 Live from San Francisco, it's theCUBE, covering Pure Accelerate 2017. Brought to you by Pure Storage. Welcome back to Pure 70 in San Francisco, everybody. This is theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage, and we're here at Covering Pure Accelerate 2017. Andy Vandeveld is here, he's the vice president of Strategic Alliances at Veeam and Rajiv Rajavasi, ready. I'm going to do that again. Rajavasi, ready. Awesome. Did I get it? I love it. VP of Solutions at Pure. I thought I had it, Rajiv. You were so close. All right, next time. I hope you come back so I can get it right. Anyway, welcome to theCUBE. Andy, good to see you again. I tweeted out today, I was joking. Veeam is like theCUBE, they're everywhere. And you guys have been having great fun hosting parties and of course you're here now. We heard you up on the main stage today. So let's start with the partnership. What are you guys doing with Veeam? So Veeam, we get a lot of requests from the field to partner more closely with Veeam. So we have a lot of common customers. If you look at our basically where we come from and where Veeam comes from, both of us have virtualization as a common thread and the traditional backup software had to come into virtualization after the fact. So retrofit for virtualization. Whereas if you look at where Veeam started with virtualization, if you look at Pure, it's a similar history, right? So we came during the virtualization phase where people were trying to do 100% virtualized data centers. So both of us have this affinity for simplicity, a virtualization centric, and efficiency and performance. Obviously Pure is all about performance. So there's a lot of natural synergies between Veeam and what Pure does. And Andy, we talk about this all the time, backup. For years it's just been a bolt on, it's been an afterthought, it's been one size fits all. I mean, I've written a lot about some of the challenges with backup. And now, talk about the announcement that you're making. Snapshots are not backups, right? But they could be a critical enabler. So talk about the announcement and exactly what you guys are doing. Yeah, so as Rajiv was saying, we hear a lot from customers and a lot from partners about the customers wanting native snapshot integration with Pure Storage. So that's what we announced today. We're in the lab, we're working through development right now. Provided the APIs to Pure. And our target is to get full snapshot integration out in GA, sometime shortly after our version 10 hits the market. Okay, and this is block starting, we block and eventually it's files on the roadmap. So basically, as Andy was mentioning, we have the SDK, we have signed the non-disclosures, mutual non-disclosures with each other. And we have Veeam's SDK. So our engineering is working on it. And we were planning to get this out, a snapshot based integration with Veeam. And we are also in parallel working on solutions for FlashBlade along with Veeam as well. Okay, so I want to definitely talk about solutions, since that's important and that's obviously your title. What about, what are the real use cases that you guys are seeing that you're going after? Let's start there and then we'll get into solutions. You want me to take it? Yeah, sure. So obviously, I mean, the no-brainer, virtual server, virtual desktops, Veeam is very strong, Pior has a ton of that in their customer base. And those are basically low-hanging fruit for both of us. All right, others that you feel will emerge over time? Pretty much. I mean, if you really think about it, even databases- Right, I was going to say- It runs way out, but they run in VMs. And so we do those backups as well, right? So there's a lot of databases that run on Pior as well. Are you doing much, does Veeam do much in Oracle? Is that a big market for you, or not so much yet, or is it emerging? I mean, Oracle Database is certainly a backup source for us. But in terms of applications, I think we look at more of how do we facilitate the movement of those virtual machines and the backing up and the availability of those virtual machines from the storage perspective. So we'll move into the application layer as we go along and as we make more and more of our push into the enterprise. But I think right now it's focused on how do we take the virtual machines and the files in the storage environments and orchestrate those across the various environments that customers are finding themselves in, whether it's on-premise, whether it's in the cloud, some combination of the both of them. Well, that's your fundamental to the strategy. You kind of like Snoop, multi-cloud. All right, Rajiv, let's talk about an inside joke. We won't bore you, our audience. Maybe we'll tweet it out a picture, show you what we made. Anyway, Rajiv, let's talk about solutions. What are solutions to you and Pior, what specific solutions are you working on? So basically if you look at our portfolio of offerings, we have FlashArray, which is a block-based array, which is iSCSI and FiberChannel as protocols. Then we have FlashBlade, which we GA'd earlier this year, and FlashBlade is targeting NextGen applications. So a very