Peter O’ Connor, Nimble Storage vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan, together with Rachel Ler, regional director of Asean, discusses the firm’s expansion to Cebu.(CDN/TONEE DESPOJO)
Nimble Storage is expanding its storage support technology and services to Cebu, partly to support clients in Manila.
Peter O’Connor, vice president of Nimble Storage for the Asia Pacific and Japan region, said bringing their services to Cebu is a “natural progression” for the company.
“Cebu is a very viable market for us,” he added.
Rachel Ler, regional director for Asean, said several customers in Manila would like to expand to Cebu, whether to put up disaster recovery sites or secondary sites.
“The Philippines is our second largest market in the region after Singapore. People in the Philippines, especially in Cebu, are more IT (information technology) savvy and very keen on exploring new technology, so that’s why we decided to expand here,” she said.
She said they had no difficulty introducing their products in the country because Filipinos speak very good English.
The company is eyeing clients in the business process outsourcing, retail, manufacturing and utilities sectors.
“We’re looking into all the industries in Cebu, especially logistics, local banks, manufacturing and retail,” Ler said.
They are also considering introducing their products to the local government.
O’Connor said 80 percent of their market is in North America, but they hope to expand their international market over the next three years.
“We are hoping to make it 50 percent North America and 50 percent international,” he said. Currently, from the 20 percent that comprises their international market, around 8 percent is from the Asia Pacific region.