CEO Belluzzo: Why Quantum Offers a Fresh Alternative

CEO Belluzzo: Why Quantum Offers a Fresh Alternative
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Q&A: With the acquisition of ADIC completed, the data storage disk and tape drive maker believes it is empowered to challenge storage market leaders EMC, IBM and HP by offering customers an alternative.Rick Belluzzo, CEO and chairman of San Jose, Calif.-based data storage disk/tape drive maker Quantum, sees the IT landscape from many different perspectives.

Belluzzo, 53, was a key factor in building Hewlett-Packards considerable reputation in the printer and desktop computer business in the 1990s. He also served as Silicon Graphics CEO from 1998 to 2001 and was president and COO of Microsoft for 18 months prior to coming to Quantum in 2002.

Belluzzo presided over Quantums $770 million acquisition of ADIC in August. ADIC had claimed to be the worlds largest supplier of automated tape systems using client-server drives.

Belluzzo says he envisions his $1.2 billion company as the No. 1 "alternative" full-service data storage/backup/archiving vendor apart from the current market leaders: IBM, EMC, HP, NetApp. He spoke with eWEEK Senior Writer Chris Preimesberger and also wrote via e-mail about the companys future plans.

Exactly how is Quantum now positioning itself in the market, following the acquisition of ADIC?

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Our recent acquisition of ADIC is about creating the leading global storage company specializing in backup, recovery and archive solutions. In a world of OEM storage generalists and small startups, we believe there is a need for a large independent specialist in this market, and we are now uniquely positioned to meet this need.

Read more here about Quantums acquisition of ADIC.

In contrast to system OEMs and other primary storage providers, we have the focused expertise, customer-driven innovation and platform independence to address the increasingly critical and complex challenges in backup, recovery and archive.

In addition, unlike startups that offer point products or technologies, we have the global scale and scope to serve a worldwide customer base, with a comprehensive portfolio of systems, software, devices and services and nearly 1,000 sales, marketing and service employees in customer-facing roles.

Youve described the new Quantum as the one true "alternative" to the conventional market leaders, IBM, HP, EMC. Why should Quantum be considered this alternative?

Customers today face a number of challenges in backup, recovery and archive. Beyond just dealing with the continued growth of data, they must meet more demanding recovery point and time objectives, comply with new regulations, and ensure that their data is secure both within their organizations and when its sent offsite.

They must do so in a continually evolving and typically heterogeneous environment with constrained staffs and budgets. As a result, the need for a specialist in this market greater than ever.

While OEMs and primary storage providers have much to offer in the broader storage landscape—and we have strong partnerships with them—their main focus is not backup, recovery and archive. In fact, they often view this as just an add-on or afterthought in a larger sale.

For Quantum, however, all our resources are focused on addressing customers backup, recovery and archive needs, which means we can provide more relevant solutions, consultation and service.

As an independent provider, we also dont lock customers into a proprietary infrastructure—our solutions arent tied to a single operating system, server platform, or compute environment, giving customers choice and flexibility.

The other advantage we offer customers is the unique ability to intelligently integrate disk and tape, systems and devices, as well as software and services.

What makes us unique is the fact that nobody else in the backup, recovery and archive market designs and develops all of this internally.

Next Page: Bringing it to the table.

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