Growing Demand for Scalable, Tiered Backup and Archiving

Tandberg Data revealed the results of its 2009 partner survey. The global survey is the second of its kind, following the first research in 2007. In the survey, 100 channel partners have shared their views on trends and developments in the SMB storage market. By conducting a second research 18 months after the initial research, Tandberg Data was able to uncover interesting developments and trends.

Resellers, Distributors and Value Added Resellers shared their views on developments at their customers – the end users (all small to medium sized businesses across all industries) – and also provided feedback on qualities they expect of vendors.

Relationships Matter
When asked the importance of key qualities in vendors, vendor relationships and the ease of doing business with the vendor were still the key elements for the channel when selecting their vendor of choice (98% indicated that this is important to very important). However, in the current challenging economic climate, pricing and discounts/rebates are becoming increasingly important; more than 90% of the respondents indicated that this is an important criteria.

"Selling is all about relationships," said Chris Reeves, at Northamber, distributor of Tandberg Data solutions in the UK. "It’s about relationships with our customers and, in turn, with our vendors. Of course the basics; strong, reliable products, good pricing, logistics and support need to be covered, and those are the reasons why a vendor will choose Northamber. After that, relationships seal the deal. That’s what makes you walk that extra mile when closing deals. Our relationship with the Tandberg Data team is a prime example of the successes you can achieve if you do it right."

Service Paramount
As customers are struggling with increased data volumes, system performance and availability demands, finding reliable storage solutions that meet their requirements is a challenge. This year’s survey showed that customers are looking for products with long warranty periods and advanced replacement offerings. In the current economic climate, the survey shows that end users are less likely to pay the more expensive on-site service contracts.

Changes in Backup and Archiving
In the past years, the industry has witnessed the introduction and success of tiered storage in the SMB market, with disk taking a vital role in backup and archiving scenarios. The survey confirmed that many end users are opting for disk based backup – in the form of NAS (33%), Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape (28%) or Virtual Tape (20%). Requirements for disk are ease of integration and use and scalability. LTO tape technology and tape automation remain the archiving method of choice for most end users – tape is moving into an archival role. In the archiving arena, scalability and upgradeability are key requirements for tape automation solutions.

“Comparing the 2009 research with the 2007 research, we have seen a shift in the way end users do their backup and archiving,” said Bharat Kumar, vice president of marketing and strategy at Tandberg Data. “In line with industry predictions, our channel partners reported that end users are moving away from tape for backup. In stead they are looking for easy to use, scalable disk based backup solutions such as our recently introduced DPS1000 Series VTL. They are also telling us that end users¬ are moving away from disk for archiving – in stead choosing to use the more economical, ‘no-power-medium’ – tape – which provides them with secure, cost effective, long term archiving.”