SPECIAL REPORT CASE STUDY: For a long time storage backup and recovery in the SMB space has consisted of nothing more elaborate than adding another disk to the server and installing a tape drive.
But as technology has gotten cheaper, more advanced systems such as storage area networks (SANs) are becoming affordable for some SMBs.
The result has been wider markets for companies such as Perfekt COM, a Melbourne-based service provider that specialises in information storage. Perfekt’s technical director, Abie Gelbart, says his company is providing SAN services to an increasing number of smaller companies.
"What often happens is when they run out of slots in a server, they have to go and acquire a new server, just because they need additional storage," Gelbart says.
"Now the cost of SAN technology has come down to the point where for under $30,000 in some instances they can actually get hold of its benefits. It gives them so much more flexibility to no longer worry about their storage, because it is now completely separate."
One mid-sized business to jump on the SAN bandwagon is the Heat Group, an 80-person company that turns over more than $50 million per year distributing Proctor & Gamble’s colour cosmetics in Australia, including the Max Factor and Cover Girl ranges.
Heat Group’s chief operating officer, Ishwar Prasad, says when he joined the company two years ago it was operating on fairly primitive hardware and networking technology. Sudden and significant growth had placed greater strains on the company, while the reporting requirements from Proctor & Gambol — a company with a US$73 billion turnover — had also increased in a way that the Heat’s Group’s systems could not keep up with.
"It came to a point where we really couldn’t manage our business growth with the current technology," Prasad says. "We were running on a fairly small machine — there was no redundancy and no backup. And it was assumed that, like a typical small company, because we had never had a breakdown in the server before, it was never going to happen."
"Our data is worth millions of dollars. If we lose that, it is going to cost millions of dollars to try and recover, with the consequential cost to the business."
Four months ago the company decided on a solution that could take it through the next three to five years. Prasad sought to change all this using best practices, bringing in a backup server and built-in redundancy.
His background in large-scale IT in Indonesia led him to EMC’s AX100 product, which would allow the Heat Group to manage data in a virtualised manner. Perfekt COM was the partner involved. "We investigated various solutions and asked for demos from various software vendors, and we found that EMC has the right kind of a product at an entry level. So we decided to choose a product at the entry level, and for the next two to three years would upgrade to the next level."
"There are benefits that many companies would not realise. It’s modular in structure, and the expandability is seamless, in that it is very easy to keep on adding storage. A lot of small companies might be able to afford the entry level solution being offered by EMC, but if they are able to sell the benefits that are derived they will be able to make some pretty good inroads."
The company has gained increased availability and redundancy, with simplification of data management. The company has dumped its direct DAT storage, which Prasad says was limiting its ability to expand.
Prasad acknowledges that the decision to go with a SAN solution is unusual for a company of the Heat Group’s size, but says that while he has seen few other examples of similar sized companies implementing SAN solutions, the only risk involved was in the up-front cost.
The new environment will assist the Heat Group in its quest to double its revenue to $100 million in the next three years, a process that will take place through acquisition of new brands to add to its portfolio.
Gelbart expects the number of companies of the Heat Group’s size that are interested in SANs to increase steadily next year.
"The products have reduced in price so much over the last few years, and also the product options from major vendors have also increased," Gelbart says. "EMC has traditionally been a high-end focused company. With that particular product, it has opened up the market so that companies like the Heat Group, and even smaller, can get the benefits that the big guys have always got in the past."
As prices come down, the number of storage suppliers to the SMB space is growing accordingly. Melbourne-based Global Storage (formerly Source Technology) derives roughly 80 percent of its business in data resources strategy and management from companies with fewer than 500 employees.
Global Storage’s technical director, David Duncan, says the combined pressures of risk management, governance and compliance that large enterprises feel are also being felt by SMB companies.
As companies are asked to keep their data longer, the soon run into issues of how to ‘age’ and store that data appropriately and cost effectively.
Even humble email is contributing to the problem, as companies grow reticent to delete what is seen as both a corporate information resource and a necessary cord of business dealings.
"We tackle the SME market because we don’t think the tier ones do it properly," Duncan says.
"Storage in general and the practice of managing storage is the fastest growing area in IT now, even with your smaller organisation of 100 to 500 employees. Just about every company of that size is thinking about storage in a significant way."
"If you’ve got a good value-add story to sell and a strong service focus, these guys are great customers, because if you’re looking at a 400-seat site, they’ve got a lot of IT."
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