Seagate Envisages the 3D Printing Market as a big Growth Propeller

The increasing popularity and usage of 3D printing would not only create a huge deluge of data but would also require an efficient data storage infrastructure. Throwing more light on this, Sameer Bhatia, Country Manager, India & SAARC - Seagate Technology speaks about the opportunities Seagate sees as a leading storage infrastructure vendor -  

Once a niche market, 3D printing is another burgeoning technology set to transform into an immensely profitable industry. According to Gartner, 3D printer shipments are forecasted to be more than double every year between 2016 and 2019. By this time the worldwide shipments are also expected to range more than 5.6 million. Furthermore, with established players entering the 3D printer industry, the trend is expected to bring many innovations. 
“The adoption of 3D printing in India is expected to see a rise over the next several years, in terms of design applications and Direct Digital Manufacturing applications. The rise of 3D printing will further lead to the growth of digital data, due to the creation of huge backlogs of CAD (computer-aided design) files corresponding to the items they create, and these files can be massive and complex. CIOs and their data management teams will be called upon to maintain increasingly large data sets that can be easily stored and manipulated,” says Sameer Bhatia, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Seagate Technology
Seagate with its expansive product portfolio in storage infrastructure is committed to the growth of 3D printer vendors and the consumers. It sees immense opportunities and growth avenues by partnering as storage partners for 3D printing vendors. “We are always open for partnership to build the best-in-class solutions together. Generally a lot of 3D printers have little to no onboard storage; so most of them need to be hooked to a computer that has the 3D print file stored on it. In turn, we expect to see demand for external drives, larger capacity HDDs due to the growth of 3D printing,” observes 

In addition to that, Seagate also observes that many 3D print service bureaus offer the ability for customers to send or deliver a 3D print file in order for the service bureau to print the object. For such service providers with intense storage requirement, it sees the growing need for external drives and enterprise drives for servers. “Our focus is knowing what the industry needs, understanding why it is needed and offering the optimal solution,” asserts Sameer.
Seagate believes that all storage solutions have to be purpose-built and optimized to best fit into the specific applications to ensure that the hard drives can meet certain workload requirements. This doesn’t simply mean the drive should have high capacity and high speed. When Seagate calls it ‘optimized,’ it means the drive offers specific technologies that can best manage the data workload and maximize the value of the data in that specific application.

Prospects of 3D Printing in India
Though at an initial stage in India, the growth for 3D printing technology has been favorable with industries like architecture, aerospace, automotive, consumer goods, industrial machineries, medicine and education, exploring newer applications. As per the recent data released by 6Wresearch, the 3D printer market in India is projected to cross $79 million by 2021. The report also suggests that automotive application accounted for majority of the revenue share in India’s 3D printer market. For instance, the technology has immensely benefitted the Automobile industry by reducing investment and part costs, reducing the weight of production tools, helping them to stay one step ahead of industry challenges. 

3D printing has also transformed the construction industry by enabling architects to visualize and create precise design models, which facilitates quick design approval and faster customer input. “We have witnessed an upsurge in demand for 3D printers, with unit shipment growth rates increasing significantly in both enterprise and consumer segments. The growth can be majorly attributed to innovations in quality and performance, reduced time to market, minimized cost of errors, and prevention of confidential design leakage,” affirms Sameer. “We are also seeing innovative adoption of 3D printing in the fashion industry. In addition to using 3D scanners and printers for designing clothes, more and more apparel makers and fashion designers are taking interest in using 3D printing for manufacturing (printing) the end products,” he further says.

Navigating to find, build and offer the right storage system requires experience and expertise. That is why the channels and SI partners play a vital role for a storage player like Seagate. “We connect with our customers and partners in every local market through the Seagate Partner Program. Seagate has been continuously building industry-specialist partner base through this program, providing comprehensive training sessions and seminars as well as working on co-marketing programs. We see ourselves as not just a storage provider, but a business partner who can build the best-in-class solutions together,” Sameer reiterates.

Hence…
India is one of the most dynamic and vital markets for Seagate’s innovative storage solutions. Seagate has been offering its solutions and expertise to various industries for over 30 years. It will continue to work closely with customers in India to tackle the increasing need for storage, and help to ensure cost-effective performance and durability in these systems.