Data growth, cost and sustainability driving customer concerns

A convergence of trends has emphasised the clear and growing need in the marketplace to provide predictable, affordable and secure data storage for businesses, said Wasabi Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) country manager Craig Stockdale.

Now in his 45th year in IT, Stockdale has seen major shifts in how technology is adopted, from centralised technology to data centres, and an increased demand for cloud storage.

Stockdale cited research from the Council of Australasian University Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT) that data growth is “skyrocketing” at a rate of 40 to 50 per cent annually across the board.

“This isn’t just an enterprise problem,” he said. “Even small businesses are feeling it. Rather than building their own infrastructure, they’re increasingly looking to buy solutions that are ready to go and fit neatly into their existing stack.

Stockdale believed customers were getting fed up with all the hidden infrastructure costs, especially the ones they’re not made aware of when they sign up for cloud storage or for services that include cloud storage as part of the solution.

In Wasabi’s global Cloud Storage Index survey 2025, A/NZ reported the highest rate of cloud storage budget overruns globally. The insights were gathered from up to 1700 participants globally, with 250 respondents from A/NZ.

“In fact, 66 per cent of respondents in the region said they had spent more than expected on cloud storage,” said Stockdale. “We dug deeper and asked where those costs were coming from.

“We found that 48 per cent of the spend was on capacity – the actual storage needed to house their data – but 52 per cent was being spent on egress fees and associated charges; costs simply to access their own data.”

Naturally, that’s left a lot of “customers with a bad taste in their mouths”, remarked Stockdale.

While customers want their data stored securely, in certified data centres with all the right protections, but they don’t want to pay extra just to access that data.

“Backup and recovery, that’s [Wasabi’s] core business,” he said. “If you want to regularly test that your backups are working and that you can recover quickly, you shouldn’t be penalised for doing that. It should be part of a robust business continuity plan.”

Stockdale said what is happening a real pushback.

“Customers are demanding flat, predictable pricing from their cloud storage vendors … no surprises, no hidden charges,” he said. “Honestly, that’s exactly how it should be.

Keeping it sustainable

The challenges posed by the explosive growth of data have intersected with growing environmental awareness and procurement requirements that demand environmental, social and governance (ESG) accountability.

In the Wasabi Cloud Storage Index, the number one item chosen by A/NZ respondents when selecting a cloud storage vendor was sustainability.

“[Globally] we’ve seen it in the top three or four, but it’s never been at number one,” he said. “For the first time we’ve seen it as number one. That was quite an eye-opener.”

Stockdale also said Equinix was the company selected Equinix as its company of choice for collocation.

“What that means is that clients have the opportunity to buy rather than build. A lot of companies aren’t in the business of technology,” he said.

“A lot of companies aren’t in the business of technology – they’re in the business of what they do, whether that’s manufacturing, education or something else.

“It just so happens they’ve had to build data centres themselves to house all their data.”

Now that data is growing at such a fast rate, they’re looking at alternatives and cloud is the number one alternative to allow them to buy rather than build, Stockdale said.

“I personally always believe that we will live in a hybrid world. I think there will be certain workloads that will reside on-premises and continue to do so,” he said. “But there are other workloads and data that can exist in the cloud.”

The sustainability point of view when it comes to buy versus build gives partners an edge with customers who have ESG within their organisation.

“Sustainability is a big issue for MSPs; people don’t think they actually think about their sustainability,” Stockdale said. “[This is] not just in terms of how they can make money off it, but in ensuring they’re sustainable.

 “They can go for contracts where procurement requirements are that they are sustainable.”

Bolstering the channel

That’s one of the reasons why prioritising relationships with channel partners, whether they’re resellers, national resellers, MSPs, or systems integrators ,has become important.

This was also a strong personal focus for Stockdale, who began at Wasabi as managing director of channels for A/NZ and Asia Pacific in August 2022. He was promoted to regional director of channels for A/NZ and Asia Pacific two years later and then again to his current role in November 2024.

“We’ve now got a program in place to work with what we call white glove partners,” he said. [These are] partners that we will invest not only time, effort and energy into, but also funding, to do some joint work to grow their business.

“If we’re growing their business, then they’re growing our business, and they’re adding value to their client base.”

Wasabi also has a partner portal that has been with a whole range of digital assets that partners can learn from.

As well extra support in the local team, with the hire of former Crayon Asia Pacific (APAC) director of cloud solutions Andre Carpenter to lead the vendor’s presence in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), in July last year.

“Then, of course, they’ve also got my phone number, which is brilliant,” he said. “I take calls from everybody and anybody. My role is to make sure that everyone gets serviced and gets looked after.

“We’ve had circumstances where partners have started with 20 terabytes of storage and they now have petabytes of storage and a very successful business.

“That’s because we started small, and we scaled, and we helped them.”

According to Stockdale, the cloud storage vendor works with distributors like Crayon, which have “a major benefit” to its MSP and reseller base.

“Over the past two years, there’s been close collaboration with Crayon,” he noted. “As the business has grown, now with hundreds of channel partners and MSPs using the technology, it became clear that a partner was needed to provide faster and better service.

“That’s where Crayon comes in. [It has] taken on the ability to offer Australian dollar pricing and provide first-level support.”

Stockdale explained the distributor had done a lot to help address and grow the market and it’s been a unified effort to achieve that together.

“[Crayon executive vice president for Asia Pacific] Rhonda Robati has done an incredible job serving the marketplace,” he said. “She’s also shared how Crayon is investing heavily in its support-led distribution model, which is a critical part of the broader partner program across the country.

“Whatever can be done to help streamline provisioning, improve support structures, and accelerate partner enablement, through a distributor like Crayon, is going to benefit MSPs, the reseller base, the broader channel ecosystem and ultimately the end user.

“That’s fundamental to scaling in a market like Australia and across New Zealand.”

What’s important for Wasabi’s channel partners is that they can craft and deliver an all-in-one strategy and solution for their clients.

“For example, we’ve got partners who’ve built their own backup-as-a-service offerings on top of our platform, and they’re taking that to market,” said Stockdale. “That’s helping them build strong, recurring revenue streams.

“In the past, they might have relied on hyperscalers who charged not just for capacity but also for accessing their own data.

“What we’re doing is bringing a new model, a new paradigm, that gives our partners a real competitive edge.”

This will provide partners with the ability to build services and platforms that go beyond just the run-rate business they do with other vendors.

“That’s what’s going to keep them ahead, and is especially important for MSPs, resellers, and the broader channel ecosystem,” Stockdale noted.