Pure: EMC is eating its own lunch so we don't get there first

Pure Storage claims EMC is putting its VMAX business on the back burner to focus on flash

Pure Storage has claimed that rival EMC is so threatened by its presence in the flash market that it is targeting its own legacy customers with its all-flash offering to stop Pure getting there first.

Last week, IDC said the flash market grew to $11.3bn (£7.43bn) in 2014 thanks to storage giants finally cottoning on to the technology. It said aggressive flash start-ups are no longer leading growth now that the big boys are on board.

But Pure Storage insisted it was still bringing the fight in the flash market, boasting sustained 40 per cent sequential growth on a global basis. It also celebrated the signing of its first eight-figure deal, which was completed by an unnamed UK reseller for a local customer, which it also cannot name.

Pure's chief executive Scott Dietzen told CRN that although the flash market was evolving, large competitors are still taking note of his firm.

"The entire tier-one storage market is going to switch to all-flash," he said. "One of the things we have seen is EMC changing its strategy – they seem now to be leading with [all-flash product] XtremIO rather than their legacy products like VMAX. Given VMAX is a several-billion-dollar business, seeing EMC aggressively going after their own install base before we can get there is very powerful. That continues to be the reality on the ground."

IDC noted that tech giants such as HP, Dell and IBM have turned their hands to all-flash tech, but Dietzen said he rarely comes up against anyone other than EMC.

"Our suspicion is [IBM is] selling into mainframe customers perhaps, because they don't seem to be competing in the same deals we are with EMC," he said.

In the last year, Pure has added 70 new channel partners in EMEA, taking its worldwide total to more than 400. Dietzen said building a strong reseller army would help it win the war on EMC.

"We have a very strong fight with EMC but one of our best allies in that is the channel," he said. "EMC is not the most channel-friendly company – they carve the channel out of two thirds of its business and there is margin pressure on the other third. We, by being a nearly 100 per cent channel company, have been able to rally a lot of channel partners to our side in our long-term fight with EMC."

EMC was unavailable to comment at the time of first publication.