Market Potential- Retail and Corporate Part-I1. Introduction
1.1 Executive Summary:
This project titled An assessment for data recovery business in
Aurangabad with respect to retail and corporate business was
undertaken in Stellar Information Technology Private limited for 7
weeks for the partial fulfillment of the course. My industry mentor
Branch Manager instructed me to cover Aurangabad location to
explore awareness about Stellar Information technology Private
limited.This project provides insights about customer awareness
about brand name of Stellar Data Recovery. The customer awareness
about data recovery and other services being offered by Stellar
were explored in detail. The project was conducted in Aurangabad
location and 194 companies participated in the survey.As per my
research I found out that Stellar is the only company that provides
both data recovery services as well as software. There is a huge
potential for the company because of the quality of service being
offered. The competition from local players are stiff but could be
overcome easily as there isnt any branded international players
from data recovery industry in Aurangabad area.1.2 Introduction to
the concept:
What is Data Recovery?
When put simply, data recovery is the process of retrieving
computer data that for any number of reasons has become
inaccessible using normal methods. Many prominent data recovery
facilities have a large array of hardware, software and tools for
recovering data.
Generally speaking when a hard drive is received by a data
recovery firm, the first thing they do is evaluate it, and
determine what recovery solution will be necessary. If the drive
failure is a logical issue as mentioned earlier, then a scan of the
drive will be performed to try and repair the file system
corruption. Sometimes a partition can be repaired and the drive
restored to the status that it was before the failure. If this is
not possible, then a very low-level scan will be performed that
essentially searches every sector of the hard drive for files. Once
the files are located, they can then be copied to the media of
choice, i.e. a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or another hard drive. Logical
recoveries can take up an enormous amount of time, especially if
the drive is on the verge of physical failure.If the drive has
suffered a physical failure, then the recovery procedure is quite a
bit more challenging. As mentioned above, there are really two
sub-categories of physical failure; mechanical and electronic. An
important element in recovering data from a physical failure is
having the necessary parts to get the drive functioning again.
Unfortunately with hard drives if is 50GB Seagate Hard Drive for
example, then we will need another identical 50GB SeagateHardDrive
for salvaging parts. In cases where the electronic circuit board
has failed on the hard drive, then we need to have the exact same
circuit board on hand in order to retrieve the necessary circuit
components for replacement. Many times we cannot even exchange
circuit board for circuit board. These repairs generally require
soldering skills and a thorough knowledge of electronics to be
successfully completed. We will most likely hear "Class100 Clean
Room" thrown around a lot when talking to data recovery
professionals. Simply stated, a Class100 Clean Room maintains
exceptional air purity, and contains less than 100 airborne
particles larger than 0.5 microns in each cubic foot of air. This
is vital in protecting sensitive internal components of hard
drives. Anytime a hard drive is having an invasive procedure
performed on it, a Class100 clean room or better is neededHow does
the process often work? First, you contact a service. Usually they
advise you how to send them your media. Once they receive it, they
evaluate it as to how much data can be recovered. They will then
give you a price quote and an idea of the data that is recoverable.
Some companies have fixed prices per type of media or size of job;
other companies cost out each job individually. You then both
approve of the work order and have the work done, or you politely
decline their offer and have the media returned to you.
1.3 Objectives of the Project study:
The objective of the project study is to learn the work and
understand the field in a better way by actually working in it.
Assessing potential of the market within the premises of
Aurangabad
Create awareness about business and company
Developing an insight of tools and techniques to promote the
business
PART-II2. Profile
2.1.1 Industry profile:
2.1.2 History:
Data recovery solution provider is relatively a new business
domain it comes under Information Technology industry. The
exponential growth of IT and IT enabled services has led to the
growth of Data recovery Services Industry. The industry mainly
comprises of vendors who provide data recovery services and
software providers who develops software which could recover
corrupted files. Stellar Information Technology private limited
provides both softwares as well as services to its clients. In
Indian market there arent any such companies that provide both
softwares as well as services to its customers hence it could be
categorized as a monopoly. But there does exists a large number of
small scale vendors who provide data recovery services but they
could never be categorized as a competitor to Stellar Data Recovery
because of their scale of operation is very less mostly confined to
its locality.
2.1.3 Growth:
The exponential growth of IT and IT enabled services had led to
data explosion. Huge amount of data is being generated by the
automated IT systems and most of them being essential for the day
to day working of the company. The data thus generated needs to be
stored for later use or as a record. Data storage devices need to
be used for this. As the usage of data storage devices increases
the probability of such devices to get damaged also increases. The
data stored in such damaged devices are important and hence they
need to be recovered. Hence nature of demand can only be expected
to increase.
2.1.3 International and National scenario:In the present
scenario, computers run our lives, our homes and our businesses.
