Capitalize On Storage Security
Data security continues to be a hot topic in 2006. Barbara Nelson, CEO and chairman of storage security specialist NeoScale, recently told me there were 134 documented data breaches in 2005, affecting 57 million people. It hit home for me recently when my credit card information was compromised due to an “unidentified data breach.” A lack of storage security played a big role in those losses. If you’re selling storage solutions without a security component, you’re missing an add-on sales opportunity.
In smaller IT environments, storage security solutions can take the form of solid backup procedures and frequent data restore tests. Responsible tape handling processes, such as off-site storage, can also protect companies from data disasters. Those processes can be facilitated by the professional services of a VAR. In medium to large enterprises and government installations, more sophisticated solutions such as encryption can be used to protect data. In all cases, the common denominator is the sales opportunity for the VAR.
Do you think you’re not equipped to sell secure storage solutions? I bet you are. For instance, there are encrypted tape solutions hitting the market this year. Quantum is one vendor that is delivering secure tape now. DLTSage Tape Security prevents unauthorized access to data on tape cartridges — particularly valuable in the event tapes are lost or stolen. Those tape drives and libraries are installed and configured no differently from standard tape drives. If you are a VAR that wants to take storage security to the next level, security appliance vendors such as Decru and NeoScale are hungry for resellers and are more than happy to help you along. Data encryption solutions may take a little training to sell and install, but they will provide VARs with more installation and configuration revenue opportunities.
Every time I hear another story about a data security breach, I think of the endless sales opportunities for VARs. Now is the time to capitalize on media coverage of data security breaches by offering your customers storage security solutions.