What the Past Year Has Taught Me About Cloud Storage Trends in Australia and New Zealand

As Wasabi celebrates its first-year anniversary in Australia and New Zealand, it's time to reflect on the incredible journey of growth and success that the company has experienced since our launch in the region in 2022. Let’s review the key milestones and partnerships that have defined Wasabi's remarkable inaugural year in ANZ. Businesses in Australia and New Zealand are growing at a phenomenal pace, and a new currency is becoming invaluable to those seeking a competitive edge: data. Organizations that successfully collect and analyze the insights provided by data can not only outpace competitors but can also provide better services to their end users by examining their habits and preferences. However, data can only be acted upon if it’s accessible, and the underlying storage is key to ensuring its availability, security and scalability. In ANZ, organizations large and small are turning from expensive on-premises IT options to the cloud as a better alternative to data storage with more spending flexibility, better performance and protection from threats like ransomware. In fact, in 2022 92% of companies in Australia migrated storage from on-premises to the cloud; and 91% expect to increase the amount of data they store in the public cloud this year.

From its inception in ANZ, Wasabi has witnessed robust and impressive growth. The launch of the Sydney storage region in 2022 marked a significant milestone, and its resounding success has underscored the strong demand for Wasabi's hot cloud object storage solutions in the region. This demand has prompted Wasabi to invest further in expanding its infrastructure in ANZ, ensuring that it can effectively meet the storage needs of our customers.

During my time leading the go-to-market initiatives as the general manager for Wasabi in APAC, including ANZ, Japan and Singapore, I’ve gleaned insights into the different purchasing trends of organizations in just about every industry, and what CTOs and other IT decision-makers look for when implementing new technologies. When making major decisions that affect their performance and competitive advantage, organizations want three main things: predictability; performance and perhaps most important, protection.

These are the core tenets of Wasabi, and why we are gaining momentum with channel partners across ANZ now collaborating with Wasabi to deliver cutting-edge storage solutions to their clients. Partners have utilized Wasabi's Cloud Sync Manager, and this has facilitated seamless data migration for partners, offering a cost-effective solution and allowing them to transition from pricier cloud object storage solutions. An essential development within the ANZ channels has been the appointment of Crayon rhipe as a distributor for Wasabi, a significant achievement that highlights Wasabi's strong market presence and appeal. Crayon's substantial reach positions it as a key partner in Wasabi’s journey.

This success has been bolstered by strategic industry partnerships, such as with Veeam who are recognized as the number one backup and recovery vendor and have been strategic in accelerating the demand for cloud object storage and subsequently Wasabi’s growth across Australia and New Zealand. It is noteworthy to highlight the symbiotic partnerships cultivated with Veeam Cloud and service provider partners. These innovative alliances are distinctly characterized by the seamless integration of Wasabi's revolutionary storage technology into the intricate framework of backup and recovery services offered by these industry leaders. Through the strategic integration of Wasabi's cloud storage capabilities, Veeam's partners elevate their service offerings to unprecedented levels of reliability, scalability, and responsiveness. Clients benefit from the amalgamation of Veeam's prowess in data management and protection with Wasabi's formidable cloud infrastructure with immutability capabilities, leading to streamlined operations, reduced downtime, and fortified data integrity.

Within the ANZ landscape, the primary concerns of business leaders, particularly Chief Information Officers, center around security and cost containment. The challenge of cloud lock-in leading to unexpected cost escalations has prompted a shift toward hybrid solutions. Backup and recovery use cases have emerged as essential needs, while sectors such as media & entertainment, and surveillance highlight the diverse applications of Wasabi's services.

Wasabi’s mission is to provide the best cloud storage at a better price, with better performance and better security. Let’s unpack our differentiators a bit:

Predictable pricing with no surprises

Large cloud vendors have started to make cloud storage an unaffordable option as costs become unpredictable and too expensive for businesses who simply do not have the budget to manage their bills. In fact, cloud storage fees make up half of Australian organizations’ cloud storage bills. While large cloud vendors are overwhelming their customers with charges like API calls and egress fees, Wasabi is committed to bringing consumers across the world affordable and predictable cloud storage, offering Reserved Capacity Storage with the ability to purchase capacity storage ahead of time in 1-, 3- or 5-year increments at a significantly better price than the hyperscalers.

Fast access to data

Data needs to be instantly accessible in order to be acted upon. Other storage vendors tier their data depending on the frequency it’s used and will charge accordingly. Wasabi cloud storage is one tier of low-latency storage, meaning there are no archival or warm storage tiers to manage. It’s also as fast or faster than the hyperscalers’ most expensive frequent-access tiers, yet priced closer to what users expect to pay for slower archive storage. This makes Wasabi the ideal storage target for a wide variety of use cases, from active archives to offsite backups, to hybrid cloud storage.

Security features for peace of mind

Data protection is top of mind for every IT organization as attackers trying to gain access to valuable data are appearing daily. Criminals now intentionally target backup copies of data originally thought to be safe from cyberattacks, putting pressure on ransomware victims. Cloud storage is a simple and more affordable solution to protecting vulnerable data. Wasabi has added levels of data protection with object-level immutability—meaning the data cannot be modified and is therefore impervious to ransomware encryption. Immutable storage, used in conjunction with a comprehensive backup strategy, can save users from the bad actors looking to hold their data for ransom. Wasabi’s immutable buckets and support for S3 object lock help companies fight back, ensuring their data’s security and integrity.

Delivering a better data storage option

Cloud storage adoption is growing at an unprecedented rate throughout ANZ , and businesses are forecasting increased cloud storage budgets and growing capacity. As Wasabi enters its second year in a constantly evolving market, our mission to store the data of ANZ affordably and reliably will stay the course. We will continue growing our partner base to reach organizations of every kind, powering incredible use cases and workloads with affordable, fast and secure cloud storage.

Future Growth Plans

As Wasabi embarks on its second year in ANZ, several key initiatives are on the horizon. Migration opportunities will be a primary focus, leveraging the strengths of Wasabi's solutions to facilitate seamless data migration for clients. The ANZ global system integrator and managed service provider partnerships will continue to be a strategic focus, as Wasabi aims to solidify its position further upstream in the ANZ market.

To support these growth objectives, Wasabi is committed to expanding its resources within the ANZ region, including the addition of personnel for enhanced channel management. The company's dedication is further underscored by a major investment in expanding the storage capacity in the Sydney region, ensuring that Wasabi can accommodate the increasing demand for its services.

With the global cloud storage addressable market approaching $100 billion, Wasabi is well-positioned to continue its growth trajectory in ANZ and make a lasting impact within the region and beyond.