Security

Iomega witnesses Natural Progression

by VARINDIA 2012-04-21

Praveen Sahai
Director of Sales,
India & SAARC and Strategic Marketing Director,
APJ, Iomega (an EMC Company)

From storage to specialized video surveillance market, how is Iomega transforming?

The focus of our business in India has certainly transformed over the years. So far, we have been focussing on selling personal storage products through our retail customers, but now we are targeting SMB companies with higher capacity products and our NAS technology. The shift has been from B2C to B2B. We have transformed our next-generation NAS devices into cloud servers that help user’s access data from anywhere. Now, this shift in our business can be attributed to the fact that the meaning of storage for SMBs and the SOHO segment is evolving. A few years back, computers were considered to be the only source of storage, especially among the SMBs and the SOHO segment. However, with the advent of technology, SMBs today have realized that a computer is to compute and a storage device is to store. Beyond the opportunity for networked storage in the SMB segment, there is an emerging opportunity of video surveillance solution being adopted by a large number of SMBs in professional services, retail and manufacturing, as well as by the branch offices of distributed companies. With the Video Surveillance industry getting more organized and digitized, therefore creating a demand for cost-effective IP surveillance solution comes as a natural progression for Iomega. Taking into consideration the huge potential exists in the surveillance market, Iomega partnered with MindTree and Tulip to launch the first-ever IP-based video surveillance for the SMEs.

Besides the recent partnership with Tulip and MindTree to provide Digital Video Surveillance Solutions, how are you planning to tap the potential?

With the advent of intelligent video, surveillance is now not just restricted to the sphere of security, but is also emerging as a tool for gathering business intelligence and other applications. The surveillance industry is undergoing a major technology shift, i.e., the older, analog technology-based CCTVs are now giving way to IP-based (digital), open-source and fully integrated systems. The market opportunity for surveillance is immense and we, at Iomega, are bullish on NAS with IP surveillance solutions. To begin with, we have joined forces with Tulip Telecom and MindTree to offer cloud-based video surveillance storage management solutions focussed on the SOHO and SMB segments. The association has helped us reach 2,400 broadband network users of Tulip to expand our NAS footprint. With Central Home Ministry’s diktats to the managements of malls, hotels and other public places to install CCTVs and store video footage, a new window of opportunity has opened and since performance is very critical in such projects, the storage would be done by using SMB NAS. Thus, Iomega aims to redefine video surveillance technology by delivering a high-performance, low-cost all-in-one IP solution targeting small businesses and distributed enterprises. The strategy is to tap the market with technological innovation. Further, we also see a strong demand from households not only for periphery but also for internal surveillance

What opportunities it means to the partners?

Going forward, we will remain committed to providing innovative storage and network security solutions for its customers and continue to collaborate with the channel partners to present a strong value proposition to our customers. With such innovation, Iomega not just opens up new areas of opportunities but also increases the TAM (total addressable market) for our channel partners. Our partners now have new business opportunities open up and alignment to surveillance will mean delta business.

With respect to our video surveillance solutions distribution, we are working with a new partner in Video Surveillance area like Anixter and announced our foray through a service provider with Tulip. More such programmes and relationships will be announced this year as we take a charter to grow the business 300 per cent in India and overall increase the size of this market segment. Besides this, Redington and Neoteric have been our distributors in India for many years now and have positively contributed to penetrate and create Iomega reach.

Iomega has been able to create a large base of 1,000+ partners who are helping us reach over 40 cities across the country. For our NAS range of products, out of our partner base of 860, we focus on our 200 NAS partners, and our aim is to add another 100 small SI partners by the end of this year, specifically for our surveillance solutions.