Most of us use computers every single day. So data recovery becomes
even more important in cases of computer crashes and valuable data
becoming inaccessible. Data recovery means retrieving data from
damaged, failed, corrupted or inaccessible primary storage media
when it cannot be accessed normally.RISE OF TECHNOLOGY: The growth
of technology has sparked off the increase in number of commercial
organizations across the economy. Big corporations, partnerships,
sole proprietorships, multinationals and small manufacturing
enterprises have been flooding the market. This vertical and
horizontal rise of technology can be attributed to growing consumer
demand. Consumers want more today. Hence this has led to inter- and
intra-dependency of firms and industries in the economy. No firm
can exist without the presence of the other. Everything has shrunk
and contributed to the growth and importance of data. Data has
grown over the years by leaps and bounds. Everybody, right from
commercial ventures, government enterprises to personal users saves
data. The importance of data has increased greatly.
The loss of this data can paralyze economic functions and signal
a downward economy spiral. Organizations and users need data for
healthy economic operation. Data such as financial records,
employee information and patient details in hospitals are stored on
data storage devices. These machines are not perfect and are liable
to corruption.
When this happens data is lost. All work, growth and progress
come to a grinding halt. This is where data recovery comes in. The
data recovery industry functions on the fear that precious data can
be lost any time.
International:
The world today has shrunk figuratively. Outsourcing employment
has become the new age mantra. Globalization has taken over. A
direct consequence of this has been the ever-increasing importance
of data. Today, businesses all over the world need data to survive
in the global market. Reliance and dependency on data has risen
sharply since1990s.
Different commercial enterprises trading and dealing in
different economic sectors need and want common data.
Interdependence has increased. This has directly impacted the data
recovery industry in a positive way. Data recovery business has
grown and is still growing throughout the globe.
2.1.4 Some prominent companies in the industry, their
Performance/Contribution:
A. Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd.:India is the data recovery
industrys largest, most experienced and technologically advanced
provider of data recovery products and services. In case of any
kind of data loss on any type of computer storage media, Unistal
has a solution with fast, advanced and cost-effective products and
services ranging from do-it-yourself software products, data loss
prevention solutions to 24/7/365 services network. With nearly 10
years experience performing successful data recoveries, Unistal has
served customers across the globe including Secret services,
government agencies, corporate houses, and numerous computer users.
Unistal has developed the industry's widest range of data recovery
products and services, providing desktop, laptop, server, email,
and database and tape recoveries for all media types and operating
systems anywhere, anytime. Unistal India is headquartered in New
Delhi. With regional offices at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata.
B. Disk DoctorsLab Incorporated:Disk Doctor Labs Inc. has been
serving the US and worldwide since 1991 and speedily becoming the
leader in data recovery from storage devices. Disk Doctors operates
worldwide from labs in United States, UK, Australia & India.
Today Disk Doctors offers the most comprehensive services available
in this specialized field. Disk Doctor Labs Inc. invests huge chunk
of their profits toward research and development of data recovery
techniques for ever-changing challenges and cost effective
solutions for our customers.Disk Doctor Labs Inc. has been
performing data recovery for individuals, multinational
corporations, educational institutions and government agencies
since 1991. Disk Doctor Labs Inc. is one of the most trusted and
respected data recovery company in United States and around the
world. Goal of Disk Doctors is to bring our clients halted
operations back into working conditions with quickest, cost
effective and quality data recovery. Disk Doctors India is
specialists in data recovery and recovers all or most of the data
that can possibly be salvaged from the situation at hand. Disk
Doctor India Operates from Bengaluru.
C. CBL Data Recovery Technologies: CBL Data Recovery
Technologies.is a leading provider of expert data recovery services
throughout Australia and Internationally. CBL's only business is to
recover data - quickly and cost effectively. Whether the data loss
is the result of mechanical or electrical failure, virus activity,
system malfunctions, human error, water, fire or smoke damage, or
file corruption, CBL has the uniquely talented people and the
resources in-house to solve the problem. Through innovation and
creativity, values that all CBL staff share, they strive to offer
comprehensive and efficient data recovery services to all of the
clientele. CBL Data Recovery Technologies operates from Mumbai
2.2 Company profile
2.2.1 Background and inception of the company:Data recovery was
at very nascent stage and people in the Indian market were not
aware of data recovery solutions. The Chernobyl virus attack that
resulted in accidental erasing of data from hard disk provided a
boon for the company. Many individuals as well as corporate turned
towards Stellar to recover data from computers affected by the
virus. The major market places for Stellar were South-Asia,
Middle-East Asia and countries like Singapore, Malaysia, South
Korea, UAE and Saudi Arabia. Stellar had then begun to outsource
its software development wing.Company moved to a new base at Nehru
place in New Delhi in 1995. Nehru place is one of the largest IT
Computer Hardware and Electronics markets in Asia. Under the
leadership of Manoj Dhingra Stellar started data recovery services
for logical-cum-physical cases of data loss from computers in 1995
By the year 2000, Stellar had started lab-service-data recovery
operations in Bangalore and Mumbai.Stellar Information Technology
Private Ltd was incorporated in 1993 by a group of Technocrat
Professionals. They are the pioneers and market leaders in Data
Safety & Recovery software and services Stellar provides
accurate, confidential & cost effective data safety &
integrity solutions to its customers. They are equipped with
necessary infrastructure and trained manpower. Stellar is the
number one company in data recovery service industry as well as in
development of data recovery and data loss prevention software in
the whole of South Asian region where it commands a majority of
market share.Stellar Information Technology Private Limited is an
ISO 9001-2000 certified company specializing in data recovery and
services and solutions. Stellar is headquartered in Gurgaon. The
company today has 14 branch offices across the country. Stellar is
the only data recovery company that has a Class-100 Clean Room
facility to ensure effective recovery even in cases of media that
is severely damaged. Stellar has established itself as a market
leader with an experience of over a decade.Stellar has 1,00,000
satisfied customers across 150+ countries including USA, UK,
Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Australia, U.A.E, Japan. They have
reinforced their faith in stellar offerings. Stellar has a
widespread partner network around the globe, which ensures
comprehensive pre-sales and post-sales support to its customers.
