Store it away for a rainy day

Archiving offers even better revenue and margin opportunities this year, says Eric Herzog

Herzog: Archiving solutions are the new storage sweet spot

Data is growing exponentially with each passing year. Instead of petabytes of data being bought each year to quench the thirst for data growth, it is exabytes.

With file-based data now the largest percentage, the high cost of primary storage and many government regulations on file-based data retention, there is tremendous pressure on IT to cost-effectively manage file-based data.

A weak pound and tough global economic situation apply further pressure on organisations to squeeze results out of every dollar, pound or euro.

But one fast-growing market will approach $3bn (£2bn) by 2012, according to IDC – and that is the data-archiving market.

Many archiving vendors sell through the channel. And we think archiving is a chance for portfolio expansion with a high-margin, high-revenue, value-added solution set.

Many end users store data on high-cost primary storage. Yet much information never changes after its first 90 days of existence.

Archiving products enable information to be migrated to cheaper, secondary storage.

Resellers should show their customers how, by archiving data for maintenance of customer records, statistical analysis, and governmental compliance for example, they can do more with less.

The archival market is still young. A knowledgeable reseller can make a great deal of difference by building the most suitable archival solution for any given customer with the right products and the right strategy.

Resellers could also offer advice on products and aspects of archiving such as retrieval requirements, security, and how long companies may need to store the files.

Open archival products will promote interoperability and cost savings in their customers’ datacentres.

Software-only products also promise higher margins. The channel can then source the hardware element from a preferred vendor.

Recent years have seen the backup market attracting vendors, OEMs and resellers alike. Now, archiving is the sweet spot.

Eric Herzog is vice president of sales and marketing at Tarmin