Storing ever-growing volumes of data safely can prove challenging and costly for organisations in South Africa. Wasabi, relatively new to South Africa, offers a solution.
Ian Parker, Executive Manager Partnerships and Technology at leading value-added network security and information security distributor LOOPHOLD, says Wasabi offers highly affordable and predictably priced hot cloud storage, with no complex tiers and no fees for egress or API calls.
Parker says Wasabi, available via LOOPHOLD, supports immutability in the cloud. “We're seeing it used predominantly at the moment for replication of offsite backups, although the potential use cases are endless: they work with big data, with replication and offloading of NAS systems and servers. Wasabi also works a lot with universities and medical professionals who need to analyse big data. They also do a lot of video offloading – for example, they sponsor Liverpool Football Club, so they hold all of Liverpool's game footage going back decades. With metatags and AI, they can analyse all that data, and even search for specific pieces of footage using Wasabi AiR, which combines Wasabi’s high-performance hot cloud storage with AI-powered metadata auto-tagging, transcription and search.”
Parker says Wasabi will, in future, support searches of documents and OCR data. “For example, a law firm could upload all of their files into it, and do a search for information on a particular case or a particular defence attorney dating back years,” he says.
In a price-sensitive market, Wasabi offers a compelling business case. “It's significantly cheaper than hyperscaler storage on a per terabyte price model. Companies are often surprised by the addition of egress and API fees, which are all inclusive with Wasabi” he says.
Wasabi’s Cloud Storage Index Report 2025 highlights some important trends in cloud storage costs. The fact that businesses across various industries are paying as much in fees as they spend on storage itself suggests that hidden costs like egress fees, data retrieval costs, and long-term storage expenses are significant contributors to overall expenses.
The statistic that 62% of organisations exceeded their cloud storage budgets last year also emphasises how challenging it is for companies to accurately predict and manage cloud storage expenses. This could be a result of unpredictable data growth, underestimating the need for data retrieval or the complex pricing models used by cloud providers.
Wasabi’s single tier of universal cloud storage is as fast as competitors' fastest tiers, but priced closer to cold storage; backed by an enterprise-grade multi-layered approach to security.
In South Africa, Parker says the number one use case for Wasabi is cloud object storage, or hot cloud storage. At number two is the CloudNAS.
LOOPHOLD will host an event for MSPs/MSSPs at Montecasino, in Johannesburg, tomorrow, to outline the opportunities for them to expand their toolkits with SonicWall cyber security products and services and Wasabi’s affordable hot cloud storage.
For more information, and to register for the event, visit: https://events.loophold.com/Expanding-MSSP-Toolkit.
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