"Our modular solutions have been a big draw in India"

What kind of opportunities do you see in the Indian
market for Quantum’s products?

Currently, we are specifically focused on providing data protection solutions to
the finance, manufacturing, ITeS, software, and telecom segments. We have
already doubled the size of our operations in Bangalore and will open offices in
Mumbai and Delhi this year.

Let’s take the case of Quantum DX30, a disk-based
system that is optimized for backup and virtualized tape. DX30 offers an
innovative approach to backup through disk-based solutions that complement tape
libraries, optimize backup performance, and provide seamless interoperability,
while preserving existing investments in backup hardware, software, and
operational procedures. We are very bullish about DX30’s adoption in India,
and will adopt a consultative approach in implementing these solutions.

Our customers in the multinationals segment include GE
Capital Services, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Intel, Silicon
Graphics, i2 Technologies, ABN Amro Bank, GE GTS, and Sanyo. The Indian
businesses segment constitutes a growing percentage of our business. Some of our
clients in this segment include UTI Bank, South Indian Bank, Command Cell,
ControlNet, Infosys, Tata Consulting Services, Kotak Mahindra, Indya.com, Wipro
Technologies, and SG Software. This will be our focus segment in the coming
months.

How would you describe the storage needs of the
Indian enterprises?

In fact, the Indian market has just realized the importance and benefits of
having networked and automated storage environments. Also, users in India are
increasingly looking for simple, cost-effective, reliable, and highly modular
storage solutions. They couldn’t care less if the solution was a SAN or NAS
implementation. The Indian market, has in particular, been a major draw for our
modular storage solutions, where customers are able to easily build on their
previous storage investments and ‘buy as they go’. This is a major reason
why Quantum has been hugely successful with its M-1500 and M-2500 series
libraries, which offers high flexibility and modularity.

Which were the major deals that you lapped up
recently?

The biggest order for us last year was from GE Capital Services. GE Capital has
the largest installation of M1500 libraries in the entire Asia-Pacific.
Motorola, Nerolac Paints, Chrysler Daimler, ONGC, Mentor Graphics, Spice
Telecom, Fluent, and Tata Teleservices are some of the major orders won by us in
the last quarter.

What about the telecom service providers segment?

We have been very successful in the telecom segment so far. But we still have a
large market to address, and we are doing that very aggressively. Some of our
major customers in this segment are Command Cell, Orange, Tellabs, Tata
Teleservices, and Spice Telecom.

Who are your channel partners in India and are you
looking at new partners?

Our ‘Go to Market’ strategy in India is to work closely with our partners,
Wipro Infotech and Apara Enterprises, in developing the Indian market for our
products and services. Both our partners understand the Indian market very well
and help us immensely in positioning the right kind of products for the Indian
market. At the moment, there are no fresh plans to look for additional channel
partners.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey