Capacity on Demand – prep yourself for a new era in CX
Huge volumes of applications are being developed with unprecedented speed, supported and underpinned by container-based and open source-based Kubernetes orchestration that provide create agile application creation and deployment. This has given rise to the need for storage and resources that meet the needs of multiple workloads, in multiple locations, with capacity at scale on demand says executive leadership at Infinidat.
The enterprise and data solution company says today, almost every business has an app for its customers to access information, transact and even provide information thus making it more convenient for customers and providing instant gratification.
“We are witnessing an exponential increase in app development and storage is a key consideration within this trend,” says Phil Bullinger, Infinidat CEO. “Companies cannot let IT infrastructure hinder this development, as apps are launched in days and weeks rather than months. Traditionally, new servers would need to be procured, which can take months. Storage that can scale on demand (literally at the click of a mouse) is key to this development process.”
Yet price is also an important consideration for companies with any IT project, Bullinger adds.
“We realised that our markets required an elastic pricing model. With this model, you can immediately start using capacity to accommodate storage requirements for projects. For example, paying for only what you use. When the project ends, you can ‘dial down’ the OpEx, just like in public clouds. This is where the ‘Pay as you Grow’ model becomes extremely attractive.
Capacity at scale
Infinidat says Capacity on Demand (COD), a purchasing model that helps companies manage unpredictable data growth with a predictable cost, is gaining traction in South Africa and the rest of the continent.
According to the company, this model is ideal because rather than focusing on their IT infrastructure, COD enables businesses to focus on innovation and growth.
“COD is the optimal model in South Africa and the rest of Africa as we are seeing relentless exponential growth of capacity requirements in both primary and secondary/backup storage, as well as recovery storage both globally and locally. As companies grow and economies recover these data demands will continue to grow. Businesses require petabyte scale storage. This demand is prominent for the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) industry, whereby Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is offered to their customers,” says Bullinger.
Hayden Sadler, Infinidat Country Manager for South Africa, speaks of the skills challenge in Africa.
“Our value proposition with COD talks directly to the needs of the challenges facing Africa, particularly as skilled ICT resources are in demand. The skills are often ‘imported’ into Africa which is costly. Our COD model enables IT departments and users to simply ‘scale out’ at petabyte capacity, providing them with instant access to storage without complexity or the requirement for specific skills.”
Both Bullinger and Sadler believe Africa is poised for opportunity with the growth and expansion prospects that are presenting themselves.
“We are cementing our value and presence in South Africa and have secured blue chip customers such as Clientèle Life, Senwes, Silicon Sky and Vox Telecom. Our strategic channel partners play a key role in enabling us to deliver business benefits to our end user customers in South Africa and the rest of Africa. We are committed to growing this area of our ecosystem and are perpetually investing in them. We empower our partners to develop their skills in our solutions,” Sadler adds.