Pulling ahead of your competitors in the Covid-19 game - Prashanth GJ, CEO, Technobind
Covid-19 has taught us many new lessons so far. One of the key takeaways from the pandemic probably is—when one door closes, another one opens! The initial days of the nation-wide lockdown were particularly challenging for all industries. On one side, customers were badly hit, and the channel community too took the strain. But on the other hand, the shift to ‘work-anywhere’ culture opened up many new avenues for VARs and solution providers. Companies rapidly implemented digital, cloud and many such technologies as part of their business continuity response. So, yes, projects were shelved and cashflows were disrupted; but that doesn’t mean that companies are not investing on technology. In fact, some of them are investing more. It is just that they were looking for more value and more specific business results—improved operational efficiencies, employee productivity, optimizing cost and bringing business agility.
Did everyone in the channel ecosystem manage to leverage on these opportunities? Well, not all, but a few definitely did thrive. And those few focused on very different things this time. They did not wait for requirements to happen. They did not push big brands or Magic Quadrant endorsements to customers. Instead, they worked on providing business enabling solutions from disruptive vendors.
As a company that recorded an exceptional YoY growth during this tough time, Technobind team and its family of partners have experienced this first-hand. I don’t think we would have been able to achieve our targets for Q1 2020, if we were afraid of challenging our customers and show them new ways of doing things. Other than remote working solutions and related products, we clocked considerable growth across our data-related offerings.
Being one of the earliest storage professional in the country, the evolution of storage has always been something I have followed keenly. There has some rapid changes happening in the last couple of years and one such thing is the emergence of the S3 protocol. I am particularly kicked about this and I think this will become a big game changer soon!!!
Why S3 object storage is the next big opportunity?
Object storage has been a preferred option for enterprises dealing with massive data growth. It allows them to keep data for longer and retrieve easily when required. It is also often touted as the panacea for the storage scalability crisis that organizations have been trying to deal with.
With faster access to data and availability becoming key factors in the current circumstances, object storage is once again in the limelight. Market studies indicate that more than 50 percent of organizations are looking at investing on on-premise object storage systems.
Over the years, many APIs have been used to access object storage, but the S3 API is by far the most common. The success of AWS, who pioneered the S3 protocol, has turned S3 into an enterprise storage must-have today. While S3 compatible object storage has been associated with cloud deployments, it is soon emerging as an on-prem enterprise storage medium.
Its ability to store data quickly and easily from anywhere, coupled with infinite scalability, is making S3 a hot favourite for a number of use-cases, including AI/analytics projects, data backup and long-term archiving.
There are many reasons for organizations to deploy S3-compatible storage in their on-prem infrastructure and private clouds. These include:
Limitless scalability: Explosive growth in data has put many organizations into the storage scalability puzzle. Traditional storage approached are neither cost effective nor simple. S3 object storage addresses this issue by delivering infinite scalability.
Cost-effective than public cloud: Covid-19 has led to sharp storage budget cuts. With increasing data volumes, even public cloud storage doesn’t justify the investments. S3 object storage offers up to 70 percent less cost than public cloud
On-premise performance and control: For those who do not consider moving everything to cloud, on-premise object storage offers better performance, low latency and better control.
Seamless shift to cloud: Migrating to cloud at any stage is a hassle-free experience with S3 compatible storage. Not just that, most applications are now S3 compatible and organization are looking at capitalizing on that ecosystem.
Bringing the cloud native S3 object storage to on-premise and hybrid environments is probably one of the biggest milestones of the storage industry. Many industries, especially those dealing with large volumes of unstructured data, have already embraced this technology. In the coming days, with the emergence of unique storage demands, this combination is set to revolutionize the enterprise storage arena. There is no better time than now for channel partners to start having this vastly different storage conversation with their customers.