FEATURE : ENTERPRISE STORAGE require faster and smarter decision-making capabilities while adopting a virtual digital workplace to meet their customer needs .
Assaad El Saadi , Regional Director – Middle East , Pure Storage
Mahmoud El Kordy , Business Unit Executive , IBM Systems , Middle East and Pakistan , said in the new era we are living today , many organisations are having to transform traditional business models to deliver innovative digital experiences and offer their personalised services to their customers through digital channels that are trusted , secure and highly available .
As a result , noted El Kordy , the data storage market in the Middle East has been steadily growing , driven mainly by the uptake of advanced technologies such as AI and Big Data as part of the Digital Transformation journeys that organisations in the region have embarked on . “ Data storage plays a key role in every transformation journey where the data has become the currency that fuels competitive advantage for every successful business ,” he said . “ Also , an increasing demand for smart phones and other devices underpinned by the Internet of Things ( IoT ) along with a massive growth in social media channels has also increased the demand for additional storage . This continues to drive the growth and demand for advanced data storage solutions in Middle East .”
Cloud versus on-premises storage
Given that enterprise cloud storage consists of storage capacity purchased from a public cloud service provider , enterprises often turn to cloud storage to reduce or eliminate excessive on-premises storage costs , reduce the complexity of managing storage and upgrade data centre infrastructure . The three major public cloud storage providers are Amazon Web Services ( AWS ), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure . Others include Alibaba Cloud , IBM ’ s Bluemix , Oracle and Rackspace , as well as a host of regional providers .
“ We are seeing an increasing interest in cloud adoption as part of the accelerated Digital Transformation strategies of most enterprise companies ,” said NetApp ’ s Kanafani . According to Kanafani , NetApp engagements with the major hyper-scalers is particularly important to support our customers in leveraging cloud storage resources to deliver the business outcomes they are seeking . “ As a cloud led , data-centric , hybrid multi-cloud software organisation , NetApp is helping customers to make the right choices , balancing the different clouds , to create the optimal environment to manage their data securely and thrive ,” he said .
favour adopting cloud as opposed to other storage forms , as well as ensuring that it is the future of enterprise storage focus on the technology ’ s unlimited capabilities which allows infinite customisation , the availability of pay-as-you-go models and the multitier security measures that could be applied . “ Unlike the on-premises offerings , cloud storage provides users the ability to pick and choose the capacity they need from the cloud storage services , with no high CAPEX and great speed , availability , security and high performance ,” he said .
Assaad El Saadi , Regional Director – Middle East , Pure Storage , said there is no doubt that cloud storage is the future of enterprise storage . “ The user economy is gaining ground in all traditional IT infrastructure areas and the benefits are clear . You ’ re no longer purchasing anything ; you ’ re consuming a service ,” he noted . “ Research shows that many CIOs feel consumptionbased models significantly accelerate Digital Transformation due to the transparency and agility to repurpose capital to address business demand . To future-proof storage infrastructure , organisations will need flexible consumption of file , block and object storage for on-prem or the cloud . The premise is simple – if you pay only for what you need , you don ’ t
Mouteih Chaghlil , CEO , Middle East and Africa ( MEA ), Bespin Global , said the main three features that
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