The Hindu Business Line : India 3rd biggest storage buyer

Bangalore, Aug. 20 India is the third biggest storage buyer, trailing Australia and China. Around 33,000 single drive units are sold in India, making it an approximate $47-million market. Australia is a $68-million market while China follows at $63 million.

“India is the most important market in APAC,” said Mr Raymond Kang, Managing Director, Tandberg Data Asia, a Norwegian storage firm. He was speaking at the signing of a distribution agreement with WeP’s Select Technologies.

Select Technologies is a division of WeP Peripherals, a distributor primarily targeting small and medium enterprises and small/home offices. “We expect to have a penetration level of about 8-10 per cent,” said Mr Ram N. Agarwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, WeP Peripherals.

Tandberg Data makes rugged storage products, hybrid drives that it claims are 30-50 per cent cheaper than other archiving solutions. The company launched RDX Quikstor, a hybrid storage device for SME and SOHO market, here on Monday.

Drives’ capacity

The drives are available in varying capacities: 40 GB, 80 GB, 120 GB and 160 GB. “Future generations will be available as 2.5 inch hard disk drives and we will launch the 300 GB version in the fourth quarter this year,” said Mr Kjell Oyvind Aasene, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, APAC, and Japan Tandberg Data Asia.

Tandberg, which bought over Exabyte last year, is targeting $200 million in revenues this year and employs 337 employees.

According to IDC — a global provider of IT intelligence and market data — it commands a 17 per cent market share in the single drive market, and 24 per cent in the tape automation market in India.

“Engaging in channel partnerships has brought us success in the Indian market,” said Mr Kang.

The Bangalore-based WeP Peripherals is investing Rs 25 crore to set up two manufacturing facilities.

The units in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh and Mysore in Karnataka will produce printers, printer heads and UPS (unlimited power supply) units, said Mr Agarwal.