Stellar Data Recovery Solutions consists of a wide range of
software for almost any data loss situation ranging from accidental
formats to virus attacks to software malfunctions. Its products
support most major operating systems like Windows, Macintosh, UNIX,
and Novell. Digital Media Recovery and E-mail recovery are
additional data recovery software that they provide. Apart from
this the company also provides data protection, data backup, and
data eraser software.
The brand Stellar denotes Success, Perfection and Trust. ONLY
Company in Indian Sub-continent having CLASS-100 Clean Room.
Extensive Research & Development, Use of Proprietary Tools/
Presence in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi,
Gurgoan, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Vashi.
2.2.2 Nature of the business carried out:
Stellar Information Private Limited is into the business of Data
Recovery. Data Recovery means recovering the data that are stored
in damaged data storage devices or recovering data from files that
gets corrupted due to natural disasters, virus attacks, user errors
or software errors, So that the data can be retrieved and used
again. Data Recovery is a professional service that is being
provided by a very limited number of companies and Stellar Data
Recovery is the leader among them. Data can be stored in various
methods; It can be stored in printed paper which is grouped into
files or folders as in old government offices. Or it can be stored
in digital format by means of excel, word, or PDF documents.
Advantage of storing data in digital format is that it requires
very less shelf space, very low cost when compared to paper and
printing cost, it can be retrieved easily, It can be easily send
from one place to another. The only requirement is a digital data
storage device and a computer so as to work with the digital
document. Nowadays companies that stores data in conventional
printed documents and files have very much gone extinct as price of
Data storage device has drastically come down in past decade. The
amount of data being stored in the Data storage devices has gone up
exponentially and so is the value of the data being stored.Data
storage Devices are of various types they are: Hard disk
(Internal/External), CD/DVD, Pen Drives, Magnetic Tapes, Cloud
servers. With Hard disk, CD/DVD, Pen Drives being the most common
type of digital data storage devices in use. These digital data
storage devices are delicate in nature and require very much care
while working. People who work with these devices are often
ignorant about it and hence chances for these devices to get
damaged are very high. Once a data storage device gets damaged
retrieving the data which is stored in it is a tiresome job and it
requires specialized people along with desired tools and controlled
external environment depending on the type of damage that the
device has.Here is where Stellar Data Recovery or Stellar
Information Technology Private Limited is of great importance.
Stellar Data Recovery has specialized workforce with a wide range
of desired tools, both software and hardware along with a world
class laboratory to provide the controlled environment.*Process of
Data Recovery: Data Recovery Process at Stellar has been developed
as per ISO norms. We follow strict guidelines that ensure
confidentiality and data security every time.Free Consultation:
Free consultation on your crashed media for data recovery
aspect.Analysis: Once we receive crashed media and signed service
agreement from the client, thorough analysis of crashed media is
performed to decide on type of crash (logical, logical cum
physical, physical) so that the most appropriate data recovery
approach can be followed. Time required for recovery is calculated
based on the type of crash and clients requirements of data.
Percentile of possibility of recoverable data is calculated based
on verification of sample data and / or chances of accessibility of
crashed media.Detail Diagnosis report along with quotes, time
period required for recovery and percentile of possibility of
recoverable data is submitted to client for approval.Data
Recovery:Data recovery starts upon receipt of written confirmation
from the client on initial diagnosis (assessment) report and
quotation. Confirmation may be sent by email, purchase order/work
order. The written confirmation clearly states that client is
agreed on the service agreement terms i.e. percentage of data
recovery, requisite time frame, cost and payment mode.The data is
recovered by following the Data Recovery, Security & Safety
guidelines, which is developed by Stellar as per ISO Norms. Once
the data recovery is completed, directory listings in a text file
(or as requested by the client) is sent to the client for his
verification and approval. Alternatively client can visit Stellar
office for data verification.Data Delivery: Upon the receipt of
approval from the client for the recovered data listing/ signing
the data verification fromStellar office, data is handed over to
the client.
