“We will continue to focus on the enterprise and the SMB sector this year and will bring to our customers the best of breed products and solutions”

Last year Quantum launched its biggest set of tape and disk products/services
in India and thus strengthened its leadership position in backup, recovery and
archive. The series of launches has enabled the company to cover a broader range
of customer segments. Jim Simon, Marketing Director, Asia Pacific at Quantum is
excited about the new leadership position of the company and believes that it is
a great step forward.

In 2005 Quantum had launched many new products. What will be the thrust
areas for this year?

Yes, indeed. 2005 was an exciting year for us. We launched a series of
technically superior and innovative products in the Indian market to address the
growing requirements of the Indian businesses. Now we can clearly say that
Quantum is the only player in the disk and tape space offering higher-level
features and functionality at unprecedented price points. Like last year, this
year too we will continue to focus on the enterprise and the SMB sector and
provide them with the best of solutions and products.

Jim Simon Director of Marketing-Asia Pacific, Quantum

The SMB sector in India is poised for a huge growth and opportunities. How
would Quantum tap into that space with its product line?

It is true. The SMB market is growing and has huge opportunities. In fact we
already have a product to cater to the needs of our SMB customers. The latest
Quantum DLT-V4 is one of the world's first tape drives to ship with a SATA
interface, making it easier for customers to attach to entry-level servers. This
establishes a new threshold in backup, recovery and archive for SMB customers.
The DLT-V4 drive combines DLTSageT for predictive, diagnostic, manageability and
DLTIceT for meeting regulatory compliance requirements through standard media
and Write Once Read Many (WORM) capability also.

What are the features of the recently launched product DLT-S4?

DLT-S4 tape drive delivers twice the capacity of LTO-3 and almost three times
that of SDLT 600 at the cost of just six cents per GB. What makes it unique is
that the product features Quantum's DLTSage, which is a suite of intelligence
protection tools that include DLTSage WORM and DLTSage tape security. These
tools help to meet all compliance regulatory requirements for unalterable
long-term data storage and also prevent unauthorized access to data stored. Also
we would be looking to upgrade the product with new features like data
encryption.

Who are the target customers for DLT-S4 and what is the model adopted to
sell this product line?

DLT-S4 is basically targeted at our enterprise customers. These include
government agencies, software firms, even banks and financial institutions. In
essence the product would be targeted at customers who generate large amounts of
data and need to store it effectively. As far as our model to sell the product
goes, we would stick to our channel route and sell DLT-S4 through our partners.

What kind of training and support would you give your resellers to
encourage them to sell DLTS4?

Quantum has always believed in doing business with the channel partners. We have
already put in place the Quantum reseller program, called the 'Quantum
alliance', which helps resellers to learn about new products, initiatives and
informs them of the training and support. In addition, we have regular e-mails
and white papers sent to resellers to keep them updated on the latest in the
business and technology. We also participate in road shows and other events to
ensure that the reseller community is well educated and equipped to handle all
kinds of customer queries. All these programs will be utilized to help our
channel sell DLT-S4.

Is Quantum looking to sign up new partners for DLT-S4? If yes, what
qualities would you be looking for to add on new resellers?

As it stands now, we are happy with our channel partners. In our new partners we
are looking for those who can bring us the required skill set and have the
needed customer reach. For us, new customers are the key.

As far as the market goes, how does Quantum look at India in terms of
market opportunity?

For Quantum, India is the fastest growing market in the APAC region. So, we are
looking to launch more products this year to cater to the need of this growing
sector. We are also looking to increase our investments in software development
and R&D to ensure that we bring the best breed of products at good prices to
the customers here. This way, we would ensure that we generate maximum customer
satisfaction and also stay ahead of our competitors.

With tape backup and storage seeing increased use, would you say that the
future is bleak for disks?

I do not think so. Both of them have their own share of advantages, so both
tapes and disks would continue to co-exist. Talking of the fact that tapes have
grown in preference for use, their features of low cost, longer life,
reusability and mobility has made them more popular. However this does not mean
that disks would become obsolete.

Subbalakshmi BM