IBM is investing in developing storage products for mid-segment and lower segment clients in Tier-2/ Tier-3 cities in India and is focusing on increasing its presence in smaller cities.
“We are putting a lot of effort into the mid-market clients. We are investing in more products in the low and mid areas, and these organic products that IBM has developed… not just OEM,” Ms Laura Guio, Vice-President for Storage Sales in Growth Markets, told Business Line recently. “One thing IBM is doing is taking the technology and feature function richness of an enterprise solution and pushing it down the stack. For those who don't have the investment power invest in the enterprise solution but want the bells and whistles. As they invest in this, our solution helps them ride up the continuum,” Ms Guio said.
“What we need to focus on is helping clients understand in the mid-space,” she added.
Products & requirement
According to her, people initially were willing to buy storage space but then saw the other costs that came with buying space. Products such as V7000 were suitable for such small-term requirement, she says.
With India being the fastest growing in IBM's bunch of 149 ‘growth markets', the company is working on developing more products such as IBM Storwize V7000, suitable for small and medium business as it helps manage data flow reduces storage rack space.
In this context, the company is also planning to expand aggressively into smaller cities across the country and leverage the market with the help of business partners.