2.2.3 Mission and Quality Policy:
MISSION:
To maximize the chances of successful data recovery and achieve
total customer satisfaction by delivering data recovery and safety
through quality products, services and solutions.
Quality Policy:Achieving total customer satisfaction by
delivering data security and safety through quality products,
services, solutions and training.Aiming for the continuous
improvement in our services and products through structured
employee training programs and involvement of our business
partners.
2.2.4 Product/Services Profile:
a) Data Recovery:1. Windows data Recovery1. Linux1. CD-ROM1.
Macintosh1. Photo
b) File Recovery:1. Windows file recovery1. Deleted file
recovery1. Word recovery1. Excel recovery1. Access recovery
1) Laptop & Desktop Recovery:
Laptop and Desktop recovery service at Stellar is committed to
offer you complete peace of mind by restoring files, documents, and
databases off a dead laptop's or desktop's hard disk. Stellar has
the most experienced team of data recovery professionals that work
round-the-clock to analyze your media for potential problems, and
then recover all data to a safe location.
Sheer volumes of data created and stored on Laptop or desktop
hard disks make them increasingly susceptible to failures. Data
loss on such hard disks results from mechanical failures, firmware
corruption, virus infection, or logic board failures. Improper
handling, water exposure, overheating, and power spikes account for
Laptop hard disk malfunctions.
Major Operating Systems Supported:Windows, Mac, Linux, UNIX,
NovellMajor Hard Disk Brands Supported:Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi,
Toshiba, Fujitsu, Western Digital, Quantum, Samsung.
2) Server Recovery:
At Stellar, we use industry-best technology to bring back your
lost assets stored on insecure platforms. Irrespective of the
complexity of enterprise storage system, our streamlined procedures
are aimed at recovering your lost server data in no time. Stellar
engineers have vast knowledge of server architectures making
recovery much easier and ensuring no further damage is caused to
the underlying data.
As a large part of corporate and customer data reside on email
servers and database servers, the impact of a server failure can be
critical to your business. Server outages, configuration errors,
and failed server upgrades can endanger both the data at rest and
the data in motion.Server Recovery Services at Stellar support
recovery of server data from all types of storage systems,
configurations, and situations:
Any server make, model or brand All types of RAID configurations
Any File System
3) Raid Recovery:
Stellar's RAID Recovery service has the potential to recover
your mission-critical data in the worst-case scenario of data loss
on any RAID system. Our RAID recovery expertise can save your
organization from bankruptcy and seamless business downtime. The
professional team at Stellar uses proprietary technologies to
rebuild data lost from virtually any type of RAID layout, i.e. RAID
0, RAID 5, and more. Due to years of experience in this domain, we
assure you high level of success in your endeavor to recover data
from complex data storage systems.
RAID systems possess many of the same vulnerabilities to which
our modern hard disk drives are exposed. The problems associated
with RAID are not specific to one organization. These include
correlated failures, hardware issues, errors during rebuild,
equipment compatibility, controller failure, and more.
4) Encrypted Data Recovery:
Encryption adds an element of complexity to the data recovery
process.However, encrypted data can surely be recovered by
experienced data recovery specialists.
Stellar's Encrypted Data Recovery service implements the safest
approach to bypass any level of encryption applied to your
confidential and mission-critical files. We offer customized
solution to restore and decrypt your business data without
compromising its security.
We support Pointsec, Safeboot, Safeguard, EPST, PGP, CREDANT and
Windows Encryption.Encrypted Data Recovery is done in two steps:
Recover encrypted data Return recovered data in an encrypted
form
Stellar follows a systematic process to ensure safe recovery of
your encrypted data:
Problem Diagnosis:Stellar encrypted data recovery engineers
analyze the problem and if the media is physically damaged, it is
treated inside CLASS 100 Clean Room labs to make that readable and
ready for recovery.
Cloning: To avoid further damage to the original media and to
ensure safety of the data, we make a sector by sector clone of the
source media.
Recovery: With the help of our risk free recovery tools and
techniques, we recover the encrypted data and further decrypt it to
the original readable form.
5) DISK WIPE - SAFE FILE ERASER: Wipe, Erase, Overwrite,
Destroy, Eliminate Data and Files
Disk Wipe is an extremely powerful and effective data cleansing
software. Disk Wipe erases selected files and folders, wipes entire
drive, cleans unused space on your hard disk and also removes
Internet activities (History, Cookies, Favorites, Temporary
Internet Files etc), System traces and Application traces (MS
applications, Email & News, Chat messengers, NetMeeting etc)
from your computer.
Software ensures complete data destruction by removing
previously deleted files / folders. The file eraser utility also
wipes free space (unused space) on the hard drive ensuring complete
Data Destruction. Any wipe task can be done manually or according
to the schedule set in the Wipe Scheduler. Wipe list option
maintains the list of files and folders to be wiped in one go.
