We . . . Are . . . Back . . .

The DSA Awards 2021 is officially underway, marking the seventh straight year of the annual showcase. And, as we have done since 2015, Data Storage ASEAN is once again looking to identify and honour the region’s leading data and storage providers—this time, in six categories, including two holdovers from last year’s DSA Awards: Best Enterprise Storage Vendor and Best Business Continuity Vendor.  The other four categories are Best Data Analytics at Scale, Best Hyperscale Cloud Provider, Best Zero-Trust Security Vendor and Best Digital Collaboration Software.

And, per tradition, we are also including a special category depending on current trends in the world of data and storage. Last year, it was the Best COVID Continuity Project, which we awarded to Zoom for its massive impact on people’s way of life during the height of the pandemic. This year, our special category is Data & Storage Evangelist of the Year, which we will hand out to the most notable, influential and impactful proponent of data and storage over the past year (think of it as a data and storage influencer thing).

Back in 2015, when we were first conceptualising the DSA Awards, we were hopeful that the awards will become one of the most sought after benchmarks in excellence for the industry. Now, it would be hubris to say that the DSA Awards are at that level already but we’re getting there year after year—and that is thanks mainly to you, our dear readers, who have always taken time out to cast your votes and give these awards both credibility and prestige.

So, without further ado, we are giving the floor to you again as we now declare the voting open:

This award honours the standout enterprise storage vendor that provided the top storage systems, software and services for 2021.

The nominees are: Dell Technologies, Pure Storage, Huawei, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, HPE, NetApp.

This award recognises the data analytics vendor that pushed the boundaries of Big Data and helped enterprises leverage the power of data the most.

The nominees are: Cloudera, Oracle, Microsoft, TIBCO, Snowflake, IBM, AWS, Neo4j, TigerGraph.

This award pays tribute to the business continuity vendor that ensures the highest availability of products and services amidst all sorts of disruptions.

The nominees are: Dell, Rubrik, Cohesity, Veeam, VMware, Druva, IBM, Commvault, HPE.

This award honours the top cloud provider that offers efficient, convenient and cost-efficient scaling whenever and wherever necessary.

The nominees are: Alibaba Cloud, Google Cloud, AWS, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Huawei Cloud.

This award recognises the top security vendor that incorporates the best, most comprehensive and most effective zero-trust model to security.

The nominees are: Cisco, Fortinet, Barracuda, Palo Alto Networks, VMware, BlackBerry, Microsoft, McAfee, Trend Micro, FireEye.

This award pays tribute to the software that ensures the best, most convenient and most seamless digital collaboration.

The nominees are: Microsoft 365, Slack, Google Workspace, Zoom, Zoho Connect, Cisco Webex, BlueJeans.

This award honours the most notable, influential and impactful proponent of data and storage over the past year. The nominees are:

Chin-Fah Heoh

Chin-Fah is the General Manager at iXsystems Inc Asia Pacific Japan and is concurrently a technology blogger at StorageGaga.com, where he shares his extensive knowledge about everything data and storage. He is a former Managing Consultant at Storage Networking Academy and Country Manager at NetApp Malaysia. Chin-Fah has been in the IT industry for over 25 years now and has been involved in data centre operations for much of it.

Akhil Kamat

Akhil is an Ecosystem Builder for Cloud & Cognitive AI Systems at IBM Asia Pacific. He is known for being a go-getter, with a positive and proactive attitude that has served him well in his over 17 years in the IT industry. Named by Disruptive Tech Asia as among 2020’s top cloud influencers on LinkedIn, Akhil has consistently built offerings in the fields of Cloud, Saas, Cognitive Systems, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence in his many years working with Global System Integrators, Distributors and Solution providers in the Asia Pacific region.

Matthew Hurford

Matthew Hurford is a NetApp lifer, having been in the data management company since 2009—first, as a Professional Services Manager and, ultimately, becoming the Vice President of Solutions Engineering and Field CTO for Asia Pacific. A self-professed “data champion” in his own right, Hurford has devoted much of the last few years to Big Data, particularly on how data analytics brings value to organisations big and small and across industries. He brings passionate leadership into the world of data and is a primary mover of NetApp in Australia.

Ravi Rajendran

Ravi Rajendran, currently the Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan at Cohesity, has been involved in everything data-related for over two decades now, beginning with his time as Regional Country Manager of Dell EMC from 1999 to 2006. He spent a decade at Hitachi Data Systems, followed by three years at Veritas, before settling into his current role at Cohesity. In this capacity, Rajendran has been using his wealth of experience to drive the company’s next-generation data management solutions, making himself always available to business leaders looking to deal with the challenges of managing a growing data ecosystem.

Raymond Goh

Raymond Goh is presently the Head of Systems Engineering, Asia & Japan at Veeam Software. In this capacity, the National University of Singapore alum leads a team of over 60 software engineers and solution architects in helping enterprises with setting up and maintaining a modern data centre through virtualisation, storage and cloud technologies. Prior to joining Veeam, Raymond honed his craft first at CA Technologies and then at Double-Take, a subsidiary of Vision Solutions.

Rachel Ler 

Rachel Ler is the Vice President & General Manager, Asia Pacific Region at Commvault, which she has helped rebuild and reshape in only her first 15 months on the job. Rachel has assumed leadership roles across the Asia Pacific and Japan—and for leading technology brands no less, like IBM, Microsoft, Dell Technologies, HP Enterprise and Nimble Storage. Always affable and approachable, Rachel is an empowered woman in the mostly male-dominated world of tech, and she is tirelessly using her stature to advance the data management sphere.

Voting for the DSA Awards 2021 will be open from the 17th of December to 7th of January, 2022. The announcement of winners will be on the 12th of January, 2022.