Demand for storage devices shot up post demonetisation: Seagate

Post demonetisation, demand shot up for storage devices in India, according to global data storage devices maker Seagate. While this has benefitted the company, surveillance and mass data consumption hold promise for the future, it says. 

According to Seagate's senior vice president for global sales and marketing, Teh Ban Seng (BS), the company is in talks with various stakeholders to explore opportunities in these areas. "We find it terribly exciting.

In the area of security, India has been one of the fastest growing regions in the recent past. Demonetisation in November triggered a huge demand for storage drives from major banks as well as for scaling up surveillance installation. We see that as a big (growth) driver," BS told a contingent of Indian media visiting. Post-demonetisation, banks in India went rushed to save data on external storage devices for better safekeeping which boosted demand for the devices, the company said.

Seagate is in talks at various levels in India so as to explore demand for data storage solutions, BS said. "We are talking to everybody to understand how we can participate more effectively with end users, be it government, banks, system integrators, original equipment manufactures (OEMs)," he said. 

The company sees huge demand coming from surveillance as well as personal data consumption as it would automatically generate the need for storage, he added. Globally, there is a shift in data storage location from personal computer (PC) to non-PC storage, the company said. In a presentation, it said that in 2010 more than half the data storage (65 per cent) was shipped into the PC market, while the rest (35 per cent) data at a capacity of 105 exabytes was into non-PC storage. 

By 2020, that predominance will dramatically shift to non-PC storage (69 per cent) to 907 exabytes. By this time, PC storage is expected to shrink to 20 per cent while rest of 11 per cent data are to be stored on smartphones and tablets. In India,  the official said, data drive shipments towards surveillance is increasing fast which is promising. On smart cities,  he said: 

"From our point of view, (data) storage is one of the growth vertices in India. Other than smart cities, there is a huge potential from consumers." The PC penetration market in India is still very low. Sale of smartphones is going through the roof, which is great because more the content devices are generating, more the data you are generating and that translates to more opportunities, he said. 

"We see Bollywood as a huge opportunity for us in terms of data storage and video editing. It is an area we are putting a lot of focus on,"BS added. This apart, cloud computing with a change in Indian legislation to store data at local centres and big data analytics are areas of interest for Seagate, he said. In the second quarter of FY2017, the company shipped 68.2 exabytes of hard disk drive (HDD) and earned revenues of over USD 2.89 billion. The company follows July-June fiscal calender.