Channel Post speaks with Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego the company, solutions it offers and their plans going forward.
Give us a brief overview about your company.
Condo Protego is one of the region’s leading data storage and security specialist systems integrators. Since being founded in 2005, we have been focused on building information management solutions for customers whether in on-premise, cloud or hybrid cloud environments.
Condo Protego holds the highest-possible partnership status with two of the industry’s leading data availability companies: Dell EMC and VERITAS. Dell EMC recognized us for highest growth in incremental business in the South Gulf, and VERITAS named us “Most Valuable Partner” and “Enterprise Partner of the Year (Gulf)”.
What markets are you currently present in?
We are an established and trusted solutions provider, and have seen strong success on a specialized approach for data storage and management. Condo Protego and our partners work with organizations across the Middle East and North Africa, and we are especially focused on our home country, the UAE.
Which industry verticals do you cater to?
In the Digital Economy, digital transformation and how organizations manage their data information is critical for every industry vertical. Condo Protego is not a vertical solutions-focused organization – we consult across more than 300 enterprise customers across a wide range of industry verticals.
Instead, we are focused on delivering solutions across different technology domains, including enterprise storage, backup architecture, high availability, disaster recovery, CCTV, and converged and hyper converged infrastructure.
What is the workforce strength of your organization?
Condo Protego is the largest systems integrator in the UAE for Dell EMC and VERITAS solutions, and we have the largest pool of technology consultants compared to similar players. Our consultants have the highest level of technical vendor certifications, including expert competency in three of four VERITAS offerings, and we recently received Platinum Partner status by Dell EMC.
Workforce strength and providing consultancy services is not about size in numbers – it’s about having quality consultants and the right context for the right solutions.
What products, solutions, brands and services do you represent and offer in the markets you are present in?
Condo Protego implements multiple solutions from industry leaders such as Dell EMC, VERITAS, VMware, RSA, and VCE. In particular, we are seeing strong demand in the Middle East for Dell EMC information management solutions such as Vblock Systems for converged infrastructure, VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure, and VMAX for all-flash storage.
Signifying our success, Condo Protego was recently named one of the region’s few Platinum Partners by Dell EMC, signifying the strength of our deployments and technical expertise. We are also a Direct Dell EMC partner, which allows us to procure directly a wider range of Dell EMC solutions directly to our customers, accelerating deployments and enhancing trust with our customers.
What are your market strategies for year 2017?
In 2017, Condo Protego aims to redefine the region’s IT landscape by driving customer awareness and take-up of in emerging and new technologies, such as:
- Software-Defined technology – Transforming networking, servers, and storage, such as VMware’s NSX network virtualization platform for software-defined data centers, and VMware’s Virtual SAN software-defined storage.
- Converged and Hyper-Converged – Massive momentum in cost-effective, easy-to-use, and factory-assembled converged and hyper-converged infrastructure, such as VCE’s VxRail.
- All-Flash Storage – Among the fastest-growing markets, especially among organizations that need real-time data. Systems integrators should help customers choose the storage that best meets their business needs, and ensuring their storage configuration drives maximum performance. Dell-EMC Unity and Dell-EMC VMAX-All Flash are seeing strong demand.
- Disaster Recovery Orchestration Solutions – Strong potential for organizations to ensure they have business continuity across public, private, and hybrid clouds, in particular with the VERITAS Resiliency Platform.
How has the technology market grown in the MEA region over the past few years?
There has been a longstanding perception that the Middle East technology adoption lags several quarters behind those of mature markets – but that gap is rapidly shrinking. Increasingly, we are seeing that the latest technology innovations are being deployed here in the Middle East, sometimes even before the rest of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. Businesses here are highly competitive, and are focused on driving the customer experience with the latest solutions.
While most global technology companies still view the United States as the largest market, across the board, the Middle East is contributing a growing share of revenue for Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
Do you participate at trade shows such as GITEX?
Aligned with our vendor strategies, Condo Protego often participates in technology trade shows such as GITEX Technology Week. Technology events are strong opportunities to source new customers, exchange best practices with vendors, and hear the latest insights from thought leaders.
We also see strong success on organizing our own events, especially with Dell EMC. Over the past year, we saw strong success on the Dell EMC event “Unleash the Beast,” which focused on how small- and medium-sized enterprises can find high performance from flash storage.
