As pioneers of storage area networks (SAN) and founders of some leading names in storage space, both Kumar Malavalli and Brenda Chreistensen work to create a highly integrated eco-system of storage companies. In an exclusive interview with DQ Channels, they spoke about the need for cost-effective storage solutions for SMBs.

What are some of the key challenges that SMBs today face when it comes to managing their rapidly growing data?
Brenda: SMBs don't have fat cheque-books to manage their data, even though their business needs are pretty much the same. The key challenges that SMBs face is how to do the right vendor selection, how to deal with support, budgeting and staffing-related issues. Most SMBs don't have hundreds of terabyte of data, which will attract the attention of vendors even though the data remains as critical to their business as to any other large enterprise. So for them, the real challenge is to cost-effectively manage this data.

Though there are large numbers of players in the storage space, do you really think they are in a position to offer truly affordable solutions for SMEs?

Kumar: I would say a trend for affordable solutions is slowly evolving. The storage industry is just about 10 years old. When SANs were introduced, it was only within the reach of Fortune 100 companies. But over the last one year, such solutions have started trickling to SMEs as well. But vendors still need to work a lot on making these solutions cost-effective. This includes not just making the product cheaper, but also bringing down the management costs. Since SMEs don't have large IT departments or manpower to manage their IT infrastructure, vendors also need to work on providing solutions that are automated. So yes, the cost is coming down, but it could be brought down even more while maintaining or even improving performance levels.

Amidst all this excitement that is being created around storage, where do you think security fits in?
Brenda: Security is another issue that enterprises need to look as closely as their storage needs. All this while security was not spoken in the same breath as storage and they were looked as two different requirements. With a huge amount of outsourcing happening to India, it is only logical for companies to consider security a critical component of their storage infrastructure. And by security I don't mean that the data has to be locked up and kept away somewhere. The real challenge is to retrieve and use the data after some period of time or whenever required and even destroy it safely after crossing the time of its usability.

Both of you have been promoting host of start-ups and companies that are not much heard of. Given the fact that already some very big players are active in the storage business, where does it leave a room for these small outfits?
Kumar: Best solutions and best products don't necessarily come from large companies. And this phenomenon is more pronounced in the storage business where the requirements are almost growing exponentially. There are lots of holes in the solutions provided by many big guys. And to fill in those holes, you need very innovative and out-of-the-box thinking. And that comes from these younger start-ups. And to give them an equal opportunity to present themselves to the market, we offer them very good branding at our annual Storage Networking Summit (SNS) in India. This way, not only do they get to know the requirements of the Indian customers and hence design the solutions specifically for this market, but also the end-users get to know that these companies exist.

How well do you think these start-ups can tap the business opportunity?
Brenda: One of the huge opportunities that these small-sized vendors are rightly positioned to tap is the SMB segment. Most large companies have very different kind of sales channel and sales strategy. Some big brands are used to having huge margins in their business and they carry with them an army of sales people. Even if they try, they really cannot provide highly cost-effective solutions as their focus is largely enterprise-based. And this is where these small start-ups come into picture. Their overheads are low, they can innovate much more and faster and offer solutions at cost to SMBs which are not prohibitive.

What is the next significant trend you believe will emerge in the business of storage?
Kumar: One of the most visible trend will be the emergence of service providers who can offer services like disaster recovery, back-up services and managed security. For SMEs, service providers will be the most-sought after community to offer them all the above mentioned services.

GOLDIE

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