The news of Futong's strategic alliance with Zadra Storage was released the day before yesterday, and it immediately sparked a wave of heated discussions. The editor selects one of them, taking DatacenterDynamics as an example, to see how they comment on this cooperation.
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Enterprise Storage as a Service (STaaS) provider Zadra Storage has partnered with Futong, a leading IT distributor and reseller in China, to bring its technology and solutions to the Chinese market. The two parties have entered into a strategic cooperation agreement aimed at fostering the growth of the enterprise software-defined storage market in China. Together, they have launched Zadra's software-defined storage product, the Virtual Private Storage Array (VPSA), in China.
Zadara states that its VPSA product can enhance customer flexibility and significantly reduce costs, both initially and in the long term. Moreover, the solution also meets the data security needs of Chinese customers. "When we design our products, we ensure that operators can guarantee each of their customers the highest level of security, which not only protects them from external threats but also completely isolates each customer from other customers sharing the same service provider or data center," said Noam Shendar, Vice President of Business Development at Zadra Storage.
Zadara's VPSA product targets customers such as internet companies, telecommunications companies, government agencies, Internet Data Centers (IDCs), and private enterprises. The supplier already has signed customers but is currently unable to disclose their names. "The domestic market in China is ready to adopt software-defined storage technology and has shown a preference for the economic benefits and flexibility that this technology can bring. With Futong, we can gain the technical capabilities and market influence needed," said Nelson Nahum, CEO of Zadara Storage.
China Is Going to Become a Key Market for Zadara
This is Zadara's first entry into the Chinese market. Noam Shendar told Datacenter Dynamics that it was a well-considered decision for his company. "We decided to expand our business to China, based on a variety of factors. Firstly, China's cloud computing market is experiencing explosive growth, driven by the wave of investment from telecom operators (China Unicom/Telecom/Mobile) and internet companies (Alibaba/Tencent/Sina). Secondly, software-defined storage technology offers advantages in flexibility and cost, and China is willing to adopt this technology," he added.
However, seizing the opportunities in the Chinese market is not an easy task. One of the immediate challenges that needs to be addressed is enhancing its brand recognition. "Our challenge is how to build brand awareness and gain the trust of buyers who have not heard of us so far," said Shendar. This is also the reason why Zadara chose Futong as its partner to expand its business in China. It is reported that Futong is IBM's largest distributor in China. It also helps storage vendors EMC and NetApp, as well as software vendors Oracle, SAP, and VMware, to sell their products. In recent years, Futong has transformed into a technology supplier and solution provider focused on enterprise-level IT products and services. "Futong has accumulated a large number of customers, possesses various innovative market entry methods, and has established a data center joint venture. The joint venture is of particular interest to us because it demonstrates Futong's business model flexibility, covering traditional capital expenditure (CAPEX) models as well as business models as a service," Shendar told Datacenter Dynamics reporters.
Currently, Futong has established a large sales, support, marketing, and technical team specifically for Zadara and has invested in setting up a testing and prototyping laboratory at its Beijing headquarters. On the other hand, Zadara has made significant investments in the localization of training materials, marketing materials, product localization, and hardware certification.
