Enterprise Storage Market Insights From the Field

At DeStor, we are dedicated to revolutionizing decentralized storage solutions by seamlessly integrating them with enterprise applications. With over 50 years of combined experience in enterprise data storage, our team has a deep understanding of this segment of the decentralized storage market. We specialize in connecting data owners with Filecoin storage providers through an intuitive and transparent platform.

Why focus on the enterprise market? According to Veritas, the average enterprise has 10 petabytes of data, making even small gains in this sector translate into significant revenue for Filecoin storage providers.

Since launching in April, 2024, we’ve secured 3 petabytes (PBs) of paid data storage deals and have an additional 39 PBs in the pipeline. Our early success with enterprise customers is no coincidence; it’s the culmination of months of research, conversations, and meetings with IT decision-makers.

In this article, we share the key feedback and insights we’ve gathered from these IT executives. Our goal is to empower projects within the Filecoin ecosystem to accelerate their go-to-market strategies and successfully engage enterprise customers.

Privacy and Security Top Concerns

Decentralized storage is of keen interest to enterprises looking to enhance resiliency and incorporate verifiability into their flows. However, survey feedback from our storage industry executive dinner series in Hong Kong, New York and Chicago highlighted two primary concerns gating adoption: data security and privacy.

50% of IT executives identified data security and privacy concerns as the main barrier to integrating decentralized storage within their organizations, despite clear breaches from traditional public cloud storage providers like Microsoft and AWS.

A donut chart illustrating the primary barriers to integrating decentralized storage within organizations. The largest segment, representing 50%, is labeled "Security & Privacy." Other barriers include "Lack of Strategic Alignment" at 20%, "Organizational Cultural Resistance" at 10%, "Regulatory Compliance" at 10%, and "Technical & Interoperability" at 10%.

This insight revealed that targeting IT leaders with security titles at their organizations (one of our initial buyer personas) is off the mark. These individuals are primarily concerned with preventing malware and ransomware from entering through employee actions. Focusing on infrastructure-based titles (CTO, IT Director, etc.) responsible for recovery post-attack will likely prove more fruitful as these executives are more likely to resonate with robust data recovery and security solutions provided by decentralized storage technologies.

The AI Opportunity

AI continues to be a hot topic with IT leaders. While the aforementioned data privacy and security concerns are delaying their adoption of decentralized storage, 40% of survey respondents agreed that integrating decentralized storage and AI is a necessary evolution to stay competitive. This confidence inspiring feedback aligns with exciting decentralized AI developments in the Filecoin ecosystem, investment community, and beyond.

Even with the promise of decentralized AI, IT leaders still have concerns about the technical challenges faced when integrating decentralized storage and AI. 30% of respondents expressed concern about interoperability within their existing IT infrastructure, and 60% are grappling with the potential for increased complexity in data governance (the overall management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of an organization's data).

While integration and governance concerns are absolutely valid, we believe they can be eased through a combination of education and high-touch technical support. We’ve seen Filecoin storage providers find success by developing proof of concepts (POCs) to win over IT decision makers. And we’ve personally experienced the impact that compelling educational content can have in unlocking paid storage deals, especially with innovation focused teams within the enterprise.

Summary

The feedback we gathered from IT executives reveals that enterprise adoption of decentralized storage is gated by concerns around data security, privacy, and integration complexity. However, IT decision makers recognize the promise of AI and the role decentralized storage will play in keeping their organization competitive. Successfully engaging with enterprise customers will require clearly defined buyer personas, impactful educational content and the ability to deliver high-touch technical support and POCs.

As marketers at heart, we’d be remiss to not have a POV on messaging. Yes, features and benefits-based marketing can move the needle, but it’s increasingly challenging to cut through the clutter of the noisy enterprise IT media environment. Messages that resonate focus on being different versus. being better, creating opportunities to deliver impactful emotional appeals.

As organizations continue to navigate the intricacies of integrating AI and decentralized storage, we firmly believe the Filecoin ecosystem is on track to build the foundational stack for the next generation of the cloud.