SureBridge IT: We've sold enterprise storage for 20 years

With SureBridge IT general manager of IT services Nathan Bradbury

What enterprise storage brands do you specialise in?

We are premier partners with both Hitachi Vantara and Dell EMC and have long-standing relationships with both of these vendors.

When did your company first get involved in this area?

SureBridge has been designing and installing enterprise storage solutions for 20 years. We’ve always been quick to adapt to new technologies that provide a good ROI for our clients. As well as public cloud and hybrid solutions, we still have enterprise clients that want to maintain on-prem storage, and use public cloud for backup, continuity or long-term data retention.

What are your storage credentials?

We are certified installers for all of these vendors. We have the certifications and experience to ensure storage is appropriately protected, virtualised and, where licensed, can take advantage of cloud storage for policy-driven archival. 

Which distributor do you use for storage?

We typically purchase storage directly from the vendors (Hitachi Vantara and Dell EMC).  Software and backup technologies are usually through Ingram Micro or Dicker Data.

Have you heard about any cool developments in the storage space recently? 

Dell EMC are providing flexible pricing models for various enterprise solutions, enabling customers to pay operationally or even as they grow. We’re also seeing more customer interest in object storage platforms. Hitachi Vantara are a leader in this space. Another developing area is analytics software that helps organisations better understand trends within their business from data that had previously been forgotten.

Can you tell us about a recent deployment you have done?

Our most recent enterprise deployment was for a large Queensland-based government agency that was replacing ageing storage infrastructure across two data centres. Recent enterprise storage solutions like this include a strong focus on data security, data recoverability and the ability to leverage cloud.

What is driving customers’ storage-based projects?

Customers are looking to leverage emerging technologies such as hyperconverged and cloud, to drive down traditional storage costs.  They’re also looking for ease of management, plus better visibility, including reporting and data analytics. There is a growing realisation that organisations can gain huge competitive advantages by analysing their own data.

Storage is…?

No longer just a repository of data, but a repository of gold, that with the correct tools and analytics, can help define key business decisions that build a competitive advantage.