Bernard Busuulwa and Esther Opade
19 October 2009
Nairobi — Organisations in need of data recovery services now have reason to smile following Computer Point Uganda Ltd's decision to lower its monthly charges from a high of $4,000 to as low as $600.
According to the firm's managing director Anil Kuruvilla, the initial costs of the disaster recovery service were considered so expensive thereby repelling many potential clients.
He said the charges initially ranged from $2,000 to $4,000 per month, depending on the client's needs.
The charges have now been revised to a minimum cost of $600 per month and a maximum fee of $1,200 for the same period in a bid to get more eligible clients including SMEs with small turnover and growing data management needs.
Though the data recovery service product has been in the market for the last two years, the firm believes its impact is still limited because of low appreciation of data recovery systems among many local businesses, widespread use of offshore data back-up facilities by multinationals and high charges.
It is little known because many businesses do not appreciate the value of critical data management systems.
Most rely on internal systems and external providers who tend to restrict themselves to renting storage space. We also faced challenges of high charges levied on clients and slow connectivity but we expect to overcome them soon," said Kuruvilla.
Under the service package, the company provides designated space for data storage and a disaster recovery component to enable retrieval of client data whenever it is lost.
The service is suited to commercial banks, insurance companies, manufacturing entities, supermarkets and media houses.
Despite the lukewarm market reception, the disaster recovery product has attracted about 80 clients, mainly corporate organisations but the potential entry of rival players likely due to growing appetite for data recovery solutions among small companies.
In addition, poor connectivity affected many potential clients' ability to tap into its full benefits.
Minimum connectivity speed was 128 kbps which most clients felt was too low and unreliable.
The alternative was 512kbps which most of the targeted clients found too expensive.
However, the introduction of fibre optic cable is anticipated to improve clients' connectivity speeds on the disaster recovery platform without necessarily increasing user charges.
Besides that, improved security controls reflected in the installation of a series of encryptions and independent maintenance channels of data are intended to boost confidence among financial institutions that are often skeptical about the integrity of shared data management systems.
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