Data regulation 'crisis' will fill channel coffers
Data storage costs rocket due to new regulations, and resellers are in a position to reap the benefits
Data storage regulations are driving end-users’ data storage costs to crisis point, but they may have ongoing positive implications for storage VARs, according to an Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) vendor.
Sai Gundavelli, chief executive of ILM vendor Solix Technologies, said: “Driven by compliance requirements and other user needs, estimates are placing annual data storage growth as high as 125 per cent per year.
“This growth is creating an IT crisis because costs for data storage, retrieval and administration esculate. Today, only an organised approach to data storage provides a remedy.”
Aidan Sloyan, group enterprise sales manager at distributor CMS Peripherals, said channel partners could use compliance as an opportunity to assist end-users with their data storage requirements.
“While compliance may seem expensive to the end-user, total cost of ownership can be lowered by a thorough assessment of what data is stored, how it’s stored and for what period. This could then help them decide on a tiered storage approach, for example.
“Compliance is a good revenue generator for the channel. It increases storage hardware sales levels and services as well,” he said.
Gundavelli’s comments are consistent with a recent report by IT services firm Atos Origin, which recently questioned 236 European chief financial officers and discovered that 23 per cent had been forced to invest more than anticipated to achieve compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards.
In specific verticals, such as global email archiving, compliance costs could top $310m for 2005, according to recent preliminary data from analyst IDC (CRN, 30 January).
Simon Dawson, head of corporate investigations at market analyst Risk Advisory Group, said data compliance regulations had an affect on multiple areas of business.
“Since more information is now stored on computers, it means that more regulations are needed to control it. This means more durable hardware is required to search and bring back that information, which is often more difficult at the SME level,” he said.