'HP Storage was a well-kept secret'

Isn't HP Storage facing a tough fight from storage vendors
like EMC and NetApp?

We are doing quite good in the external storage market and are on par with
the top three vendors. With our comprehensive portfolio of products and our
reach, we are slowly becoming the first choice for many organizations. I do
agree, that pure play storage vendors like EMC might have a stronger brand
recall, but the story will change in the days to come. HP Storage was a
well-kept secret till now, but that will change. We are getting aggressive,
increasing our headcount, and going all out for independent deals.

What is the go-to-market strategy? Which are the verticals
that you are targeting?

Traditionally, for storage solutions, telecom and financial institutions are
the mainstay. But, we are very much encouraged by the successes in new verticals
like media and entertainment. For instance, we have a major installation at
Crest Media, Red Chillies, and others. The need for storage in these companies
is pretty high; at Crest, a 30 min animation length can take up as much 30 Tb of
data. We are also seeing lot of traction from the government sectors, and have
worked with Northern Railways, managing the passenger reservation system. New
verticals like jewelry are also emerging.

Some of our other major deployments were UTV, National Thermal
Power Corporation, and Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

You said HP Storage was a 'well-kept secret'. How is that
changing now and what will be the priority markets that you will be targeting?

Worldwide, HP has been known for its consumer products like printers or
laptops, not many were aware about the existence of HP Storage. You could say
that it was a part of the strategy earlier, but now that is changing. HP Storage
will be more aggressive and independent, while continuing to be a part of the
mega business unit. For instance, we have recently brought in a senior VP to
look after the Storage Division worldwide from Hitachi. Talking about the
priorities, we are targeting the SAN, as well as the software and services
space; we already have considerable clout in these segments. We will also
accelerate our growth in the NAS segment.

There has been a lot of speculation on how direct-attached
storage or DAS is on its way out. What's your take on this?

DAS will go away. It has a lot to do with customer environment and
comfortability. A lot many companies are not that comfortable with storing
mission-critical data on SAN and would like to have a DAS in place. Going
forward, I see a point where there will be hybrid solutions in place. Depending
on the role and requirement, you could see a SAN, NAS or a DAS. It's all about
choices.

How important are the roles played by services and software in
the overall game plan?

Pretty significant. Services play a significant part. We have, for instance,
over ten different product lines. It is the services that promote and service
these product lines. Storage software is also a big opportunity, and we are
fairly bullish about it. There are a lot of storage management solutions that
are available from HP in the market right now, and they are not necessarily
bundled with the hardware.

How big is the storage component in the big deals won over by
HP?

Storage plays a fairly big component in these big deals; it can go up to
40%. However, the percentage is lower in managed services kind of a deal.

Shashwat Chaturvedi


shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in