Jithesh Chembil, Head of Channels – India at Pure Storage, forecasts that 2026 will be defined by a shift from transactional selling to customer impact, driven by five key trends: data sovereignty, energy efficiency (TB/W), subscription accountability, and the major upheaval in the virtualization landscape toward Kubernetes-based infrastructure
- Data sovereignty becomes channel’s next growth engine
In 2026, data sovereignty will evolve from a compliance requirement into a critical business risk and a major growth opportunity for the channel. As regulatory frameworks tighten and geopolitical uncertainty rises, customers are rethinking where and how their data is governed. Partners who embed sovereignty-by-design into their architectures ensuring data residency, key control, and audit-ready governance will lead the market. Compliance expertise will translate into recurring revenue through sovereignty and compliance-as-a-service models, giving customers both assurance and agility. As sovereignty becomes key to trust and resilience, partners who combine technical expertise with regulatory insight will lead.
- In 2026, partner success will be measured in customer impact, not deal size
In 2026, partner success will no longer be defined by deal size or quarterly targets, but by the measurable value delivered to customers over time. The most successful partners will be those who link profitability directly to customer outcomes – from new technology adoption and cyber resilience to efficiency and sustainability gains. Performance scorecards are evolving to capture these metrics, rewarding partners who reduce churn, expand renewals, and deliver tangible impact. Marketing Development Funds and incentive programs will increasingly support initiatives that drive long-term value, such as resilience testing, sustainability assessments, and optimisation workshops. The next phase of channel growth will be built on accountability and shared success. AI-driven automation and streamlined renewal models will remove friction, allowing partners to scale recurring revenue while focusing on what matters most – helping customers achieve measurable, lasting business outcomes.
- Terabytes per Watt: the new metric redefining AI-era competitiveness
As AI and digital infrastructure strain national grids, energy availability has become the new growth constraint. Governments are tying new data centre capacity to efficiency thresholds, and enterprises are rethinking procurement through the lens of energy performance and circular design. In 2026, energy will define competitiveness, and partners who can help customers do more with less will lead the market. Flash-first architectures already deliver more performance per watt, but the next evolution is measuring outcomes in terabytes-per-watt (TB/W) – a new standard for quantifying data storage efficiency.
Partners who translate this into clear business language, showing how a higher TB/W ratio means more AI throughput, lower cost, and reduced carbon footprint, will become strategic advisors in every AI infrastructure deal. Expect to see energy-performance dashboards, PUE- and TB/W-based SLAs, and sustainability-linked contracts become standard procurement terms. For the channel, this is more than a technical metric. It’s an opportunity to align storage innovation with national energy goals, prove tangible ROI, and demonstrate that smarter data infrastructure is the foundation of AI competitiveness across the region.
- In 2026, subscription models will rise or fall on the strength of their promises
The shift from Capex to Opex has already reshaped how technology is bought and sold, but in 2026, flexibility alone won’t cut it. Customers have grown weary of “as-a-service” models that deliver little more than recurring bills. The focus has shifted decisively from payment terms to performance outcomes. Enterprises now demand transparency, accountability, and service-level guarantees they can actually measure.
Predictability, uptime, and ROI are the new expectations – not the exceptions. Vendors offering vague commitments or complex renewals will quickly lose trust. For the channel, this marks a defining shift: success will come from co-delivering measurable outcomes, not just provisioning technology. Partners who can back their services with clear SLAs, proactive optimisation, and verifiable results will stand apart in a crowded market. In 2026, credibility will hinge on one thing-whether the promises behind every subscription truly deliver.
- Virtualisation upheaval will redefine modern infrastructure in 2026
The virtualisation landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. With rising costs, evolving licensing models, and the rapid growth of container-native environments, enterprises are reassessing how and where their applications run. Across industries, this rethink is driving a move toward more open, flexible, and scalable platforms that align better with modern workloads and budgets. In 2026, Kubernetes will move from being the domain of developers to the foundation of enterprise infrastructure. The ability to run both virtual machines (VMs) and containers on a single, unified platform is reshaping how organisations build, deploy, and scale applications.
Analysts estimate that more than 80% of enterprises plan to migrate or modernise their VMs on Kubernetes within the next two years, a shift that represents both disruption and opportunity. For the channel, this marks a defining moment. Customers need trusted partners to help them navigate hybrid architectures, integrate data management across VMs and containers, and maintain performance and resiliency at scale. Those who can design Kubernetes-ready, flash-optimised architectures and deliver migration-as-a-service models will lead this transformation. In 2026, success in virtualisation will be defined not by what partners sell, but by how they empower customers to modernise on their own terms – simplifying complexity, accelerating innovation, and ensuring continuity through change.
