In a decisive move to accelerate market penetration and deepen channel relationships, data storage and management leader Pure Storage has completely overhauled its partner program, signaling a strategic shift designed to fuel mutual growth in an increasingly competitive landscape. With the company reporting a 12% year-over-year revenue increase to $3.17 billion for the 2025 fiscal year and strong subscription growth of 22%, the new framework is poised to capitalize on this momentum. This reimagined program experience, announced in February, moves beyond broad engagement to a more focused, high-investment model, concentrating on partners who are deeply committed to driving data storage transformation. The core philosophy is clear: double down on fewer, bigger bets within the channel to make Pure Storage indispensable to its most strategic allies. This initiative positions partners not just as resellers, but as crucial consultants guiding customers through complex technological shifts, from adopting all-flash data centers to harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. The program is built to empower these partners to lead conversations around sustainability, cyber-resilience, and operational efficiency, leveraging the full power of the Pure Storage Platform.
1. Core Offerings Driving Partner Success
The foundation of the revamped partner program rests upon a robust portfolio of high-performance storage solutions designed to address modern enterprise challenges, from unstructured data growth to the demands of AI workloads. A central pillar of this portfolio is the FlashBlade hardware, a unified file and object storage platform engineered for performance-intensive applications. The FlashBlade/EXA, for example, is specifically marketed for AI deployments, enabling organizations to efficiently access and manage the vast datasets required for training sophisticated models. This technology finds critical application in sectors like healthcare, where retaining and rapidly accessing massive volumes of data for long periods is paramount. Complementing this is the FlashArray series, which continues to evolve as a powerhouse for mission-critical databases. The latest enhancements to the FlashArray X and XL models deliver a performance boost of up to 30% over their predecessors, a significant advantage for transactional and analytical workloads where speed is non-negotiable. Through these hardware innovations, partners are equipped to deliver tangible performance gains and future-proof architectures for their clients.
Beyond the high-performance hardware, Pure Storage equips its partners with a sophisticated software and services stack to address the complexities of cloud-native environments and as-a-service consumption models. A key offering in this domain is Portworx, a leading data management platform for Kubernetes that provides persistent storage, data protection, and mobility for containerized applications. This solution has become particularly relevant as organizations seek viable alternatives to virtualization platforms that have seen drastic licensing price increases, creating a significant market opportunity for partners. Furthermore, the Pure Fusion v2 software enhances AI-focused data management, while the Pure1 AIops platform, included with active subscriptions, delivers predictive analytics and management capabilities. The company’s Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS) offerings, including EverGreen//One, //Flex, and //Forever, provide flexible consumption models that align with modern IT budgeting. This comprehensive suite allows partners to build holistic solutions that encompass seamless data mobility, cost optimization, and unified management across hybrid environments.
2. A New Strategic Direction for Channel Engagement
The reimagined partner program marks a fundamental pivot in Pure Storage’s go-to-market strategy, moving away from a broad-reach model to one centered on deep, strategic investments with a more select group of partners. This “fewer, bigger bets” approach is designed to foster greater alignment and relevance, ensuring that both Pure Storage and its key partners can invest resources more effectively for mutual success. Under this new framework, partners are incentivized to lead the charge in helping customers transition away from legacy spinning disk infrastructure to modern all-flash solutions. This is supported by new, solution-oriented training and enablement tracks that equip partner teams with the expertise needed to address specific use cases, from building AI-ready infrastructure to architecting robust cyber-resilience strategies. By concentrating efforts and resources, the program aims to create a highly skilled and motivated channel ecosystem capable of capturing new customers and expanding market share in high-growth areas. The emphasis is on building true partnerships rather than simple transactional relationships.
A significant driver of the new program is the dual focus on sustainability and partner-delivered services, creating compelling new value propositions for customers. With data centers consuming an estimated 2-3% of the world’s electricity, the energy efficiency of all-flash arrays compared to traditional disk systems presents a powerful argument for modernization. Partners are positioned as key advisors in helping organizations reduce their environmental footprint and operational costs associated with power and cooling. Simultaneously, the program heavily promotes partner autonomy through the Service Specialization Program. This initiative empowers qualified partners to deliver their own branded professional and support services built around Pure Storage technology. This not only creates a new, high-margin revenue stream for partners but also allows them to deepen their customer relationships by becoming the single point of contact for implementation, management, and support. This services-led approach is crucial for driving long-term customer loyalty and differentiating partner offerings in a crowded market.
3. The Framework of Partnership and Progression
The structure of the updated program is designed for clarity and purpose, categorizing partners based on their business model and rewarding them based on performance and investment. The primary partner types include Resellers, Distributors, Global System Integrators (GSIs), and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), each playing a distinct role in the ecosystem. GSIs like Kyndryl and Tech Mahindra, for instance, integrate Pure’s technology into large-scale digital transformation projects, while MSPs leverage the platform to deliver managed storage and data protection services. In addition to these core types, the program recognizes partners with Service Specializations who have demonstrated the capability to deliver their own professional services, as well as Technology Alliance Partners like Rubrik and CrowdStrike, who collaborate on jointly engineered solutions to enhance the overall portfolio. This clear segmentation allows Pure Storage to tailor its engagement, support, and incentives to the specific needs and strengths of each partner type, ensuring a more effective and collaborative relationship across the entire channel.
