Pure Storage drops hint on global distribution deal

Rumour mill suggests Avnet contract could be on the table

Pure Storage has stopped short of confirming a global distribution deal but dropped strong hints that a signing could be imminent.

CRN understands the aggressive storage start-up could be in the process of inking a worldwide deal with Avnet, but neither company could comment directly on the claims.

Pure Storage currently works with distie Commtech in the UK and has about 24 active resellers. A Pure-Avnet tie-up would be a significant step forwards for the ambitious vendor's global-domination plans.

When it first burst into the channel last year, it set its sights firmly on EMC and has been locked in a war of words – and legal proceedings – with the storage monolith ever since.

Avnet, which is a long-standing global distributor for EMC, was unavailable to comment at the time of publication.

Pure told CRN in a statement that signing a global distributor would be a "natural next step" for it, but could not confirm a deal at the moment.

Michelle Graff, Pure Storage's director of worldwide channel programmes, said: "While we can say that adding global distribution would support Pure's growing enterprise and global account business – as well as our emerging market growth and overall velocity – we are not in a position to comment about any agreements with distributors specifically today."

Graff went on to stress how important signing a worldwide distie would be for the ambitious firm.

"Global distribution would bolster our existing channel strategy, and would be a natural next step in our journey to building the next great storage company," she said.

"Furthermore, it would be a win-win for Pure as well for [our] partners in the sense that it would strengthen our time to market in emerging countries and provide global... support for multinational accounts, global system integrators and international service providers."

She added that a worldwide distie agreement would allow the channel to thrive on dedicated distributor support while allowing Pure to concentrate on growing the business.