LATAM
ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY pushing our ESP program – by that I mean our authorised support program because just like many other vendors , we don ’ t have the same support infrastructure as maybe we would in a tier one country .
We ’ re looking for our partners to be skilled and enabled in delivering the support vehicle to support Pure Arrays on our customer premises . That clearly comes with profitability . It comes with reward and recognition . So we ’ re always looking for partners to expand our ESP capability . One question I typically get asked is : ‘ Are you looking to onboard new partners ?’
The answer is absolutely ‘ yes ’ but we want to ensure that we are investing in partners who want to build a Pure Practice . Candidly , I ’ m not that interested in partners that come with one opportunity every 12 months . I want Pure Partners to invest and build a Pure Practice in order that they can take more market share themselves – we need to be relevant inside that partner . Two deals per annum is not relevant to a business when they might sell a competitive technology . So we ’ re really looking to focus and push business to those Pure Partners who want to build a Pure Practice . That ’ s a big change so they can drive more profitability for themselves as well .
How do you see the role of channel partners in Latin America evolving over the next few years ?
I ’ m seeing a different type of partner evolving . With new technologies being introduced to the market ( I ’ ll talk about Generative AI as a very simple example ), we ’ re seeing partners coming to us who are not our ‘ traditional ’ storage partners . They ’ re not box shippers . They are boutique partners who are truly valued by their customers in terms of providing professional services consulting around this move to AI – specifically containers . And when I think about containers Generative AI is clearly a solution that has sparked this new surge in container adoption as well . I don ’ t want your readers to think about Pure Storage just in the box shifting scenario . We are moving our business very much to Generative AI to support serious hyperscale in the public cloud with the opportunity to provide GPU and performance in the cloud . We also provide that on-premise for our customers . We can also provide it where we are seeing significant growth in Latin America , in the MSP world , where partners are now delivering their own managed services built on Pure technology . But where we ’ re seeing the real focus is really around this move to Gen AI and the adoption of containers within that as well . So I think all in all , it ’ s a really good opportunity for our partners to think outside the box . It ’ s an opportunity for new boutique partners . Traditionally , they are small consulting practices . These are 20 to 50 people businesses that are really entrenched in containers that are starting to make a fundamental difference for Pure across the Latin region .
What strategies are you employing to maintain a competitive edge in the Latin American market ?
I think using our Evergreen technologies is a game changer . It ’ s traditional for storage vendors to position a Storage-as-a-Service model that is actually a leasing framework . There ’ s no ambiguity there . Pure is a very different model , however , where the customer will invest in an SLA that Pure will actually underwrite so there ’ s never any issue with upgrades again . There ’ s never the data migration ever again – once you ’ ve migrated to Pure , that ’ s the last data migration you will ever do . In any competitive landscape , you need to traditionally move data from one platform to another at the end of the lifecycle of that given storage array . We are taking away all that ambiguity . So peace of mind is everything , not only for our customers , but specifically for our partners , and they can also help in that journey on that initial data migration as well for us . I want to stress how this whole SLA driven Storage-as-a-Service is a complete differentiator for Pure in the storage market . I would love for all of our partners to adopt this .
How does Pure approach training and upskilling of its channel partners ?
We have a very defined framework around how we train and enable our Elite and Preferred Partners , and there ’ s about 30 hours of work required to become Elite for certain parts of our technology . From a technical perspective , there ’ s eight hours of work involved from a sales perspective . I want skilled people in our partner ecosystem who can help us drive scale and reach in the market . But I think most notably , one of the new certifications we ’ ve just launched , revolves around our sustainability message . So we ’ ve now introduced a new beginning for partners to scale them up on what is sustainability , but more importantly ask what does it mean to a customer as they move to Scope Two and Scope Three emissions . And how can Pure help a customer on that journey to drive Net Zero emissions from a carbon footprint perspective ? So again , we ’ re delivering more to our partners in training and development than the traditional storage vendors in order to try to differentiate ourselves in the storage market . •
We will continue to focus on simplification of our programs and this is an evolution rather than a revolution .
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS LATAM
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
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