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‘‘SMBs need automated data back-up’’

Jose Ocanas, World Wide Marketing Manager, Tivoli Software, spoke to us about the Indian SMB.

Do SMBs face unique storage management problems?

Indian SMBs form the fastest-growing segment in the IT market. They face problems similar to those of large organisations. Budgeting and staffing are the important ones. The majority of SMBs back up data manually, using tape. This is time consuming. There is no centralisation of data back-ups. They need to invest in technology which will help them automate the processes of data back-ups. This will enable junior staff to do the backing up of data while seniors and experts could be involved in more important processes such as working on new products for the market.

As far as IBM is concerned, we have invested a lot of money in introducing newer products for IT management. We actually went to the SMBs and asked them, “What do you want?” In turn, we developed a lot of business partners in them.

What’s the difference between Tivoli Express Solutions and Tivoli Solutions?

These solutions are completely rebuilt. The totally new graphical user interface and ease of customisation are the most important features of the Tivoli Express solutions. They integrate and work with all other applications (open source included). The principal difference comes in the form of price and ease of use and installation. So SMBs get both—important features from the main solutions and those which fit their requirements.

The installation time is said to be only around an hour. Your comments on that?

More people and services are needed to install enterprise solutions. There are no results in the first two days, whereas here, you could install the solutions yourself and perform the first back-up in an hour’s time.

What about compliance?

Identity Management Express enables the organisation to have all its user reports and passwords in one place, which makes it very easy for them in terms of time to comply with regulations and standards.

What kind of data losses will the solutions cover?

There are four products in the Express range of solutions. All these can help recover and back up data in different ways. Even in case of hardware crashes, data can be quickly recovered and backed up. Also, there is a product called Continuous Data Recovery which can help recover and back up data from personal computers and laptops.

— Rishiraj Verma