Strong growth in the market means the correct training for staff is absolutely vital to ensure the success of any business

By Louise Durack.




The storage market is growing exponentially in the Asia Pacific region as data levels continue to increase. Today, almost every solution needs storage of one type or another.

Analyst group IDC estimates continued 60 percent yearly growth of new disk petabytes shipped in the near future, with an increasing complexity of storage management skills becoming ever more sought after.

This, however, is the key for savvy resellers enthusiastic about capitalising on the explosion of unstructured data that is causing end users to transform the way they do business.

There are three primary drivers concerned with storage, said IBM system storage channels manager Joe Screnci.

“End users still have to store data. They want to store it. And there are many forces making them say ‘I can’t store it’.

“End users’ next generation information infrastructure must be able to easily integrate new technologies, ensure security at all times, and be ‘green’ to respond to these drivers and manage the exponential growth of data.”

With IBM aiming to provide its channel community with a range of benefits to help them become key players in the storage market, Screnci said business partners should select a vendor with the ability to execute the next generation information infrastructure and storage training that not only covers the hardware and software, but also the industry and solution segments.

“IBM business partners have the unique opportunity to pick up one or many of IBM information infrastructure solutions and learn about technologies such as SVC, DS8000, N-Series and Metro Mirroring which can provide the best-of-breed solutions required by their clients, as well as how DR550 and SOFS (Scale Out File Services) can address the significant challenges of companies around archiving
and retention.”