Although many in the IT industry are talking about the rise of cloud computing and one might think that this spells an end to companies requiring onsite data storage, according to Mohamed Talaat, GM of EMC’s Saudi operations, that’s not true. Cloud infrastructure is based on the same architecture that was used before — servers, networks and storage. A limited number of applications will move to the public cloud and private or hybrid cloud arrangements will probably be the most common for companies in the foreseeable future. Businesses will continue to manage their own data storage and data creation is exploding — as is the demand for someplace to store it.  

In 2010, there was robust growth in the market for external controller-based disk storage, where EMC leads. Research firm Gartner put that growth at 18.1 percent. IDC noted that “external disk storage systems factory revenues posted year-over-year growth of 16.2 percent.” IDC added that the total disk storage systems capacity sold reached 5,127 petabytes, a massive 55.7 percent year-over-year growth. A petabyte is about one million gigabytes. Growth is throughout the overall external disk storage market, with even the high end of the disk storage market, those systems worth more than $250,000, growing at 26 percent year-over-year.

And don’t imagine that the growth in external disk storage will slow any time soon. An IDC report “The Digital Universe Decade,” sponsored by EMC, found that in the period from 2009-2020, the digital universe is expected to grow by a factor of 44. In 2009, amid the global recession, the amount of digital information grew 62 percent over 2008 to 800 billion gigabytes. That’s equal to 800 million terabytes, 800,000 petabytes, 800 exabytes, or 0.8 zettabytes of data. In 2010, more than one zettabyte of new data was created. Of significance is that 35 percent more digital information is created today than the capacity exists to store it. This number will jump to over 60 percent within the next several years, meaning that EMC and other storage providers are looking forward to decades of profits.

“There are so many examples to show how data creation is growing exponentially,” said Talaat, “We used to take low resolution digital photographs. Now we take high definition digital photographs everywhere using our mobile handsets. Medical imaging has moved from films and paper to digital capture. CCTV is being used for security surveillance producing vast amounts of digital video. There are so many examples of how technologies are being used in new ways. One outcome of such use is the growth in data creation and that data needs a place to live.”

“The challenge of course is to store all that information in a more cost effective and intelligent way,” said Ahmad Muammar, EMC’s Technology Solution Manager for Saudi Arabia. “Smart storage is essential, particularly when companies move any aspect of their IT to the cloud or any virtual environment. It’s not just large enterprises that need cost effective, intelligent storage. At EMC we’ve found that smaller organizations are now producing enormous amounts of data. They need to store and manage that data without the need to hire expensive specialist manpower.”

EMC has completely revamped its product and solution lineup, introducing more than 40 new storage technologies and products.

“We’re also addressing market segments that we haven’t served in the past — particularly the small and medium businesses,” said Talaat. “SMB companies won’t need a storage specialist in order to set up our new VNX and VNXe products. These storage solutions are very easy to use and can be set up and managed by an IT generalist. The same person who’s managing the company’s network, can manage the storage with EMC VNX and VNXe storage systems.”

To be fair, it must be noted that there are other vendors offering storage to SMBs. Dell, HP and more recently, IBM, come to mind. But for those attracted to EMC solutions the company claims that the VNXe series is the “world’s simplest unified storage system, providing application-optimized management and single-click help and support.” The entry price for the VNXe is under $10,000.

Mid-sized companies would want to consider a solution from the highly scalable VNX series which EMC claims delivers three times simpler management,  three times better efficiency and three times more performance than current EMC midrange storage systems. With the EMC FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) Suite, including FAST VP (Virtual Pools) and FAST Cache, the VNX series offers superior performance, capacity optimization and comprehensive storage management functionality, while exploiting the benefits of Solid State Drives (SSD). The VNX series simplifies the deployment and management of virtualized applications, including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, VMware View virtual desktops and Oracle databases.

EMC VNX and VNXe systems are to be sold by EMC’s local partners across Saudi Arabia. Talaat stated that his team is currently working to revamp the entire EMC partner network in the Kingdom, particularly to ensure that all EMC partners selling the new solutions have appropriate training to help organizations make the best purchasing decisions and to provide after sales support as needed. The VNX and VNXe systems will be appearing soon in Saudi Arabia as EMC partners have already ordered demonstration units to be set up at customer roadshows in the Kingdom’s major cities.