. Partners in the portal can easily add new capacity and sell subscriptions in an automated fashion, he said.

“Eventually customers will also be able to go into the portal and add their own subscriptions and capacity, all with the partner-set pricing,” he said. “The deals will flow through to the partners. We want to make it easier to automate the partner community. And we hope our partners will add their own services to what we offer, leveraging our automation technology.”

Pure Storage used the conference to also say that its Portworx Kubernetes management platform, which was 100-percent direct to business users before it was acquired last year by Pure Storage, is now 100-percent sold via the channel, Martin said. That includes renewals as well, he said.

“If a customer does renewals, we will ask who the preferred partner is, and bring the partner into the deal,” he said. “For customers who say they want to go direct, we will tell them we stand by our partners. If there is no preferred partner, we will introduce the customer to two or three, and help them choose. Customers know their prices and they know about recurring revenue. We will not raise their prices. And nearly every customer is working with partners for part of their IT.”

Pure Storage is continuing to add to the maturity of its offerings, including Portworx, and is doing so in a way that works for the channel, said Jerrod Janes, vice president of technical pre-sales at SHI, a Somerset, N.J.-based solution provider and No. 11 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500.

“One thing we love about Pure Storage is, it’s channel-only,” Janes told CRN. “The company has been increasing the ability of partners to bring its products to customers as easy as possible. Pure Storage has always been about making it easy for partners from day one.”

The changes to Pure1 are making it easier for partners to help customers consume the Pure Storage products in as simple a manner as possible, Janes said.

“Pure Storage has always been about making it easy for partners from day one,” he said. “The new Pure1 is just confirming that.”