ST May-Jun 2021
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INTERVIEW: INFINIDAT INFINIDAT<br />
BUILDING MOMENTUM<br />
PHIL BULLINGER WAS APPOINTED CEO AT INFINIDAT AT THE <strong>ST</strong>ART<br />
OF <strong>2021</strong>, HAVING PREVIOUSLY SHONE AT <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE INDU<strong>ST</strong>RY<br />
NAMES INCLUDING LSI, ORACLE, DELL EMC AND WD. <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE EDITOR DAVE TYLER CAUGHT UP WITH PHIL TO DISCUSS<br />
THE CHALLENGES OF TAKING ON A NEW ROLE IN THE MIDDLE OF A<br />
GLOBAL CRISIS<br />
Dave Tyler: You have around 30 years of<br />
experience across many of the biggest<br />
names in the sector - which presumably<br />
was a large part of why Infinidat wanted to<br />
bring you in to helm the business. What was the<br />
draw from your side?<br />
Phil Bullinger: I was really attracted to the<br />
Infinidat opportunity because of their great<br />
reputation as well as the fantastic customer<br />
experience around the product: in my years in<br />
enterprise storage, whenever I came across an<br />
Infinidat customer they were never shy to talk<br />
about how much they loved the platform. I<br />
know - again from my own experience - that<br />
behind every great product is a great team, and<br />
since I joined the company in January these first<br />
few months have been incredibly positive -<br />
everything I had expected and hoped to find<br />
here has been reinforced.<br />
There is a real focus on innovation, but<br />
crucially the customer comes first in every<br />
conversation we have: it's genuinely a part of<br />
the DNA of the company. I know a lot of<br />
businesses say that, but so much of how<br />
Infinidat is organised pivots around the<br />
customer experience, whether it's our L3 support<br />
team, our technical advisers in the field, or how<br />
the product itself operates. I've been delighted<br />
to find the extent to which the company is<br />
organised around the customer.<br />
DT: Tell us a little more about the specifics of<br />
your role and how you fit in to Infinidat's<br />
strategy?<br />
PB: I've been blessed on many occasions in my<br />
career to lead companies through growth and<br />
scale: stepping into a business at a specific<br />
point in its lifecycle where it had good products<br />
and satisfied customers, and the task then was<br />
to efficiently scale the business to new levels of<br />
success. That is exactly what we're focussed on<br />
right now here at Infinidat: investing in<br />
engineering, sales, marketing, and raising the<br />
profile of the company in the markets that<br />
we're targeting.<br />
We have a lot of momentum as a business:<br />
throughout 2020 we had sequential growth -<br />
every quarter was larger than the one before.<br />
08 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2021</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE