"Seagate expects surge in demand for cloud tech"

Dataquest recently interacted with Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager for India & SAARC, Seagate Technology to gain insights into the storage trends prevalent in the industry where new trends such as cloud, IoT and big data, among others are hot.

What are the storage trends that influence enterprises from different verticals in India?

Technology trends like big data, IoT, cloud computing and virtualization, social media, mobility has made it imperative for organizations to plan for a robust data storage infrastructure to attain business efficiencies.

Enterprises across different verticals (like banking, healthcare, education, etc.) are following the trend of data storage by adopting solutions ranging from hard drives to an Ethernet embedded device-based storage platforms, depending on the capacity of the enterprises.

The recent launch of the ‘Digital India’ initiative in India necessitates the adoption of technology and IoT in various sectors.

The digital locker systems in banks and the launch of the Government of India’s Jan-Dhan Yojna have created critical data of employees, which needs to be securely stored. In the same way the healthcare sector’s initiative towards e-healthcare has led to the creation of patients’ digital records and services like online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, etc. These services can be deployed and used efficiently only if the data is stored and saved effectively and securely. Similarly, power producers are adopting smart grid technology, the FMCG industry is using IoT to manage inventory, the education sector is adopting e-learning techniques and the government’s plan to execute e-sign framework for various government certificates; all these are and will be leading to the creation of more data, which in turn will require an efficient storage solution to reap the true benefits of digitization.

How is Seagate placed in these storage trends?

Seagate delivers industry-leading products to meet customers’ increasing storage requirements. Through technology investments, we are aligning our storage-product portfolio with the emerging trends, like mobility, cloud, and open-source computing.

Seagate offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of hard drives, solid-state drives and solid-state hybrid drives. With the introduction of Cloud Systems and Solutions, Seagate is building on its legacy, extending innovation from the device into the information infrastructure, both on-site and in the cloud.

Organizations are looking for ways to harness the growing amounts of data, to create actionable information. They are turning to Seagate as a trusted storage solutions leader to partner on solving these problems. Seagate is uniquely positioned to innovate across the full information infrastructure stack, from the media and devices (HDD, Flash); to the enclosures; to the management layer; to the operating system and file system.

Seagate is at the forefront of the latest technology trends from engaging with innovative startups to powering the world’s cloud experiences to enabling the Internet of Things. We’re evolving the Seagate brand to showcase that evolution.

Do trends like big data and IoT seem like a business opportunity?

Growth in mobile, personal devices, video surveillance, and Big Data analytics are all trends that will continue creating significant demand for next-generation storage systems and solutions. According to an IDC survey, the total amount of data created in the world is doubling every two years, by 2020, the digital data will grow nearly 20 times and reach 40 Zettabytes. Cloud computing enables the flexible distribution of IT resources and data integrity, with intelligent storage being a major component to cloud service.

What kind of storage solutions complements any big data project?

Seagate has the industry’s broadest storage product portfolio for the cloud including SSD, SSHD and HDD products that are optimized for cloud computing and storage applications, as well as external products that are tailored for personal clouds. In addition, the new Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform is able to redefine cloud storage infrastructure and deliver more efficient cloud architecture.

What's your go-to-market strategy? How many partners do you have?

The volume of data has exploded in recent times, and Seagate expects to see a continued surge in demand for cloud-connected technology (software and hardware), cloud operations and managed services in the coming years.

The cloud space is a strategic opportunity for Seagate. In this era of data explosion, businesses need to revamp their storage infrastructure to incorporate new technologies to improve efficiencies and support new business needs. In such a scenario, Seagate plans to continue investing in loud storage systems and solutions that deliver an Intelligent Information Infrastructure to help organizations manage the massive growth in digital data and deliver on evolving workloads. The company also focuses on developing cloud-based backup services that cover a broad range of platforms and can be deployed in multiple form factors to ensure that mission-critical data remains safe and secure so that its customers can keep their businesses running without worrying about their data.

Seagate works very closely with its partners in India to deliver best-in-class storage solutions and innovations to customers. The company has a very loyal base of partners in India and continuously takes partner and customer feedback to ensure a win-win scenario.

What are the new initiatives you have taken to strengthen Seagate's market position in India?

India is a key market for Seagate and we see great opportunities here. Consumers in India are rapidly embracing and adopting new technologies like cloud and portable storage, and several visionary government campaigns have opened up many new avenues for Seagate as a company. The Digital India campaign is expected to see deeper mobile device penetration and increasing use of video, big data analytics and cloud. All of this will continue to drive data growth and require larger and more effective storage solutions. To cater to this, Seagate launched Seagate Seven and Seagate Wireless recently in India, to further strengthen its market position. Both these drives have unique attributes that cater to the storage needs of today’s consumers, both in terms of form and function.

As the leader in storage solutions, Seagate will continue to bring to market innovative solutions that will meet evolving business and consumer needs.