HP to give more impetus to storage and tape automation

Hewlett-Packard (HP) India is chalking out plans to put more impetus on the storage and the tape automation business. The
company will be launching its new series of NAS and automation products by mid-June, which would ensure
its commitment  to provide the best storage solutions to the customers.

According to Amit Malhotra, Business Manager (Nearline and NAS), Network Storage Solutions, HP, "The storage market
is growing at a alarming pace and we want to ensure that we provide the best to our customers. The new
products which we will be launching will be priced similar to what it is now, but will have much more value-added features attached to it." 

Amit points out that small and medium businesses will remain HP's focus but along with it the company also wants to target the
government and the educational institutes. Presently, HP is doing a NAS project for the Apeejay
Schools across the country and has also done various projects from engineering institutes in the southern region. "Today storage is not limited
to any particular sector and customers have started realizing the importance of data protection and recovery. This is the best possible
situation for the NAS market in India and we want to take full advantage of this," remarks
Amit.

HP today has 250 channel partners in the storage business across the country and Amit wants to ensure that each of these
partners are well skilled to address the customer needs. "Presently we are having a 4-day hands on
training for the partners in three cities. In Bangalore we concluded the event on 1 st July, in Delhi it will start on 6 th July and in Mumbai on 12
th July.

This will ensure that the partners get all the skill-sets involved in selling storage solutions," Amit added.
Amit feels that storage is also soon going to be such a commodity where margins will get squeezed and only those partners will survive who have
technical expertise to earn revenue from services. "It is very important that our partners give the best solutions to the customers. These skills are
not attained in one day and so retention of the technical people is also important. Ultimately it is the after-sales relationship with the customers
which pays the most for the channel partners and we at HP give the utmost importance to this procedure," informs
Amit. 

The company is now preparing to hold an 8-city demo of the storage products, which will be launched by mid-June. "It will be
a one-month exercise where we will interact with the customers and the channel partners and make them
understand the nitty-gritty of the products. I am hopeful that with the launch of these new storage products we would be able to make more inroads
in the storage business in the country," Amit sums up. 

ATANU KUMAR DAS