"With our renewed focus on secondary storage, especially tape drives, we plan to be the top contender in this space within a year"

With Quantum's recent acquisition of Certance, Sunny John is enthusiastic
that it will result in significant gain in its tape automation market share. The
company has already grown its storage systems business more than 40% in the past
fiscal. He explains how the near-hibernation of Quantum is now over, as the
company is all set to take a quantum leap in its overall business.

Quantum kept a low profile for long. How has that changed?

Yes, we were quiet for a long time but that has however changed. The data
storage and protection market has shifted dramatically in the last decade. Data
volume has increased exponentially with the growth of storage-intensive
applications. Poor data management is simply bad business and is increasingly
becoming a major legal risk: State and federal regulations, make data storage an
ever more critical factor in companies' IT strategies.

Large amount of important data is more vulnerable than ever, susceptible to
viruses, human error and natural and man-made disasters. In this environment,
secure data storage has evolved from merely an IT concern to a mission-critical
business success factor.

Sunny John Country Manager—India, Quantum

While the need for storage solutions has grown tremendously, IT budgets
remain under pressure. As a result, business leaders today want their backup and
recovery problems solved easily-with limited additional cost and staff time.
They need solutions that seamlessly integrate into existing environments, while
leaving infrastructures flexible enough to accommodate unforeseen technologies
of the next decade and beyond.

To meet these challenging demands, Quantum is leveraging new storage
architectures, transport protocols and operating systems that efficiently and
cost-effectively manage, store and protect valuable digital assets.

How have things been revamped in the company in the recent past?

Over the past two years, the company has enhanced its tape drive and media
business through two acquisitions, gained significant market share in tape
automation, and grown its storage systems business more than 40%. During this
time, Quantum also refinanced its convertible debt, improved gross margins,
reduced operating expenses to the lowest levels in three years and reorganized
to create greater efficiencies and serve customers and partners even
better. 

If going aggressive is the buzzword, what new products has Quantum lined
up for the market?

We continue to give the market new technology and new products every 18
months. That will continue. Many new products are in the pipeline. The idea
behind this gesture is to ensure that we are the first to give our customers the
technology advantage.

We are now planning to get into the events space. As a beginning, we have
conducted road shows in a couple of cities already. At the end of the day, we
believe Quantum has arrived and is here to stay. 

Which are the focus verticals for Quantum and what other segments are you
planning to expand into?

Banking and finance are our strengths. Our presence is also visible in the
software development arena. New verticals being considered are value-added
services, manufacturing and even entertainment.

Quantum is a data-management company. We help in data backup, restoration and
archival. So anyone who needs these services can look up to us for end-to-end
solutions. We have the technology and products. Customers have to choose their
requirement and we shall deliver.

What are Quantum's new strategies for growth keeping the channel
community in mind?

Quantum sells its products through leading OEMs such as Dell, HP, IBM and
Sun, as well as tape automation suppliers and tape media partners. It also sells
its own branded products through a distribution network that includes more than
20 distributors and 5,000 resellers worldwide.

We offer a wide range of StorageCare Services, including installation,
warranty, service and support options to complement our products, besides
professional integration services, proactive service and training. Quantum
StorageCare services program assists Value Added Resellers (VARs), integrators
and customers in assessing, designing, implementing, maintaining and optimizing
data storage solutions.

Another ongoing program of ours for resellers is called Quality Alliance. By
joining Quantum Alliance, resellers receive sales support and training, toll
free technical support and up-to-date product and promotional information. The
Quantum Alliance Partner Program is dedicated to helping resellers and
distributors around the world increase their sales of Quantum's Tape
Libraries, Autoloaders, Disk-Based Backup Systems, Drives and Media products.

So far the channel community has been very positive in response to our
initiatives. The need of the hour is to communicate that our products are not as
expensive as they are thought to be. We have set up a number of discounted demo
units for our resellers, so that they are content both technically and
financially.

Inorganic growth is the mantra for success today. What is your take on
mergers and acquisitions?

With the recent acquisition of Certance, Quantum's Storage Devices and
Media business units offer the market's broadest portfolio of tape drive
technologies, providing customers an unparalleled choice of solutions for their
backup, recovery and archive needs. We are constantly on the lookout for good
technology that we can acquire.

With our renewed focus on secondary storage, especially tape drives we plan
to be the top contender in this space within a year. That will not be difficult
because we have good leadership, management focus, a unique market share and
above all good partners. What we need is to market ourselves as a secondary
storage company. Greater visibility is the need of the hour.

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