'India commands the largest share of HP’s DDS business in the APac market'

There has been a lot of talk on tape back-up technology becoming obsolete.
So why is HP putting great focus on this area?

Andrew: Tape as a back-up mechanism is a very reliable technology is what we
are trying to tell people. HP is currently investing a lot in this segment and
sees a very good future for the same. As the amount of data increases
tremendously across organizations, it is imperative for them to have a reliable
back-up mechanism in place too.

Andrew Dickerson, Marketing Manager-Tape Products, HP

According to Gartner, the worldwide tape market in 2002 was 2.2 million
drives, which amounts to $2.5 billion in revenues. Of this, nearly 48% drives
were digital data storage (DDS). This is because these devices are the most
economical as well as extremely reliable back-up mechanism, which makes it
widely popular.

Does this imply that other tape devices are not as popular?

Andrew: Not really. Essentially, DDS is targeted at customers looking at
economy of usage. As we go up in the mid-level or large enterprise level
customers, we have offerings like DLTs, SDLTs and Ultriums.

As far as the Indian market is concerned, what is the kind of focus that
you are going to put on DDS?

Gerard: Globally, nearly half the tape drive market belongs to DDS, while in
India it’s much more than that. So naturally, our focus on this product in
this country will be much more.

Also, in the entire APac region (excluding Japan), India has the largest
share as far as DDS sales are concerned. It is the fastest growing market
despite China and Australia having larger IT business.

Gerard Chee, Product Marketing Manager, Network Storage Solutions (APac), HP

What are the factors driving growth for DDS in India?

Gerard: The most important growth driver for DDS in the Indian market is its
low total cost of ownership (TCO). Being a price-sensitive market, this matters
a lot to customers.

Also, given the fact that back-up as a well-defined process is now gaining
prominence across various enterprises, DDS will be the first technology of
choice. As the Indian market matures, it will gradually shift to other high-end
back-up mechanisms.

How do you plan to further the growth of DDS market here?

Gerard: We have already started engaging closely with many resellers across
major cities, educating them on profitable business benefits in storage and
back-up. Resellers have also shown great interest in this area and further
developing this business.

We are also trying to illustrate the point to partners that DDS is
time-tested, proven and an extremely stable technology. Hence, every effort that
they put on increasing the market for the same, is bound to yield them good
results.

How
can partners make good margins while dealing in this product?

Gerard: As the server market grows in India, DDS too would witness a similar
growth pattern, as they both go hand in hand. This is where a partner can really
look forward to making money by selling both, server and DDS as a single
solution. So, even though he might be forced to work on fringe margins for
servers, he can charge a premium for the DDS device that he is providing along
with the server.

What is so unique about HP’s DDS offering?

Andrew: Apart from being quite economical, the various DDS tape drives come
with certain value-add features that really makes back-up a hassle-free
experience for the user. One such feature is Hot Plug, which allows a user to
insert or remove a DDS tape drive without powering off the server.

We also have a feature called OBDR or one button disaster recovery, which
helps the user to conveniently restore his data, in case of a disaster.

Additionally, our DDS tape drives include diagnostic tools, which help users
to carry out troubleshooting, in case of problems arising due to multiple
interfaces, OS and heterogeneous environments.

GOLDIE