Extremely secure algorithms which conform to the various
standards are used to ensure permanent data deletion. It is thus a
complete solution for computer privacy. The Data once erased using
Disk Wipe is beyond the recovery limit of any Data Recovery
Software.
2.2.5 Area of Operation Global/National/Regional
DOMESTIC:
In January 2004, Stellar shifted its base from New Delhi to
Gurgaon. Gurgaon became the major office of the company; the first
CLASS 100 Clean Room lab was established in Gurgaon to carry out
all invasive data recovery operation on hard disks, removable
storage media, and servers. Stellar thus became the only data
recovery service provider in the entire South-East Asia to have the
technology and infrastructure much required to recover data from
physically damaged storage hard disk, memory cards, USB drives,
CD/DVDs, RAID Servers. Within a few years Stellar expanded to 14
major cities in India.
GLOBAL:
After India, Stellar looked at expanding globally. It
established Stellar Data Recovery Inc., its first offshore data
recovery service branch in New Jersey, USA. Stellar acquired a
European major RSE Data Recovery B.V. in the Netherlands which was
a major breakthrough. Acquisition of RSE Data Recovery paved way
for Stellar Information Technology to transact with the entire
European market. The new company now known as Stellar Data Recovery
B.V. is catering data recovery services in the Netherlands,
England, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Hungary,
Italy, and Luxembourg.
Stellar has developed and marketed more than 100 data recovery,
email recovery, database and file recovery, password recovery, data
sanitization, and system optimization tools for various platforms,
such as Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Novell, along with providing
with a strong service network.
CORPORATE AND REGIONAL OFFICES:
USA48 Bridge Street Metuchen, NJ
[email protected]
Gurgaon(Corporate Office)D18, Sector-33, Infocity Phase II,
Gurgaon-122001.(0124) 432 [email protected]
AhmedabadA-703, Premium House, Opp. Gandhigram Railway Station,
Off. Ashram Road, Ahmedabad-380006(079) 3241
[email protected]
Bangalore1206, 12th Floor, B Wing, Mittal Towers, Mg Road,
Bangalore 560001(080) 2532 7865,[email protected]
Chandigarh
Sco 445-446, 2nd Floor, Cabin No.6 Sector 35c,
Chandigarh-160022, Ut (India)(0172) 465
[email protected]
ChennaiNo.476/H1, 7th Floor , Temple Tower, 672, Anna Salai,
Nandanam, Chennai 35.(044) 2433 [email protected]
New Delhi (N.P)
Nehru Place Office205, Skipper Corner, 88, Nehru Place, New
Delhi-19.(011) 2641 [email protected]
New Delhi (C.P)Connaught Place Office502, 5th Floor, Mercantile
House-15, K.G. Marg, Cannaught Place, New Delhi(011)
[email protected]
Hyderabad
6-3-352/1, Osman Plaza, 4th Floor, Road No.1, Banjara Hills,
Hyderabad 500 034.(040) 4007 [email protected]
Kolkata306, 3rd Floor, Matrix Towers Plot No. 24, Block DN, Salt
Lake City, Sector V, Kolkata 700 091 (West Bengal)(033) 4003
[email protected]
NoidaTF-17, 10th Floor, Wave Silver Tower Sector-18 Noida
-201301 Landmark: Beside Mosaic Hotel(0120) 422
[email protected]
Kochi
First Floor Of Mathewsons Square, Edappally, Facing Nh 47
(Ernakulam- Alwaye), High School Jn., Cochin 24(0484)
[email protected]
MumbaiB-101, City Point, J. B. Nagar, AndheriKurla Road, Andheri
(East), Mumbai.(022) 2821 [email protected]
Pune209 A, City Mall, Near Pune University,Ganeshkhind Road,
Shivaji Nagar,Pune-411007(020) 6620 [email protected]
VashiOffice No.305, Third floor, Thacker Tower, Plot No.86,
Sector-17, 400703 Vashi, NaviMumbai,India(022) 3266
[email protected]
2.2.6 Organizational Structure:
Stellar Information Technology Private Limited is helmed by the
three founders of the company. Mr. Sunil Chandana, the Director
(International Business) looks after the International and Overseas
business of Stellar Information Technology Private Limited.
Mr.ManojDhingra, Cofounder is the Director who looks after the
Domestic Business of Stellar. Mr.Kuljith Singh the third founder of
the company is the Director in charge of Research and Development
and looks after the Software section of Stellar Data Recovery
Mr.Kuljeet Singh is the Director of Research and Development. He
also looks additional departments like Software development and
Finance Department. The Research and Development department
comprises of Research Engineers and Class 100 Clean Room lab
assistants. The accounts department comes under Finance Department
which directly reports to MrKuljeet Singh.Mr. ManojDhingra manages
the Domestic Business of Stellar Information Technology Private
Limited. The two main verticals that MrManojDhingra handles are
Human Resources and Administration. HR department looks after the
welfare of employees of all the branches of Stellar in India. HR
department functions from corporate office in Gurgaon. The HR
department comprises of HR manager and HR executives who take
responsibility for each zonal branch.Mr. Sunil Chandna manages the
International Business of Stellar Data recovery. He looks after the
offshore office at New Jersey, USA.After acquiring RSE Data
Recovery BV the international business of Stellar increased
exponentially this had been carefully looked after under the
leadership of Mr. Sunil Chandna.
