SMBs driving IT upgrade market
Low level of IT adoption by small and medium businesses (SMBs) is fuelling growth of the IT infrastructure upgrade market.
The market is expected to grow at the current rate of 30 percent per annum for the next three years. As first time buyers migrate from the nascent to the next stage of technology and software adoption, upgrade of existing IT equipment like servers, storage devices and software is needed.
Ashok G.Pamidi, Director-Commercial Accounts, SMB and Enterprise Partners at HP told that Hewlet Packard offers three years’ warranty for its servers, giving an impetus to users to constantly upgrade the existing equipment instead of making new purchases.
Recently, Hewlet Packard introduced the HP volume integrity Servers that can run on three operating systems and has an inbox upgrade option for three years. The company plans to come out with a new range of servers and storage devices with an inbox upgrade USP for the SMB market over the next nine months. These are expected to be cost effective and encourage upgrades.
New software hitting the market every 18 months, increasing users and changing technologies are the growth divers for the SMB IT upgrade market. In the last three years, those SMBs that were buying standalone service have entered the second phase of LAN, WAN and Intranet applications.
Pamidi said the average size of the IT infrastructure purchase of an SMB at a time was Rs.10 lakh, with upgrade costs running into a few thousands. This resulted in a saving of 60 percent for the small user who did not have to opt for new software solution or technology was introduced.
He added that every month Hewlet Packard’s upgrade item stocks with four wholesalers and 427 value added resellers are showing increased sales. Of the $122.6 million server market in small businesses, upgrades constitute 20 percent with HP growing at 30 percent per annum in the SMB upgrade market.
