PRO TECHnology marks foray into Saudi Arabia with the launch of new products

The company also laid the ground for rapid market penetration by entering into a strategic alliance with Jeddah-based Almariah Supplies & Services Company (MSSCO), to represent PROTECHnology's solution and products. They also signed agreement with I-technosoft appointing them as sole distributor in the region for one of its key products, "Securewave".

The new products that were launched in KSA include the RLS5244 model of Qualstar, the automated tape storage solution with a yielding capacity of 1800 terabyte; the 3945N model of Storageflex and Canto's 'Cumulus7' Digital Asset Management system.

The launch event was attended by PRO TECHnology's senior management including Dr. Ibrahim Almutrif, Chairman, KSA, Jamal Maraqa, Managing Director, UAE and Abdullah Almutrif, Managing Partner, KSA, Khaled Al Rashdan, Branch Manager, Jordan, in addition to Ali Juma'a, Regional Manager of Symantec Veritas, PRO TECHnology's platinum partner.

"We look forward to bringing our years of experience and know-how in various Middle East and North African markets to Saudi Arabia," said Jamal Maraqa, Managing Director, PRO TECHnology. "Being the distributors for leading names such as Qualstar, Nexsan, Symantec, Storageflex, and Canto, we are keen to introduce their state-of-the-art solutions to this high growth market. Customers can also be assured of high quality consultancy and after-sales services from PRO TECHnology."

"Statistics show that 60 per cent of enterprises not using storage and disaster recovery solutions are prone to losing their financial and administrative data, which in turn can affect its competitiveness and business performance," he added.

Abdullah Almutrif pointed out that Saudi Arabia is ranked 45th among the 60 most advanced world economies. "Saudi Arabia is also the biggest and fastest growing IT market in the region. The IT spending in the country exceeded US$ 8 billion in 2005, which represents 45 per cent of the total spending for the GCC. With an annual growth rate of 20 per cent, the IT spending is expected to touch US$ 60 billion by the year 2020."

Almutrif highlighted that since data size is increasing 40-50 per cent each year, organizations need to duplicate their storage capacity every two years. "This indicates an ever growing demand for storage solutions, which we hope to capitalize on. We believe that the introduction of PRO TECHnology in the Saudi IT market will strengthen the market and contribute to economic growth."