2.2.7 Ownership Pattern:
Mr. Sunil Chandna, Mr.ManojDhingra, and Mr.Kuljeet Singh are the
founders of Stellar Information Technology Private Limited They
graduated with degrees in Computer Science from University of Pune,
Maharashtra, India in 1992. Their college project which dealt with
recovery of deleted data from hard disk paved way for Stellar
Information Technology Private Limited. On 3rd August 1993, Stellar
Information Systems Limited was registered in New Delhi. They first
started working on developing software that recovered lost data
from a floppy disk. The software was built for Windows Operating
system platform. The software helped to recover data from FAT based
windows partitions.
2.2.8 Infrastructural facilities:
Since 1993 Stellar has been pioneer in developing its
infrastructure in order to benefit its clients. To match world
standards Stellar has installed & commissioned Indias first
CLASS 100 Clean Room Lab in Gurgaon, It's a controlled recommended
environment for all read/write head assembly transplants. For
efficient operations Stellar maintains a strong inventory of more
than 5000 Desktops & 2500 laptop hard disks forming a wide
range comprising of various makes, models & capacities. Stellar
keeps on upgrading its inventory on a regular basis. Stellar also
has necessary infrastructure for repair capabilities of PCB / Logic
board of hard disks. At Stellar, all of their software and hardware
tools are indigenously developed & supported by our strong
R&D wing thus providing an edge over vendors engaged in
un-organized data recovery by making use of various third-party
softwares without proper support mechanism rendering the critical
data, which is highly risky. All of the tools used in Stellar are
backed-up by constant research and upgrades and are
Read-Only.Stellar understands that apart from the technical
capabilities it is equally important to make the service window
available in customer's location. At present Stellar has offered
its services in 16 Strategic Locations (Ahmedabad, Bangalore,
Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai,
Noida, Pune and Vashi). Stellar also offer its services by allowing
its customers to send media through courier.The major capabilities
of Stellar Data Recovery can be summarized as Service location
Class-100 Clean Room Proprietary Software Drive Inventory (Spares)
Repair Equipment
2.2.9 Achievement Award:
Stellar data recovery has received wide acclaims for its wide
range of softwares that it has developed. The various software
offerings have also got good reviews in various magazine polls.
Feedbacks, Awards and ratings for Stellar Mac Recovery.
PART-III 3. Literature Review
Recently, researchers have revealed that a large number of
computers have been found in secondary markets that have contained
information such as consumers names, credit card numbers, and
social security numbers (Jones, 2005). In fact, the most recently
reported cases of identity theft seem to have originated more in
offline situations than online. This is not a surprising fact in
that most end users may believe that by simply deleting files from
their recycle bins they are fully removing all of the files that
could be potentially harmful.
It should also be noted that it is not just the data that
contains personal information that can beexploited. Files
containing video and audio footage, blogs, diaries, and instant
messenger conversations can prove to be equally damaging and more
easily exploited, especially if it can be linked to an individual.
Calendars as well as address books provide routines and places that
may be used to stalk an individual.
The literature review supporting the research topic surrounding
hard drive data erasure encompasses the topics of data types,
preservation, erasure, and recovery. Considering the fact that
Microsoft Windows dominates 91% of the market share, we have
designed our study around the skills and equipment available to the
average consumer (Garfinkel, S.L. & Shelat., A., 2003).
In order to completely understand why an individual needs to be
aware of the risks involved with the proper disposition of their
computer, one needs to first understand how a hard disk works. The
average user probably does not know how files are written to the
hard disk, how they are deleted, what types of files contain
potentially harmful information, and how files can be
recovered.
-B. Dawn Medlin (Appalachian State University_A Study of Hard
Drive Forensics on Consumers PCs:Data Recovery and Exploitation
PART-IV
4.Research Methodology
Research methodology: Research is an organized inquiry carried
out to provide information for solving problems. Management in any
organization need information about the potential market and to
design plans as per the changing Market scenario. Marketing
research includes all the activities that enable an organization to
obtain the vital information. This research is very important in
strategy formation and promotion of the company.There are many type
of research these can be categorized as reporting, descriptive,
explanatory or predictive. Each research type is being used for
various purposes. In this research I have used explorative research
methodology; I tried to figure out opportunities and future threats
lying in the market for Stellar Information Technology Private
Limited and tried to promote the company and enhance its awareness
in the market.Research design is the plan, structure and strategy
of investigation conceived so as to obtain to research problem. It
is the specification of methods and procedures for acquiring the
required information
4.1 List of Project with brief description:
In this project, I used exploratory research. The basic aim of
my project was to find the problems faced by stellar information
technology private limited with regards to the sale, brand
awareness, service quality. The competition provided by the local
vendors is stiff and serious. The 3rd party dealers and AMC
providers, who is generally the first point of contact with the
customers, can play a vital role in positioning the brand name of
stellar in the minds of customers. They can be the basic marketers
of stellar. They can help in creating a brand image in the
costumers mind about the products and services offered by Stellar
Data Recovery. Though this research I tried to figure out the
factors they take into account while a data recovery solution. How
a data recovery solution provider is assessed by customers. The
importance of Advertisements, customer reviews etc. I also tried to
figure out the awareness level of customers about Stellar Data
Recovery.Field work: To meet with clients (3rd parties as well as
Corporate) Identifying potential clients. Not a sales job with
targets but needs to promote the company products and services. The
main products of the company are related to data recovery services.
