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Imagine, for a moment, all the data storage devices across the world decided to play truant. For some very unknown reason, every data storage gadget refuses to part with the bits and the bytes. Almost everything would come to a complete halt: no bank accounts, no trains, Internet goes off net and satellites won’t function.
Except in few third world countries, not much digitized by now, much of humanity and human progress would be as good as undone. Seems like a scenario straight out of Spielberg’s movie?
Yet, this critical piece of human ingenuity made a rather muted debut some fifty years back. And in these fifty years, with increasing digitization, we as individuals now have multiple identities across different machines and different data storage devices, be it the Municipal Corporation or the HR dept in the employer’s place. With increasing multiplicity, there has come the need to mange this jumble of information. This is where data storage software comes into the picture.
These specialized data storage software programs let you better manage the hard-drives. Says, Pravir Vohra, director (Channels), CA, India & SAARC, “Data has gone through an exponential growth over the years, now the need is not to store data but to manage it, that’s where data storage software comes into picture.”
One of the chief reasons driving the growth of data storage devices is increasing digitization and compliance requirements. “Post 9/11, most of the governments have specific rules and regulations on data storage system. This has led to a phenomenal increase in the demand for data storage devices.
The data storage industry is also moving from tape to disk, i.e., from Direct Attached Storage (DAS) to Network Attached Storage (NAS)/Storage Area Network (SAN). This has led to a majority of hardware players looking at software companies for license deals. “Yes, there are a few data storage hardware companies that are in talks with us for OEM deals,” admits Vohra.
Small and medium business (SMBs) has a lot of potential as an emerging market with major vendors such as EMC, NetApp, IBM, HP, CA, tailoring their products to suit their needs.
SMBs are also increasingly aware of the need for business continuity and data storage management. “Currently, data storage resource management is a developing trend. Companies are consolidating their data across multiple locations and working out ways in which they can access it quickly and in a safe way,” Vohra adds.
The total data storage software market in India is estimated to be around Rs. 132 crore, and the major players are Symantec, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, Network Appliance and CA. “We are quite bullish about our growth prospects in India and are looking at a high triple digit growth. With our acquisitions in the data storage space over the past few years, we have a range of back up solutions to offer to Indian companies, be it large or small,” concludes Vohra.
© CyberMedia News
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