The first session, between Dell's Chellam and NetApp's Morris, focused on the topic "The Journey to the Cloud". Some of the issues discussed were key barriers to cloud adoption, as well as data security and integration challenges that users face during implementations.

The next presenter was Shiva Anand Neiker, storage sales leader, IBM systems & technology group, ASEAN, who shared with the audience some findings from Forrester Research on the benefits of storage virtualisation.

Firstly, the technology helps reduce storage management and administration cost, said Neiker. "This allows a core group of administrators to control multiple assets across a distributed storage environment, where you have 50 percent efficiency improvement," said Neiker.

Secondly, users are able to improve capacity utilisation of existing storage assets by some 30 percent, and with that, "you can control the growth of future spending".