To improve awareness about software offerings of stellar that comes
in different suites like (Enterprise suite, Business+ suite,
Business suite, Standard suite)
4.2 Data collection:4.2.1 Types of Data collection:To achieve
the objectives, the primary as well as secondary sources of data
are used. PRIMARY DATA SECONDARY DATAPrimary data:Primary data is
that kind of data which was collected by me for the purpose of my
specific study. I interviewed with a structured set of questions
just to know the brand awareness of the company. The valuable
feedbacks, knowledge about company, perception towards its products
are some primary data for my research work.Secondary data:The data
that has been already collected by others but which in turn became
useful for my report can be categorized as secondary data. The
secondary data was collected from various digital sources including
websites and blogs of companies and individuals who works in areas
related to hardware industry. The company past reports, various
websites, books, and assistance from company employees are my
secondary data used in this research.
4.2.2 Method of data Collection:Interview method:Interview
method helps in getting an insight into the prospective clients
mind. I adopted this method as I needed to promote my company in
the market as well as try building an image among them. This helped
me in gathering personal and professional information regarding
data recovery as well the image of stellar in the market. For this
purpose, various questions were asked randomly to the customers and
their vital feedbacks were collected. With this method I was also
able to clear the doubts of the customers regarding data recovery
issues such as data leakage and data revival possibility in case of
physical data damage.Observation method:During the project work, I
contacted the 3rd parties and Corporate to find their opinion about
the Stellar Information Technology Private Limited. In the
observation method the researcher himself collects the necessary
information by observing the response of the customers. Observation
may be conducted on in the natural field or in the form of
experiment. I used uncontrolled observation that takes place in the
natural setting. Agents and customer are free to express their
felling about the product and services offered by the company. The
observation method gave me an idea about the satisfaction level of
customer and agents and gained the precious knowledge about the
market situation which made me understand the need of data recovery
in different form of business (manufacturing companies, service
companies, 3rd parties etc.)4.2.3 Sample Collection:
Data has been collected from various areas and agencies
(3rdParties as well as Corporate). Sample size covered: 194
Priority has been given to companies that may require services and
softwares offered by Stellar Information Technology Private
Limited. Random sampling has been taken as no predefined database
of companies had been used. Made it a point to have companies from
all sort of industries viz: Information technology, Banks,
Manufacturing industries, Tours and travels, Laboratories,
Advertising agencies etc.
PART-V5. Data Analysis and Interpretation5.1 Analysis:
1. Did you know about Stellar Information System Ltd
before?YESNO
72122
Explanation:37% of the responders said they were aware of
Stellar Data Recovery and 67% said they were not aware of Stellar
Data Recovery.Inference:Only 37% of the population is aware of
Stellar data Recovery. Rests 67% is unaware about the company
Stellar Data Recovery. This provides further scope for marketing of
brand Stellar. The potential for brand Stellar to grow is huge.
Effective marketing techniques could be utilized to improve the
brand awareness of Stellar Data Recovery.Findings: Awareness about
Stellar Data recovery is low.
2. Did you know that data can be recovered even after formatting
the HDD?
YESNO
14549
Explanation:75% of the responders said they were aware that data
can be recovered even after formatting the HDD and 25% said they
were not aware that data can be recovered even after formatting the
HDDInference:The general awareness about the data recovered even
after formatting the HDD is 75% which is better but still can be
further improved by proper awareness and information provided by
the company with good explanation of basics which would cover the
remaining 25% as well.Findings: Awareness about the data which can
be recovered even after formatting the HDD is good amongst the
respondents.3. Are you aware of Class 100 Clean Room?
YESNO
44150
Explanation:23% of the responders said they were aware of Class
100 Clean Room and 77% said they were not aware of Class 100 Clean
Room.Inference:The general awareness of Class 100 Clean Room is 23%
which is very low and need to be improved as it is most essential
for data recovery fromdevicesand Stellar is the only private
company that has Class 100 Clean Room in India. The inaccessible
drives are treated in the Class 100 Clean Room like hard disks,
removable storage media, and servers.Findings: Awareness about
Class 100 Clean Room is very low. Can be improved by sharing the
importance of Class 100 Clean Room for Data recovery.