large customer is using us for artificial intelligence and machine learning. We are targeting applications like IoT, big data analytics, so all the cool stuff, the NextGen workloads, that's where FlashBlade is targeted. We are doing file and object. So just today we GA'd our S3 implementation of FlashBlade, and we have NFS support, and we also have SMB support with FlashBlade. So that's targeting the NextGen workloads, the file and object workloads, and, sorry, FlashBlade is, and FlashArray is targeting the block workloads. And then we have a partnership with Cisco, it's a jointly branded convergent infrastructure we call FlashStack. So these are all the portfolios that we have. And as you can tell, the solutions on the FlashArray side are mostly, if you will, virtual servers, virtual desktops, databases, Oracle SQL, and of that nature. And then I already talked to you about the FlashBlade application. FlashStack can incorporate FlashArray as well as FlashBlade. So. Okay, and then, you know, in talking to some of the Veeam customers over the last several weeks, many of them lacked before they found you guys a disaster recovery strategy, and they sort of got one by default. Does that fit in terms of what you guys are doing together? Do you find that similar in the pure customer base? I wonder if you could talk about DR for a moment. Yeah, I mean, DR is definitely a strong solution and value proposition that we can bring together. You know, customers need that. And as we move more and more into the enterprise, that becomes so mission critical for that enterprise class of customers. Not only do they want the availability, but in the event of some disaster, they want to have that ability to recover. And I think doing the native snapshot integration gives us an even stronger solution to take into the DR market, whether it's a DR on-premise, DR as a service, with service providers, whatever that mix is, it really does give us that more robust solution. And I think that's, you know, in addition to the other value propositions and other use cases that Rajiv talked about, that is a big one. Rajiv, maybe talk about the nature of the partnership. I mean, we talked about, there's some engineering integration going on. What about the go to market? What's going on in the channel? So basically, again, there's a lot of synergies there, right? So we have a direct sales force in SODA's Veeam, but we are 100% go through the channel in SODA's Veeam. And it turns out a lot of our channel partners are also Veeam's channel partners. And there is scope for us to do incentive programs and so on and so forth, right? And so there's a lot of synergy right there. And combined that with Cisco and the FlashStack, both of us have Cisco as a partner. And it turns out Cisco's channel partners are pretty much near 100% overlap with ourselves. And I'll let Andy speak for our Veeam, but I suspect there's a lot of the same partners that also sell Veeam. Yeah, so I think that's, you know, another aspect of the relationship that really when we started looking at, you know, what's the next integration that we're going to do? This was an important one for us. What's the go to market? And it just seems so aligned. And it was aligned with not just between ourselves, but with that common partner in Cisco and the reseller communities around all of our businesses. So that was a real point of interest for us in deciding to do this integration. Not only were you hearing it from customers, but the infrastructure, the ecosystem of partners was something that we just readily take advantage of. Well, it's no secret that you guys both compete with Dell EMC and obviously a merger of that size has to have an effect on the channel. How have you specifically been able to take advantage of that or have you been? And has it, you know, been substantial? Of course, right? I mean, anytime you have mergers of that size, there's some level of uncertainty in the channel market. You know, customers don't deal with uncertainty well when you combine two big companies that have a lot of overlapping products. There's always that. And so we've definitely made the hay out of that. So you've specifically picked up channel partners that say, hey, I really want to give you guys a look that might not have four or? So basically that is part of what we've done. The other part is also the existing channel. I mean, there are some channel partners who sell both portfolios, right? I mean, a lot of channel partners have multiple portfolios. And so what's that? A mix, a share shift or a mix in the? It's a combination of what I would say, yeah. Okay, how about you guys? Yeah, I would say the same thing. You know, eventually they're going to figure it out and they're going to get it right. I think everybody should expect that. But in the meantime, there has been some disruption. And I think partners are looking around and saying, okay, where am I going to make my money? Are the assets in that portfolio of those two merged companies going to even still exist? And as that all starts to get, it works its way out, there's a gap in time. And I think that we've been able to fill that gap from a