Convergence - Basel II To Transform Banks’ Data Storage Needs, Says EMC
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The implementation of Basel II norms by the top 100 Indian banks by
December 2006 will create new business opportunities in network storage,
according to the global external storage major EMC Corp.

Basel II is about tackling operational risks that the banking sector faces
in data security, human error and technology.

The banks have to take initiatives in disaster recovery and business
continuity plans to ensure proper management of security and storage of
banking data and customer information.

EMC reckons that, in the current year, the network storage market is poised
for a comfortable double-digit growth which will be the same as the Indian
IT industry’s annual growth.

During 2003-04, the network storage market was worth Rs 700 crore. Overall,
the IT industry is expected to grow by around 25 per cent in the current
year over 2003-04.

EMC, a $6 billion provider of information management solutions, is aiming
for the Indian public sector banks as well as the private sector ones.

EMC’s network storage applications range from hardware and software to
services solutions.

EMC, which opened its India office in 2000, has at present only foreign
banks like Citibank and AMN Amro as its customers, apart from Indian
telecom service providers and software companies like Bharti Televentures,
Hutchison Essar and Wipro.

Now, EMC is looking for Indian banks as customers since they are ready to
invest half their total capital expenditure for IT in storage solutions.

EMC’s director of financial services industry for South Asia, Ian Loh,
while airing his views on the issue, said that in the next few years the
Indian banks would have to go for secured network storage architecture.

"Apart from the Basel II compulsion, the Indian banks will have to realise
the importance of the separation between the processing of information and
the storage of information," informed Mr Loh.

The banks have to move from PC-Server based storage to virtual storage with
network storage applications in place.