Progression within the program is governed by a two-tier system—Preferred and Elite—which provides a clear path for partners to grow their business and unlock greater benefits. Advancement is based on measurable criteria, including annual dollar values booked and the attainment of technical certifications by partner staff. While Preferred partners gain access to a foundational set of resources and support, Elite partners represent the highest level of commitment and expertise. Consequently, they are eligible for significantly greater rewards, including higher back-end rebates on subscription bookings and sales of new or strategic solutions. Furthermore, Elite partners receive more substantial investment from Pure Storage in the form of advanced training, certification vouchers, and collaborative business planning. This tiered structure creates a powerful incentive for partners to invest in developing their skills and growing their Pure Storage practice, knowing that their success will be recognized and rewarded with increased profitability and deeper strategic alignment with the company.
4. Building Expertise Through Comprehensive Training
Central to the success of the revamped program is a structured and comprehensive enablement framework designed to build deep technical expertise within the partner community. The journey begins with a foundational qualification, the Pure Platform Positioning Certificate, which ensures that all partner sales and pre-sales individuals can effectively articulate the value proposition and key differentiators of the Pure Storage platform. From there, partners can choose from multiple product-focused learning paths and assessments tailored to their specific areas of focus. These paths cover the core technologies, including FlashArray and FlashBlade, allowing individuals to progress from an Associate to a Professional level of certification. These Global Enablement certifications, which are valid for two years, provide the technical credentials necessary to design, implement, and manage Pure Storage solutions effectively, ensuring a high standard of quality and customer satisfaction across the ecosystem. The company provides extensive resources, including a detailed training catalog via its Partner Academy, to support this continuous learning process.
Beyond the product-specific credentials, the program offers a robust set of IT professional services certifications designed for partners who deliver advanced implementation, support, and architectural services. This certification track is tiered to reflect increasing levels of expertise, starting with an Associate-level certification in data storage. Individuals can then specialize and achieve Professional-level certification in areas such as FlashArray, FlashBlade, Portworx, and data protection. For those seeking the highest levels of technical mastery, Specialist certifications are available for complex tasks like implementation, migration, and cloud block store management. The pinnacle of this track is the Expert-level certification for platform architects, which recognizes individuals who can design and deploy sophisticated, multi-product solutions for the most demanding enterprise environments. By providing these clear, progressive certification paths, Pure Storage enables its partners to build highly skilled service delivery teams, create new revenue streams, and establish themselves as trusted advisors for all aspects of modern data management.
5. Resources and Incentives for Accelerated Growth
To ensure partners are positioned for immediate success, the program is fortified with a wide array of financial incentives and powerful sales enablement tools. Profitability is directly addressed through several reward mechanisms. Both Preferred and Elite partners can earn individual and entity rewards for sourcing competitive take-out deals, directly incentivizing the displacement of legacy infrastructure. Elite partners, in particular, benefit from lucrative rebates tied to subscription bookings and sales of strategic solutions, rewarding their focus on high-growth areas. Deal registration provides a crucial mechanism to protect partner-sourced opportunities and ensure their efforts are recognized. Additionally, the Pure Digital Master Services Agreement (PDMSA) offers partners a margin on self-service purchases made by their customers, creating a recurring revenue stream. These financial benefits are designed to make partnering with Pure Storage not just strategically sound but also highly profitable, encouraging deeper investment and commitment from the channel.
Operationally, partners are supported by a suite of digital tools and resources designed to streamline the sales cycle and enhance their ability to deliver value. The Pure Partner Intelligence dashboard provides real-time insights and analytics, allowing partners to track their performance and identify new opportunities. For solution design and quoting, the Pure Realize platform offers expert support for use-case proposals and complex configurations, complemented by dedicated Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) tooling. To further aid in customer conversations, partners have access to a variety of cost calculators for STaaS, cloud block storage, and FlashBlade//S, enabling them to build compelling business cases. The Pure360 platform provides access to demos, videos, and test-drives, while a comprehensive Partner Library serves as a central repository for solution briefs, whitepapers, and webinars. This robust digital ecosystem, combined with direct access to technical services teams, ensures partners have everything they need to effectively market, sell, and support Pure Storage solutions.
6. Charting a New Course for Channel Success
The comprehensive overhaul of the partner program established a new foundation for collaborative growth. By shifting to a model that prioritized depth over breadth, the company fostered a more dedicated and highly skilled channel ecosystem. The program’s structure, with its clear tiers and specialized tracks, provided partners with a transparent roadmap for investment and profitability. The extensive training and certification pathways empowered them to move beyond simple product sales and become trusted advisors capable of architecting complex solutions for AI, cyber-resilience, and cloud-native applications. This focus on enablement, combined with a powerful suite of financial incentives and sales tools, created an environment where partners were well-equipped to drive the adoption of all-flash data centers. Ultimately, the revamped program laid the groundwork for a more strategic, services-led, and mutually profitable future, solidifying the channel as the primary engine for the company’s continued market expansion.
