Being one of the pioneers in DDR4 technology, Kingston offers the best-in-class quality at affordable price-points. From big data to laptops and PCs, to IoT-based devices like smart and wearable technology, to design-in and contract manufacturing, Kingston helps deliver memory solutions used to live, work and play. During a conversation with NCN, Mr. Tejashwar Singh, India Sales Head, Kingston Technology, reveals their marketing strategies, new technologies incorporated and their future plans.
Please brief us on Kingston’s recently launched affordable NVMEs.
Kingston has recently launched Kingston NV1 NVMe PCIe SSD. With a single-sided M.2 design, NV1 is the ideal entry-level drive for first-time NVMe users of laptops and small form factor PCs. It is a effective storage solution with capacities up to 2TB and read/write speeds up to 2,100/1,700MB/s, respectively, thus delivering 3x the performance of a SATA-based SSD. NV1 uses less power, emits less heat and has quicker load times making it ideal for users who appreciate responsiveness and ultra-fast data access but have systems with limited space. NV1 is available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities and is backed by a limited 3-year warranty, free tech support and the legendary Kingston reliability. Whether users are upgrading a system or planning a new build, NV1 is designed for high speed and dependability at an affordable price. Going ahead as well, we will be bringing compelling products for our users and take ahead our credo of ‘Kingston Is With You’ to the next level.
Explain your roadmap for your channel partners?
Channel partners have been the key growth drivers behind Kingston Technology success story. At Kingston, we believe in adopting a channel-friendly approach and growing with our partners. We work towards strengthening the partner-ecosystem to bring the best possible business opportunities for them. With our compelling products and market expertise, we continue to help our channel partners improve and grow in terms of revenue and reach. On an ongoing basis, we conduct training sessions to educate them about our new products and the latest industry trends. We’ve also expanded newer segments such as gaming and enterprise, with the help of our channel partners. Moreover, our Field Sales teams help us get a pulse on the consumers on regular basis. They help us gauge the needs of the consumers in our market, and hence we come up with our products and strategies as per the requirements of the discerning Indian users. All this backed with our compelling customer service network, which helps us to target the right customer segment. In addition to this, we will continue with our 360-degree marketing approach and will be coming up with compelling campaigns which cutting across PR, Social, Digital and Traditional media, in order to touch the lives of our new age users.
What challenges you faced during the past few years and how did you overcome them?
Memory/Storage is a deeper topic that demands focused involvement. Our marketing campaigns are more connected to our consumers. We implemented various communication strategies, such as media collaboration, coverage exposure, word-of-mouth marketing and social events to engage with our target audience
What are the strategies adopted to maintain your position in the market?
Most of the strategies devised for India have been defined, keeping in view the current market dynamics and the rapidly changing situation in these testing times. While working and learning from home are on the upswing, the gaming space is another segment witnessing constant growth, with gamers constantly looking for super-fast and smooth access to their systems. Hence, we have been focusing on coming up with products which will help in increasing work as well as gaming performance of our discerning consumers. To provide a compelling and versatile experience, we come up with memory as well as storage solutions across mainstream (entry), high performance (mid) and extreme gaming (high) segments. Our strategy is to enhance our product mix of our SSDs as well as DRAM product portfolio. We are working towards shifting our focus and incentive & resource investment toward higher capacity, differentiated product lines, and last but not the least, growth in enterprise segment.
What are the consumer trends during the unprecedented times?
The new normal has touched people from all walks of life and the pandemic has forced people to be more virtual in their approach and adopt internet-based services to communicate, interact and perform their official duties from home. Kingston Technology has a compelling range of products for this stay-at-home scenario. One needs to add a few simple additions and adjustments in the PC which will help to enhance the workflow, speed as well as productivity. Replacing the hard drive with a solid-state drive (SSD) or upgrading the RAM of the PC are some of the easiest and quickest ways to enhance the PC performance to the next level. These adjustments help in elevating the work from home or even play from home, experience to the next level. These products help in upgrading the system, increase the speed keeping in mind the security of data. These upgrades can be opted by start-ups or anyone who needs a power packed performance and is looking at solutions to manage their productivity with great ease. The Indian market has also been a high-growth market for Kingston Technology, with high demand in technology upgrades. Riding on this trend, Kingston is the most preferred brand in the Indian market and well poised in the market due to extensive SSD and DRAM product portfolio and aggressive pricing.
Please elaborate on your Data Center SSD range and how it helps enterprise users?
The Kingston DC1000M is an affordable and powerful NVMe drive for data centres. Customers looking to make the leap from SATA/SAS SSDs to NVMe will enjoy the similarities in implementation but with much faster data rates and lower latency. The drive features high-storage capacity and best in-class enterprise performance. Our Kingston DC1000B is a high-performance M.2 (2280) NVMe SSD using the latest Gen 3.0 x 4 PCIe interface with 3D TLC NAND. DC1000B offers data centres a cost-effective boot drive solution with the reassurance they are purchasing an SSD designed for server use. Ideally suited for use in high-volume rack-mount servers as an internal boot drive(s) as well as purpose-built systems where a high-performance M.2 SSD is needed that includes on-board power-loss protection (PLP)
Kingston’s DC450R is designed for workloads that require 24/7 uptime and reliability, such as Content Delivery Networks (CDN), edge computing applications and a wide array of software-defined storage architectures. DC450R presents a specifically focused feature set that enables data centres to select the most cost-effective SSD for their workloads. Businesses require results as they deliver on products, solutions, and service level agreements (SLAs) and DC450R provides system builders and Cloud providers with a high performance, economical SSD standard they can count on.
Moreover, our Kingston DC500R is ideal for read-intensive applications such as boot up, web servers, virtual desktop infrastructure, operational databases and real-time analytics. Cloud service providers and software-defined storage architects can leverage the drive’s consistent I/O and latency performance to deliver the QoS needed in demanding read-centric environments. Additionally, our Kingston DC500M is designed for mixed-use workloads in applications that have a more even balance of read and write I/O demands on the SSD. It is ideal for Cloud service providers and software-defined storage architects who need a flexible infrastructure to effectively adapt and manage transactional workloads. These workloads include AI, big data analytics, Cloud computing, database applications, data warehousing, machine learning and operational databases.
