As the storage sector continues to experience exponential growth, key vendors are making a play for the elusive small and medium enterprise (SME) market.
A Gartner report released in January forecasts the worldwide storage professional services market will grow to $18.3 billion by 2014. The firm also predicts a rise in IT spend reaching $2.5 trillion in 2011, with nearly 19% of IT dollars being spent on hardware and infrastructure capabilities, with storage representing a large portion of this.
Locally, value added resellers (VARs) claim uptake is hampered by issues intrinsic to the small business. Vendors say solutions have been designed to fit the SME pocket and skills-set, yet the VARs are facing a highly reactive market sector.
“One issue the OEMs are forgetting is the level of IT literacy among decision-makers in this sector is typically very low. They are experts in their respective fields, but when talking a technical language to the SME, the skills and knowledge gap is a large part of the problem,” says Spartan's CEO, Kumaran Padayachee.
Trying to contextualise solutions for the SME, which were developed for larger enterprises, is no easy task. “Despite promises of 'ease of use', we are seeing smaller businesses locked into storage solutions which present hidden costs by way of support, and which don't adequately empower the small business owner,” says Wernher Mulder, solutions architect at Xiotech.
Critical issues of training and skills, as well as the appropriateness of solutions being presented by big vendors, need to be addressed, says Padayachee.
Mulder agrees: “Storage is a complex issue, requiring the skills and knowledge which simply is not present in a typical small or even medium-sized enterprise.”
Data is accumulating, “and we have to store it all, and reference it, thus generating more electronic data. Notebooks, iPads, smartphones - the small business generally dumps all generated data on a server. Much data is duplicated, much of it is personal,” says Padayachee.
“The impact of this massive storage need on the environment is huge, and financially it is costly, but the SME does not know how to implement the solutions available. Furthermore, most SMEs don't begin to investigate solutions until there has been a massive failure,” he adds.
Silver linings
Last year's economic instability has seen a cut in IT budgets, yet a shortage of skilled storage resources and an increase in data are pushing storage costs up, says Jason Barr, managing executive, solutions group at Stortech. “The adoption of cloud-based tools and the decrease in the cost of bandwidth offer the small business a solution that is more cost-effective.
“There are some very advanced solutions, which certainly reduce the need for expensive resources to manage data. Big vendors have products and solutions which address pains specific to this market, yet SMEs still need to understand the importance of their data through classification. An in-depth understanding of the requirements is needed before a cost-effective solution can be provided,” says Barr.
There are solutions tailored for this sector, notes Tristan Davies, solution architect manager at Quantum Africa. “Deduplication appliances, for example, are available specifically for small businesses or branch offices. Some solutions are designed for rapid, seamless integration. An SME can commonly experience a 90% to 95% reduction in storage requirement once duplication has been eliminated. This saves on hardware and bandwidth costs.”
As bandwidth costs decline, offsite storage is becoming viable. “The time is now for SMEs to challenge the previous paradigm. SMEs must start considering cloud and hosted applications as a service, or, at the very least, infrastructure as a service,” says Barr.
Hosted exchange with archiving is also a very compelling option. An SME cannot afford to build a tier four data centre with all the redundancy and high-availability functionality. The chances are very good that one can host in a service provider's data centre more reliably and cost-effectively, he says.
However, while the technology is out there, Padayachee argues the smaller business does not know how to engage with it.
Determining storage needs is a task few SMEs are equipped to handle, let alone outlining strategy and growth needs. Furthermore, storage is a 'grudge' purchase, says Mulder. It is not considered key to the business, and there is no understanding of the importance of storage in the IT chain.
Without skilled personnel on board, security and reliability are adversely affected, says Barr.
Padayachee agrees: “An SME's storage is not being strategically or proactively managed. This manifests in failures which may be critical to business, such as mail, but the business is not aware a storage issue is the underlying problem.“
“An SME has little choice but to rely heavily on local technology partners to help them evaluate, implement and maintain the right IT solutions,” says Davies.
“Most of the technology out there is good; it's a matter of how you use it. Service providers can provide, through a hybrid of onsite and offsite solutions, a highly cost-effective solution, but the mindset among SMEs needs to change,” adds Barr.
“SMEs must look at infrastructure as a commodity that should be delivered as a service to the business. They need to look for service providers that can provide them with this flexibility, preferably complemented with a suite of applications as a service,” he explains.
With this in mind, Mulder feels the approach of the VARs needs to be re-examined. “We meet many small business owners who have been locked into three-year contracts, and have to cough up huge fees for support - the cost of which was never initially discussed. The SME is fairly easy to dupe in this regard.”
Although in short supply, an independent consultant would be a SME's best bet, as they can evaluate the company's current storage situation, taking into consideration immediate needs and future growth, says Mulder.
“There are lots of ways to get objective advice about which approaches match requirements,” notes Davies. “Good resellers, with a proven track record, understand the reality of what will work for specific environments and they have a vested interest in helping you succeed. You can also talk directly to vendors. If they offer multiple technologies, they are likely to provide a broader view than if they offer only one product.”
“As VARs we need to help the SME build a strategy around its storage requirements. Any SME seeking a technology partner should feel, first and foremost, that businesses success is a priority,” says Mulder. “VARs need to focus on building that trust, and move away from the quick-sell mentality. It is damaging the storage industry, as well as small businesses in the country.”
The OEMs, says Padayachee, should not be held responsible for the gap between solutions and uptake. “Storage is a long range issue - something planned for in advance - and it is the technology partner who needs to help the SME come to terms with its challenges.”
Share