Need for cost-effective, scalable, compliant storage to drive Nexsan adoption in SA

Byron Horn-Botha, Sales Specialist, CASA Software. (Image: Supplied)

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South African organisations have a growing need for more cost-effective storage to mitigate risks such as ransomware and to comply with requirements to store data for longer.

This is according to Byron Horn-Botha, Sales Specialist at CASA Software, which recently became the sub-Saharan African region partner of Nexsan, the global pioneer of highly reliable, cost-effective, scalable enterprise-grade storage solutions.

Horn-Botha says companies are under pressure to securely retain growing volumes of data for extended periods of time, to mitigate risk and remain compliant.

At a fraction of the cost of other alternatives, Nexsan solutions help address risk, compliance and continuity requirements with advanced, world-class technology that has been trusted for 25 years, Horn-Botha says. Nexsan devices are manufactured in the UK and undergo rigorous stress testing, he says.

“Nexsan has global alliances with the likes of Veeam and Arcserve, both pioneers in backup and business continuity. By adopting Nexsan, in particular the Unity and or Assureon solutions, into the environment, organisations are able to comply with the backup best practice methodology of 3-2-1-1,” he says.

Horn-Botha highlights a case study in which a Canadian firm’s investment in Nexsan Assureon storage offered immutable protection in a $5 million ransomware attack. The Nexsan Assureon proved invaluable in a Black Cat ransomware attack, when attackers demanded $5 million and increased their demand by $500 000 every 15 minutes. The Assureon system proved a reliable and immutable data protector.

Horn-Botha says that along with reliability and risk mitigation, the cost of storage is a top priority for local organisations. Many on-premises storage solutions prove to be expensive when trying to scale, while cloud storage is not appropriate for all use cases, he says.

Horn-Botha notes: “While hybrid storage models are still the de facto standard, it must be noted that cloud is not suitable for catering to this. From a long-term archiving point of view, cloud becomes very cost prohibitive, which is why we’re seeing more repatriation of data from the cloud. Many organisations feel on-premises storage solutions are more predictable than cloud from a costing point of view, and find that once their data starts growing exponentially, it becomes more cumbersome to manage in the cloud. In terms of the latter, they may also have concerns about how quickly they can access and restore data, whereas on-premises storage allows you to access the data faster and more readily.

“Organisations now need very cost-effective storage that's very scalable, durable and that will last for some time, because companies want to sweat their assets for extended periods of time. Nexsan meets this need: we've seen companies sweating some of their devices for up to 10 years – albeit not best practice.”

Among the leading global organisations trusting Nexsan storage are the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Spitzer Science Center, which performs research and data collection for the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope mission. Over the past seven years, CalTech has deployed a combination of Nexsan SATABeast, SATABoy and E-Series storage systems to retain what is today over 2PB of Spitzer Space Telescope images. China’s Ningbo city Traffic Police Bureau uses Nexsan solutions with a 30PB capacity to store HD video surveillance footage of the roads system, and Nexsan storage is the backbone of Endemol Shine North America content workflows.

Horn-Botha says: “Importantly, South African organisations need a solution that's supported, where they have confidence in who is supplying them with the solution. That's where CASA comes through our reach in the region and our ability to support Nexsan customers across sub-Saharan Africa. CASA is viewed as a trusted advisor. We don’t just sell a solution for a point in time: we factor in growth and strategies that could lead to exponential data growth within the environment over the next three to seven years. We partner with clients throughout their journey with regards to their storage requirements and give them a fit-for-purpose solution that meets their current and growing requirements.”