GEC NEWS WIREAs the market could see, Toshiba had a very busy 2018. Can you brief what were the key milestones that you achieved?
Certainly. 2018 has been a phenomenal year for Toshiba as we saw a significant growth in the enterprise storage segment, especially in surveillance. We were a late entrant in the surveillance category but if you see the growth that we have had from 2017 till today, it has been fantastic. In 2018, we went a step ahead in deep-diving to comprehend the market’s appetite for capacity and storage and came up with much more clarity and product differentiation based on the usage. We have a dedicated drive for NAS, Enterprise Capacity, Enterprise Performance and exclusive drive for surveillance as well. With this kind of focus we have been able to give the market what it needs.
What kind of growth are you seeing in the surveillance market?
The surveillance market is growing at a remarkable rate. The security market is growing 25-30% YoY and we are expecting the CAGR to touch approximately 17-20% by 2022 in the security market. There is a dire need for storage as the new cameras that are being installed come with 4k quality recording which means double the capacity of storage is required. The government regulations on storing surveillance data is about 6 months which is further propelling the demand for storage.
What is Toshiba’s strategy in making the captured data meaningful?
A few years back it was all about capturing the data and storing it. But today, businesses are analyzing the data and using it for their market positioning. Toshiba has a dedicated storage and analytics division which predominantly focuses on big data and IoT solutions and that is a separate division and department altogether.
Under the umbrella of ‘Storage and Surveillance 360’ Toshiba has conducted 4 key channel roundtable in GCC in 2018. What were the key takeaways from the sessions?
The channel roundtables were highly successful in driving home the fact that storage is no more at the back seat. As data is getting more importance, storage is on the priority list for end-users and this realization is fueling the channel business. We had some really interesting interactions with the leading channel players in UAE, Oman, KSA, Qatar who spoke to us about the demands that they are seeing coming from the customers and how Toshiba can be a preferred vendor.
What is your market prediction for the next 3-5 years?
Toshiba has always been a futuristic company and all our products are designed and launched in sync with that. We recently launched the 16TB in the market going by the prediction that by the year 2025, 166 zettabytes of data will be produced. You need bigger capacity drives that are more efficient and less time and energy consuming.
Can partners or customer expect any change in your GTM strategy in 2019?
Toshiba’s Go-to-market strategy for many years has been in-country developments. We do a channel connect program that goes to every country and elevates our messaging. Apart from that, we also do dedicated roundtables, channel education and training programs etc that enable our partners to go to the end customer with the correct product. Quality and reliability is our USP. Every year, we invest 6% of our revenue for R&D that indicates a serious development in technology that is in sync with the market requirements.
Go Wide, Go Deep has been our mantra.
