Pure Storage has made significant changes to its partner program, including a new top tier that will be “unapologetically difficult” for partners to reach.
The data storage and management company is 100% channel-led and, according to Pure Storage Asia Pacific area vice president for partners Andrew Fisher, is looking to invest more time and money into its channel partners this year.
“We're not revolutionising our programme this year; it's an evolution backed by a material investment,” he said.
Changes to the program include two new tiers, updates to its managed services provider (MSP) partner program, and an expansion of its distributor partner program.
Fisher said the program changes are in response to a growth in partner numbers and capability.
The number of trained partner staff has increased 7.5 times, partner-delivered services are up 50 per cent, and partner-sourced deals have grown 20 per cent.
“Those numbers tell us the channel is more capable than it’s ever been, which means we can now be much more selective about where we invest,” Fisher told techpartner.news.
Specialisations required
The biggest change is the addition of the Ambassador tier, which sits above the previous top Elite tier.
This tier will not only have a much higher revenue bookings limit, which Fisher declined to disclose, but will also require a partner to be a specialist in two of four areas: artificial intelligence, cyber resilience, cloud, and application modernisation.
To achieve this specialisation, partners must have demonstrated experience and certification from a specific list of vendors, which weren't disclosed to techpartner.news.
Fisher said it was designed to be difficult and the expectation is that no more than 20 partners globally will reach the Ambassador tier in 2026.
“It's unapologetically difficult and it will require investment and time and effort from both parties, from Pure and from (the partner),” he said.
“If you think about it from Pure’s perspective, we're effectively going to tell the market that 'this partner has the ability to deliver an AI solution on behalf of that partner'. This will become a certification stamp, so we carry the responsibility and the burden of ensuring that that is accurate.”
But reaching that tier will be worth it, Fisher said, because as well as the company being able to present the partners as end-to-end specialists to end customers, Pure is also investing more in incentives.
“We are investing significantly more this year and as we grow, we're putting money back into the partner community. I'm personally really excited about announcing to our partners their incentive programme, which will be very soon,” he said.
Small scale partners catered for
On the other end of the tiering list, there may be some partners who drop out of the Preferred tier into Authorised, the new lowest tier.
This new tier aims to offer a place for partners who transact with Pure Storage on a small scale around once or twice a year.
“We have a number of 'ecosystem resellers', (such as) manufacturing companies in Korea that may deliver conveyer belt systems, who, as part of their solution, require data centre services,” he explained.
“We've got a lot of those, and they're great … but those partners need access to very basic tools and services, so that will be what we call an Authorised partner.”
Those partners will be treated as transactional customers and miss out on certain rebates and incentives, but Fisher said they are likely partners who are not investing in their Pure Storage partnership.
He added that overall, the vast majority of partners will be benefit “significantly” from the changes to rebates and incentives.
Prioritising collaboration
The MSP program retains its two tiers, although the top tier is being renamed from Elite to Premier to avoid confusion with the reseller program.
To be included in the base Foundation tier, MSPs need to exceed $500,000 in bookings, or else they will be considered an end customer.
The company said that the MSP program will be more focused on service where data and storage is central such as private and sovereign cloud, storage as a service, backup and disaster recovery.
As part of the update, the company will prioritise collaboration with partners delivering these services using Pure Storage as their underlying data platform.
Fisher said the program allows partners more flexibility in how they transact.
“We want them to buy from us the way they want to sell and be incented that way,” he said.
Distributor program to be 'enhanced'
Fisher also emphasised the importance of the distributor partners.
“Our distribution partners are essential to our success across the region, and we have great relationships in Australia and New Zealand with Dicker Data and Westcon Comstor,” he said.
The company said the distributor program is being enhanced “to support broader reach and faster partner enablement”.
Updates include new growth incentives, expanded marketing investment and expanded scope for distributors to deliver training to reseller partners.
Fisher concluded that Pure has increased the investments it is making in its channel significantly more this year than last.
“That's a reflection of the growth and the size of our organisation today, but there is a continued belief that being a partner-only business is absolutely the future of our organisation, and so we want to continue investing in them," he said.
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