ENTERPRISE STORAGE

Enterprise storage can be complex and difficult to manage. Using server virtualisation technology to manage storage simplifies administration and boosts performance.
ITP’s CHANNEL Middle East latest feature from Editor Manda Banda looked at Enterprise Storage opportunities in the Middle East and how virtualisation is spreading from servers to storage, speeding up provisioning and lowering costs and complexity in the data centre and enterprise storage segment.

Read here what VAD’s Sr. Solution Architect Jithin Varghese (JV Initials) had to say in his Interview with the Editor:
 
KEY QUESTIONS

How evolved is the enterprise storage market in the Middle East?
JV: Enterprise Storage Market in ME is 60- 70% matured compared to the TEIR 1 countries. For the past two years we have experienced a remarkable growth compared to the previous years, especially in the HYBRID & All Flash Storage. In the future years we expect another 15-20% growth for the All Flash and NVME Storage market due to the exponential growth of high performance needed workload project such as IOT, AI & Analytics.

​How has virtualisations helped to remove some of the complexities in the data centre when it comes to enterprise storage.JV: Virtualization era made a remarkable changes in the data centers which helps to remove most of the complexities in terms of resource utilization, availability of the servers, automation of the servers, server migration (platform, physical location, cloud), network configuration, creating copies for backup, dev/ test, replication etc. Also, virtualization help the enterprise storage market to increase the revenue and to ease out all the complexities with the traditional data centers.     
What challenges do solution providers face when it comes to providing holistic enterprise storage solutions?JV: We don’t feel there is a real challenge, now the market started adopting the solutions and it’s evolving as we can see most of the solution providers have regional data center presence with a high security platform. Organization started adopting hybrid hosting by moving non critical workloads to service provider platform to experience the availability and cost.
Solution provider have to deploy the market leading enterprise storage solution in order provide the high performance, low latency, 99.9999% uptime and to work closely integrated the virtual infrastructure.
How is the enterprise flash-storage market shaping up in the Middle East and what impact is this having on the traditional storage market?JV: All Flash Storage market is exponentially growing especially for the past three years and shaping up very well. ME market is well adopting the value of Disruptive Enterprise All Flash Storage compared to the traditional Disk in terms of availability, ROI, TCO, business model and upgrade options. In the near future we can see more dominance of Enterprise All Flash storage market over the traditional disk storage and most the vendors are pushing for the technology.
What types of business and industry sectors have led with enterprise flash-storage adoption?JV: Enterprise All Flash Storage is penetrating in all the industry sectors, but we can see predominant growth and acceptance in the Government, Solution Providers, Banking, Finance & Retail compared to the other industry.
Which type of businesses [enterprise or SMB] are more dynamic in their adoption of flash-storage solutions?JV Enterprise Businesses are more dynamic in the adoption of All Flash Storage Solutions at the present scenario due to the requirement of high performance workloads, availability and the budget factors. As we can see the Enterprise Flash Modules cost is decreasing and in the coming two years we can see more adoption in the SMB market.
How is your company helping channel partners to identify the right verticals for enterprise storage solutions?JV: VAD helps Channel Partners to identify the right verticals through regular enablement sessions, detailed account mapping, in-depth requirement analysis and POCs at Customer sides.   
How big is the skills challenge when it comes to the enterprise storage market?JV: All the leading vendors are pushing the Al Flash/ NVMe technology for the past three years with continuous trainings for the channel distributors and partners. Now all the vendors believe in simplicity, 1000 page user manual changed to a two side business card and we have vendor in the market who can finish the full Enterprise storage configuration in less than 30 mins.
How can channel partners compensate declining margins in the enterprise storage hardware?JV: In the current market scenario, we can see all the vendors in all the opportunities. We can compensate declining margins only by the better professional services by meeting the customer SLA, providing L1 support by maintaining spare kits and specialized skillsets, maintaining datacenters for DR/ backup services.
How do you see the enterprise storage segment shaping up in 2019 in the Middle East?JV: Enterprise Storage Segment having a continuous growth with an yearly increment of 20- 30%. In the coming years we can see more dominance for All Flash Storage and NVMe Storage in order to support the trending IOT, AI and Analytics projects.
 
The full Feature and the December 2018 Edition of Channel Middle East English can be found here:
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?eid=4b07e959-e9bf-46fe-baac-fcb23afbbb60