data protection standpoint. Pure's been able to fill that from storage standpoint. And we're taking advantage of this opening that we've got. Well, and it's interesting, I want to talk more about the channel because in the context of solutions, Rajiv, because if you look at the channel and the way it's evolving, you know, you got the box sellers and we love them. And that's probably where most of the business still is even today. But that business is declining. And we know that, you know, those channel partners, they had great businesses, they still do, they got boats and mansions and whatever else. But that business is in decline and margins are under pressure. And then you've got sort of the solution folks. And this is sort of where I want to get your feedback. Solutions used to be defined as SAP, Oracle, VMware. Now you're talking about these emerging solutions around data, analytics, IoT, machine learning, a whole new set of solutions players. And then of course, it's the cloud, cloud service providers and ISVs. And it seems like the channel is in flux in a big way. So to the extent that, you know, a company like EMC, and maybe saw this somewhat with IBM as well when they sold off X86 and VNT, to the extent that their channel is in any kind of, you know, uncertainty or turmoil, how do you see the channel shaping and emerging and how are you taking advantage of, first of all, is what I described accurate and how are you guys taking advantage of it? Absolutely. And you know, there's also another trend that you didn't talk about that's also, I mean, cloud, right? It's the elephant in the room. It's the cloud is here and people want to sort of look at what they want to do with the cloud, right? When we talk about customers. And it is a challenge as well as an opportunity for channel partners, right? So basically, if you look at, for example, what we're doing with Flash Stack and with Veeam, right? We are still providing infrastructure. An infrastructure by itself is not a solution. You also, if you look at what the IT folks are dealing with is their developers. So you can go to the cloud and you can actually go ahead and the developers can go ahead and provision themselves VMs and everything else very quickly, right? They don't even know what infrastructure is running underneath it. Now the challenge for the IT folks is to see how they can provide a similar experience to their user base. And a lot of the times they could be developers, right? Yeah, right. So it's incumbent on us and Veeam and everybody else to provide an infrastructure that also ties in. When you say solutions, there's tiers of solutions, right? You need to have automation orchestration, they're solutions. You need to have management solutions that still provide infrastructure. And then you have applications that run on top of that infrastructure, right? So the channel partners have a lot of scope to actually add services. And if you really think about channel folks, right? I mean, the good ones, they always want to make money on services not on selling pushing boxes, right? Like you called earlier. That's where they hit their margin. And it's a great opportunity for them right now. Margin, stickiness, loyalty, I mean, all that stuff. And the fact that the sort of definition of a solution is evolving is an opportunity for those players who can move really fast. And we see our channel partners trying to do a good job in that space right now and evolving there. Do you, when you look at both of you, when you look at that mix that I talked about, I said 70% are sort of box sellers, okay? Well, you guys don't sell boxes, but you know what I mean? Is your mix weighted more toward solutions in your companies or? Yeah, I mean, you know, I would say we kind of measure it more on on-prem and, you know, versus cloud or some sort of subscription managed service environment. But, you know, we definitely see the higher growth coming from those non-on-prem environments. And I think that's, you know, a place where the more advanced resellers are spinning up services. Uh-huh. And, you know, we're following that trend. We're seeing that trend right before our eyes. And yesterday we had our global partner forum here and Hatfield, our CIO was on stage and he basically highlighted what we call the scarcity model. We don't sign up thousands of channel partners. We sign up a few channel partners who add real value and we make sure that they're doing just as well as we're doing. So if you look at pure, right, we have about, I think the official number is north of 3,300 or so customers, but our revenue is very high relative to that, right? So we are selling to enterprise customers who need, you add a lot of value, you have to sell solutions, you just can't sell a box and be done with it, right? Yeah, I think that's a really important point. All right, Gents, we got to leave it there. Thanks very much for coming to theCUBE. Good to see you guys. Yeah, thank you. All right, keep it right there, everybody. We'll be back with our next guest right after this short break. This is theCUBE, we're live from Pier 70 in San Francisco at Pure Accelerate. We'll be right back.