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OPERATIONS at storage solution vendor Hitachi Data Systems Singapore grew by 44 per cent in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009, even as the overall market declined by 9 per cent in that period.
HDS vice-president and general manager Asean Ravi Rajendran told BizIT that the company was able to grow its market share significantly over the past few years through an aggressive channel strategy.
'We have empowered our channel partners with the technology, knowledge and skills to develop and deploy HDS software and services, and hence they are well-placed to seize new business opportunities and improve their own profitability.'
He added that in Singapore, the company's channel business doubled in fiscal 2008 which ended in March this year.
Singapore has been a strategic location for HDS since its regional headquarters was first opened here in 1989.
It's an ideal location for high-value activities, given the nation's strong talent pool, pro-business environment and as a prime gateway to the rest of South-east Asia, Mr Rajendran said.
'Companies, including HDS, have long benefited from the comprehensive logistics and innovative capabilities that Singapore offers . . . This is why HDS, earlier this year, made an investment commitment of more than $10 million in Singapore, with its new Business Solutions Centre and Asean headquarters.'
Mr Rajendran noted that there are many companies in Singapore who still have a storage infrastructure utilisation rate of between 30-40 per cent.
'This is a significant underutilisation of their existing IT investment and represents an area where the higher savings can be realised. We believe that our virtualisation, dynamic provisioning solutions and storage reclamation service would be key in helping our customers improve in this area. Improved utilisation would mean a company could take care of new business needs with existing infrastructure.'
He noted that according to a recent HDS study, 57 per cent of company CIOs (chief information officers) state that they would not reduce their storage investments.
In fact, building a convincing business argument to justify storage investments and doing more with current assets ranked among the highest priorities for CIOs in the coming year.
Mr Rajendran said: 'We also see an uptake in the file and content services, where the unrelenting growth of unstructured data would drive the adoption of integrated file and content storage solutions with robust search capabilities.'
He added that through HDS technology, customers have been able to do more with their existing storage infrastructure, delaying capital expenditure (Capex) and lowering operational expenditure (Opex).
'This reinforces our dedication to best bottomline IT practices and enhances our partnership with customers through these tough times.'
Turning to industry trends, Mr Rajendran observed that cloud computing was one of the major trends sweeping through the storage industry.
Cloud computing is a type of service offered over the Internet. These services usually provide common business applications online, and customers who use these services do not own the physical infrastructure which serves as a host to a wide range of software platforms. Instead, they rent usage from third-party providers, thus avoiding capital expenditure.
'The cloud promises unlimited scalability, zero downtime and anywhere and anytime access,' he said. 'However, if companies cross the cloud-chasm prematurely, they risk transferring the storage problems that exist today, into their cloud environment. It is, therefore, important for companies to resolve the existing deficits in their storage strategy before transitioning to the cloud.'
Another subtle shift in the industry is that IT is decreasingly seen as a cost centre and more of a service-oriented business, he added.
'This means a business focused approach to IT, rather than an emphasis on the technology. Companies that align their business objectives to their IT implementations realise the highest business returns at the lowest cost.' He noted that according to IDC, unstructured organisational data is predicted to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 63.7 per cent between 2007 and 2011, while Web 2.0 companies and mobile service companies will register a CAGR of approximately 121 per cent.
'Thus, in a recession, even though business has slowed, data growth has not.'
Mr Rajendran also noted that with high IT costs associated with power, cooling, equipment management and administration, a big focus for companies across the Asean region this year and next will be preventing these costs from spiralling out of control.
The storage industry is well positioned to help businesses reduce capital expenditure by focusing on driving utilisation of their data centres, and at the same time, achieve Opex savings through lowering costs associated with management and energy, he said.
'HDS remains cautiously optimistic about its prospects in Singapore and Asean the rest of this year and 2010. Our key strategy for 2009, 'Economise your storage', is one of the pillars that we believe will drive our growth next year.'
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