Pure Storage recently appointed their first-ever Canadian country manager, and Canada channel manager as part of this increased focus.
Brent Allen, Canadian country manager, Pure Storage
SAN FRANCISCO – Pure Storage has been stepping up its investment in the Canadian market. Until recently, the company had no direct presence on the ground in Canada, and was managed from the eastern U.S. by Andy Martin, Pure Storage’s Vice President of Americas Channel Sales.
That all changed recently. In March, Martin hired Brent Allen as Pure’s first Canadian country manager. Allen had previously been with Cisco Canada since 2005, most recently as General Manager, Data Center Architecture, a role he had held from August 2016. Before Cisco, he worked at Avaya Canada for seven years as a Strategic Account Manager, between 1998 and 2005. Jill Martin also came on board as Pure Storage’s first ever Canadian channel manager.
“This is the first time that we have had either a country manager or a channel manager in Canada,” said Michael Sotnick, Pure Storage’s Vice President of Global Channel and Alliances. “It’s significant because what it represents from us is an incremental increase in investments in the resources to complement the different account teams in Canada. We have had a great number of customer wins in Canada.
“This new investment allows us to treat Canada much more as its own country and region,” Sotnick continued.
“We think Canada is a great opportunity for Pure,” Martin said. “We are seeing very strong momentum there for the value proposition we provide.”
Chris Carbone, Executive Vice President and Co-founder of Mississauga-headquartered solution provider Mindful Experience, said they switched to Pure six months ago in part because Pure was a strong cultural fit for them, as well as for their technology
“Mindful made a decision to move forward with Pure and only lead with them,” Carbone said. “They are now an integral part of our solution portfolio and the basis of our platform.”
He noted that they had not been disgruntled with their previous storage vendor.
“We just thought that Pure was a better fit for Mindful’s business,” he said.
Chris Carbone, EVP and Co-founder of Mindful Experience
“The first thing that drove me to Pure was the uniqueness of their technology and their service offering, to go along with the disruption I was seeing in the marketplace,” Carbone noted. “The second reason was because of the people and the culture there. With every Pure employee that I meet, it is clear that they have a true and honest love for the organization.”
Carbone also said that Pure Storage ‘s technology and support are a good fit for the Canadian market.
“Whether SMB or enterprise, every customer can benefit from Pure’s Evergreen model [which upgrades in place over time as needed without forklift upgrades, downtime or performance impact] and a flat and fair maintenance plan,” he said. “Every customer can benefit by having more space in data centre at less cost.”
