Pure Storage EMEA channel boss: 'Resellers will need teams of developers for customer cloud transitions'
Matthieu Brignone reveals his channel predictions for next year
Resellers have to acknowledge that the future will not be 100 per cent cloud and should be integrating development teams now in order to make the most of the ‘hybrid cloud future', according to Pure Storage's channel boss for EMEA.
Mathieu Brignone told CRN that the COVID-19 pandemic has made the industry realise that a mixture of on-premise and cloud is the model for the future and to fully grasp this opportunity resellers and MSPs need to have development teams as part of their services.
"One hundred per cent cloud or 100 per cent on-premise is not going to happen," he stated.
"I think everyone agrees on that, which means we need to acknowledge the fact that in the future, some data will stay locally - not everything will go to the cloud - and you will have also cloud-based applications and cloud-based assets.
"The main struggle for companies today is to make sure then we can actually manage this entire environment in the most transparent way. We're starting to see a big shift happen this year and I think it's going to increase as time goes on and I think everyone sees that.
"I think most resellers [will have development teams], and for those who have not started to have development teams, they don't need [a huge team], just a few developers who could help the end customers to go through this transition, especially with regards to the application development."
He added that Pure's $370m acquisition of Kubernetes specialist PortWorx in September was a recognition of the importance of application development.
"This is what we wanted to acknowledge by the acquisition of PortWorx," he explained.
"The fact today is that [soon] no one will develop applications from end to end, it's going to be like a wall made of bricks and we'll pick a brick here and there, and this is why I think it's the best opportunity but also probably one of the biggest challenges for many partners."
Another long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 restrictions is in the creativity of vendors to maintain their relationships with partners. As social distancing and lockdown restrictions have prevented traditional means to maintain and engage with these relationships, vendors have had to become more creative, Brignone said, adding that the "Zoom model" has exposed where vendors' have lacked in creativity in partner relationship management.
Pure has had a number of interactive events to keep partners and end customers engaged with the vendor, he said, including a wine tasting event during a seminar.
"Zoom - or any virtual meeting - is quite boring after a while, and what we did is not rocket science, but I think we were probably one of the first ones to do it and it paid off," he elaborated.
"When you go through a crisis, the personal relationship you have with your partners is absolutely key. Once we got that trust and their confidence to work on things, then we came up with big marketing ideas to easier engage with our end customers and partners.
"But partners need to feel valued, incentivised and supported to grow and exceed sales expectations next year."
As the vaccine slowly gets unrolled across the globe, a return to the pre-pandemic normal is in sight. But will vendors have learned new, more innovative ways to engage with their partners or will they resume the tried-and-tested methods of yore?
"I think some of the creativity will last because it's much easier to get used to something that's pleasant, useful, nice and friendly and it's more difficult to go back," he explained.
"I'm not much into cars but if you have a Peugeot and one day you get lucky and buy yourself a very nice car, it's more difficult to go back to your old Peugeot. I think the same will apply to our industry. I think some creativity will stay, but will it stay at the same level as now? Probably not because there is a cost decision associated with it.