Are your clients suffering from information overload?

Hitachi Data Systems says NZ partners should be helping companies manage "information glut"

By Vera Alves, Auckland | Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Two in every five companies in the ANZ region are suffering from information overload, according to the Great Information Glut report released by Hitachi Data Systems.

This is the second edition of the report, first released in 2009, based on independent research by AMR and Deloitte Access Economics. The new report shows a five percent increase in the number of companies suffering from this overload.

The company says that the “growing information glut” is costing the New Zealand economy $400 million per year. “$400 million is a big number in anyone’s books,” says Hitachi Data Systems’ CTO Adrian de Luca.

According to de Luca, among the reasons for this information glut are the rapid digitisation of information and the explosion of social networking. These factors have created a higher dependency on technology, as well as the need for more technology deployment and greater storage requirements.

“Companies are struggling to find the right strategies to manage information,” says de Luca, adding that “it is only going to get more competitive”.

He says this information glut has the upside of representing a big opportunity for Hitachi Data Systems partners in New Zealand. The company says it is looking at growing its partner community in the country and de Luca assures that “changes are afoot” and the company is looking for “partners that help [us] achieve what we want”.

“Small companies can play with the big boys,” says the CTO. “You don’t need to be a big player to be the dominant one in the marketplace – Trade Me is a classic example of that,” he adds.
According to de Luca, the opportunity for partners also lies in showing customers how they can manage their information and find out where their growth is coming from. “There are opportunities for channel partners to help customers with that assessment,” he says. “The New Zealand market is very aware of changes but it is still tightening the budgets. Vendors have continued to innovate,” he adds. De Luca mentions thin provisioning and virtualisation as two ways companies can innovate without having to replace their entire IT infrastructure.

This is not necessarily about spending more money on hardware; rather understanding how existing infrastructure can be leverage for the best return on investment,” says Neville Vincent, vice president and general manager of Hitachi Data Systems in the ANZ region.

According to the CTO, Hitachi Data Systems partners in New Zealand are ideally placed to help customers do exactly that. “Consulting services are the way forward for Hitachi Data Systems and its partners in New Zealand,” he says.