Paul Malkon joined Komprise this year to lead the company’s channel programs, as the VP of Global Partner Sales. With an extensive career in data storage, backup and business continuity, Paul is working closely with Komprise partners to bring modern unstructured data management solutions to enterprise customers around the globe. We asked Paul a few questions about his journey in the industry and how he sees the customer challenge today. Connect with Paul on LinkedIn.
Komprise: You have been working in enterprise sales for storage and infrastructure companies for many years. How has the data storage industry changed most in recent times?
PM: In the last two decades, the hard drives have become faster, smaller in size and with greater capacity and now it is all Flash or moving to all Flash. Storage has evolved to where you can work from anywhere and access your data. Customers have data optimization strategies and options like before.
At the senior level there, there is a top line message of efficiency, cost avoidance and doing the right thing. But as data grows so does storage consumption. Gartner references: “Bad data management leads to spiraling storage costs. The IT industry doesn’t have a storage problem; it has a data management problem.” Komprise provides insights into data which allows customers to make intelligent decisions and generate revenue from those decisions or deploy cost avoidance strategies.
Komprise: What trends do you foresee coming up next in the sector, especially as pertains to AI (Artificial Intelligence) and unstructured data management?
PM: AI gives us the ability to identify data patterns and hidden insights to make intelligent, informed decisions with data without compromising strategy. AI can deliver new insight to help you choose what is most important around customers’ data optimization strategy. AI is also going to be instrumental in optimizing workflows, so we can move from manual efforts to automated actions.
Komprise: Describe the opportunity for partners with Komprise and your goals for working with the channel?
PM: Most (80% or more) of data in companies is now unstructured. It is growing at north of 40% year over year. The opportunity is for our channel partners to bring value to their customers in this space. Data optimization conversations are happening daily. The challenge: helping their customers evolve and shift from managing storage to managing data and delivering critical data services that will drive business innovation and efficiencies.
Komprise: What barriers do you see for enterprises customers adopting an unstructured data management solution?
PM: The barriers are the legacy incumbents with integrated, mature solutions that create vendor lock-in. The other challenge is that enterprise customers have silos and sometimes business units make decisions on their own. Consensus to get a global decision on how to manage unstructured data causes inaction.
Komprise: How can Komprise and its partners help overcome those challenges so that customers can regain control of their data and achieve the kind of ROI that we often see—which is 60-70% savings and a pathway to deliver long-term value from data?
PM: There are a few things. First, Komprise has a net dollar retention of 120% which I think speaks highly of our ability to take care of our customers. Then we partner with great companies like Pure Storage, AWS and Microsoft, which brings solutions with a lot of benefits and value to our market. What we can do is provide analytics and insight into the unstructured data footprint, across all storage and silos. This visibility allows partners to plan, position and leverage our offering so that we can help with their customers’ initiatives.
Komprise: What do you do outside of work?
PM: I love being with my family and friends. My kids are older now, but we still go on trips together. I love animals and have three dogs who keep us busy.
