Data Center is new area of GVT
Valor Econômico
As it gets ready to enter the pay TV market for residential consumers, GVT works at the other end to increase its offers to businesses. This month, the carrier begins offering data center services for companies throughout the country. On the target are companies with annual earnings of R$ 10 million (US$ 6.3 million). In the first year of operation, the goal is to achieve 80 customers, says Alcides Troller, Marketing and Sales VP of the operator. The centers are installed in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba. Besides the storage of information and systems, GVT will offer data network monitoring and management services. Altogether, 60 employees of the company are dedicated to new activities.
According to the Executive, the offer of data center services is a long-standing demand of the customers of GVT. The operator developed isolated projects with some companies, but there was no structured offer. Troller explains the demand for data centers has been growing in the recent years because of the computerization and the large volume of electronic data generated by the companies. Amid the process, the areas that have traditionally responded for the systems of telephony are merging with the departments of information technology (IT), with demands for space for storage of information, systems of security and control on the quality of the data connections. On the assessment of Troller, such 'marriage' turns the strategy of GVT into a natural evolution of its businesses.
The services of data centers are also part of the offer of telephone operators like Telefônica and AT&T. According to Troller, the intention of entering the segment was there for quite some time. R$ 25 million (US$ 15.6 million) were invested in the past four months to start the new phase of services. According to Troller, the money was used to purchase more equipment and in specific adjustments required in each of the three units. As it announces its debut in the world of data centers, GVT increases its income opportunities, but also the size of the competition. Now, besides other telephone carriers, the company competes with companies specialized in such type of offer, like Locaweb, UOL Diveo, T-Systems, among others.
According to the consulting firm IDC, the market of data centers in Brazil shall see an annual growth of 15% in the next four years. Arnaldo Barbulio Filho, Certification Manager of the German TÜV Rheinland, estimates that in the next five years, the country may earn at least 150 thousand square meters - the equivalent to five office buildings each with 20 floors - in new structures for the storage and processing of data. The demand is being largely driven by cloud computing. According to this kind of service, the systems and the information of the customers are accessed through the Internet, without the need to install programs in the computers of the users. Data centers are essential in the process because they represent a sort of vault in which the data are stored.