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DATA-storage management and security specialist EMC
Corp. is eyeing expansion both in market terms and
product and service offerings.
This
development comes on the heels of landmark growth last
year.
In a
press conference Tuesday in the financial district of
Makati, Steve Leonard, EMC president for Asia-Pacific
and Japan, said his company is poised to cascade its
data-storage and management and software-as-a-service
offerings from traditional corporate clients to midlevel
enterprise and, eventually, “home users…particularly the
multi-platform family that will make use of a home
network for their computers,” and other information and
communications technology devices like mobile phones and
PDAs (personal digital assistants).
Leonard
said EMC is in the process of acquiring data-storage
hardware manufacturer iOmega Corp. as part of EMC’s
efforts to provide “a more powerful product [range] and
consolidate our capabilities” in the area of
data-storage hardware.
He also
said EMC is working to “move technology into the home
level” with home-storage devices and services developed
in Beijing, China, as well as to small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) worldwide.
Noting
that EMC is expanding in the Philippines as well as
entering markets in Russia, Eastern Europe, Vietnam and
Indonesia, Leonard said EMC’s expansion is under way
“not as a separate divisions but as a whole, under the
EMC corporate umbrella.”
While
EMC “has committed to remaining a market leader” in the
field of digital data storage and security systems and
services, Leonard also noted that EMC is expanding its
services and software product offerings in a manner that
is “more comprehensive... more robust” because EMC is
seeking “balance and growth.”
He added
the firm is also “constantly at work” to improve its
products and services—either by “introducing
enhancements or by developing entirely new products.”
Leonard
said the purpose of his visit to the Philippines, part
of a swing through the Asia-Pacific region and Japan, is
to “[take] the temperature of the Philippine market” to
“determine where our expansion dollars [here] will go.”
For him,
the
Philippines, as
an investment and business area, enjoys the advantages
of having “an educated work force, a stable economy and
innovations that originate from the Philippines.” He
added that the Philippines as a market “is also very
relevant and important to EMC.”
EMC
Philippines country manager Ronnie Latinazo noted that
the surge in the volume of digital data in the “digital
universe” is growing at a faster pace than the
information technology industry can manage it, citing a
recent study by market-intelligence firm International
Data Corp., a situation that is creating a market for
their service offerings and driving EMC’s growth.
The
nature of the data in the digital universe is also
evolving to include “high-resolution graphics, videos
and other types of data used by the healthcare
industry—like MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scans and
X-rays of patients that can accumulate at a rate of 600
gigabytes each month,” Latinazo said.
EMC
Phils. posted “another year of record growth [of more
than 24 percent] in 2007.”
Leonard,
on the other hand, said Asia-Pacific and Japan stood out
as the “fastest-growing” segment of EMC’s operations,
with EMC Phils. making a “very positive contribution,
growing faster than 24 percent.”
Responding to questions about EMC’s planned pricing for
its SME-level and home-user products and services,
Leonard said his firm seeks to bring “quality
engineering” to large clients—including the Bank of the
Philippine Islands, St. Luke’s Medical Center, Manila
Electric Co. and the Government Service Insurance System
in the Philippines—to its SME and home-user clients, but
added that EMC’s goal “is to provide the best value for
the [SME and] home user rather than provide the cheapest
service.” |
