Dell said sales of small storage devices are up as a result of new
disaster recovery planning efforts by small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs).
Sales of Dell's third-party storage products increased by as much
as 70% during its third quarter, compared with the same period last
year, said Ro Parra, senior vice-president of Dell's Americas
region.
Dell resells a number of smaller storage products from other
vendors as well as its own storage products.
Citing only its sales to SMEs, Dell said much of the increase was
down to increased interest in external storage devices, tape drives
and backup disc drives. The figure did not include sales of Dell's
PowerVault larger storage products.
"Customers are continuing to buy more third-party [small] storage
products [from us] than they did last year," Parra said. "Across
the board we have seen a dramatic increase in the acquisition of
these products."
The company's growing emphasis on data storage and backup
highlights the need for SMEs to bolster their disaster planning
efforts, Parra said.
"Most SMEs have under-invested in these areas," said James
Browning, a research director at analyst group Gartner.
Companies of all sizes spend on average 2%-3% of their data centre
budgets - what Gartner described as "capital equipment and
outsourcing expenses" - on disaster prevention, according to
Gartner research. That figure includes the purchase of additional
storage and server devices. Companies in the finance industries
spend about 7% of their data centre budget planning for disasters.
"Most [SMEs] complain they can't afford it. Big businesses also
have that same complaint," said Donna Scott, vice-president and
research director at Gartner. "Nobody wants to spend money on this,
but they must, to ensure the viability of the enterprise."
Following disasters such as the 11 September attacks, flooding and
the Californian power crisis, businesses of all sizes are beginning
to re-assess how prepared they are to respond to disasters, Dell
and Gartner said. The amount of money of the data centre budget
spent on disaster prevention is expected to increase by about
10%-20% in 2002, Scott said.
In addition to a boost in storage hardware sales, Dell said it has
seen a noticeable increase in the need for related services from
SMEs. Thus, new efforts by Dell's Technology Consulting division
will focus on helping companies get prepared for disasters.
"All businesses must continue taking steps to secure their data,"
said a Dell spokesman.