GCC clients prefer consultation-led data storage and protection solutions

GCC enterprises overwhelmingly prefer consultation-driven providers for data storage and protection, as the rapidly-growing IT infrastructure market drives enhanced ROI, a new survey reveals.

An impressive 97 percent of survey respondents from the UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Qatar strongly agree that they would engage in future business with consultation-led solutions providers, according to the 2014 edition of the “Defending Your Data” survey by data storage and protection experts Condo Protego.

IT infrastructure is growing at breakneck speed in the Middle East, with Gartner Inc. predicting the market for servers, storage, and networking equipment will grow from USD 3.8 billion in 2012 to USD 4.1 billion in 2014, and USD 4.4 billion in 2016.

“Clients across the GCC face a growing number of data issues – including data storage, virtualization, security, data protection,” said Andrew Calthorpe, CEO, Condo Protego.

“To help them navigate this complex terrain, businesses and organisations are showing strong preference for those that can deliver highly-focused solutions that are built out of rigorous, ROI-based consultation.”

Globally, the enterprise storage market will reach USD 42.5 billion by 2017, driven by digital content, data protection, and archiving, according to a recent report by the IDC.

Demonstrating the strong take-up of enterprise storage solutions in the region, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Europe is slated to become the world’s second largest enterprise storage market behind the United States by 2015, according to the IDC.

Respondents to the “Defending Your Data” survey strongly agree that consultation-led enterprise data solutions deliver or provide business value, with 97 percent of respondents giving a nine or 10, with 10 being “fully agree,” in line with Gartner Inc.’s findings.

For the “Defending Your Data” survey, Condo Protego interviewed clients across a wide range of industry verticals, including government, finance, healthcare, education, transportation, healthcare, and telecommunications. To ensure accuracy of responses, Condo Protego is keeping client names confidential.

Leveraging IT trends including mobility, social, and the cloud, the region’s banks, government agencies, and telecommunications companies are extending virtualization investment in creating private clouds, according to Gartner Inc. Clouds provide on-the-go access to data, while enabling organizations to save on IT costs.