4. Do you use any post data recovery tools?YESNO
50144
Explanation:25% of the responders said they use post data
recovery tools and 75% said they dont use any post data recovery
tools.Inference:The use of post data recovery tools is 25% which is
very low as most of the companies and industries prefer the data
recovery companies for recovery of their data which is a good point
for Stellar Data Recovery and for that marketing should be done in
a better manner of the post data recovery tools.Findings: Better
marketing of post data recovery tools is required.
5. While outsourcing hard disk for data recovery do you ensure
data confidentiality?YESNODoesnt Matter
160259
Explanation:82% of the responders said they ensure data
confidentiality while outsourcing hard disk for data recovery, 13%
of the responders said they dont ensure data confidentiality while
outsourcing hard disk for data recovery and for 5% the data
confidentiality while outsourcing hard disk for data recovery
doesnt matter.Inference:Data is of great importance for a company.
Its importance is only getting increased year after year. The
improved operational systems have been ensuring that importance of
data will only increase in spite of automated reports being
generated by various ERPs and other softwares. The numbers obtained
here will give a short glimpse of how important data is for a
company. More than 3/4th of the correspondent companies
acknowledged that fact that data is of at most importance. And only
18% regarded data as a non-essential part of a business.Findings:
Data is important. Loss of data disrupts the functioning of the
company.
6. How many systems do you have?Below
5050-100100-250250-500Above 500
8843331713
Explanation:As the graph shows 88 companies are below 50 system,
43 companies are under 50-100 system, 33 companies are under
100-250 systems, 17 companies are under 250-500 systems and only 13
companies are above 500 systems.Inference:It can be easily inferred
from the graph that most of the companies have less than 50 systems
which is not of greater scope and around 13 companies are above 500
systems. So those companies should be given importance as we look
forward for a bigger business and bigger setup. There are very
limited companies with maximum number of systems and
servers.Findings: Awareness about Stellar Data Recovery should be
spread in the companies above 500 systems.
7. Would you like to see demo of stellar disk wipe?YESNO
12371
Explanation:63% of the responders said they would like to see
demo of stellar disk wipe while37% of the responders would not like
to see demo of stellar disk wipe.Inference:This is relatively an
untapped market. Responders dont know the importance of permanently
deleting data from data storage devices. They usually format the
device to erase data from devices. Only 63% of the people knew that
data still exist in the device even after the device is formatted
and could easily be recovered from them. Proper awareness about
this factor to the general population could be an easy way to
market the brand Stellar.Findings: People are willing to learn more
about Disk Wipe. Most of them wanted to see the demo.
8. Would you like to recommend Stellar in case of Data recovery
is required?YESNO
18212
Explanation:The companies are looking forward for Stellar Data
Recovery in future as around 94% would recommend Stellar Data
Recovery in future and only 6% would not recommend Stellar Data
Recovery in future.Inference:There is a great bit of competition
when it comes to Aurangabad area. The customers in Aurangabad are
not generally dissatisfied with their existing service providers.
But still they are expecting more from the service provider in
terms of time for servicing, Cost of servicing, confidentiality of
data and Service rates. This can be considered as an opportunity
for Stellar. If Stellar data recovery could utilize their expertise
in data recovery field and provide excellent service to the
customers they could easily gain a lot of customers who are just
being provided satisfactory services by the 3rdpaty
vendors.Findings: People are looking forward to the service of
Stellar Data Recovery in future.PART-VI
6.1 Findings:
Based on the data acquired from the one to one interaction with
people at 3rd parties agency and corporate, the following are the
findings of my research Pricing of the services and softwares
provided by Stellar is much more than the local vendors. Corporates
are satisfied by the high quality performance delivered by Stellar.
Marketing techniques applied by Stellar Data Recovery are not
adequate. Laptop and PC hard disk are the most trusted sources of
data Storage. Server hard disks are gaining popularity in IT
industry as reliable source of data storage. While CD-DVD Roms are
no longer desired data storage device. 3rd Parties are sceptical
about sending the hard disk to stellar as they find their customers
unwilling to pay high price. Wide range of add-on services are
being provided by stellar. General level of awareness about data
recovery and other allied services like disk sanitization are poor
among the customers Brand awareness about stellar is low The
important factors considered by a customer are confidentiality of
data, expertise in data recovery, and experience in industry and
service rates.
6.2 Suggestions:
Improving the efficiency of marketing department could easily
transform into sales Competitive pricing with respect to local
vendors could easily gain a lot of customers. 3rd party data
recovery providers could be made potential clients. Most of them
dont have a decent lab wherein data recovery can be done.
Attractive incentives and rewards could be given to 3rd parties to
attract them to divert their customers to stellar data recovery.
Aggressive marketing could be done for Disk Wipe services which
could help Stellar to improve its brand image.
6.3 Learning Experience and contribution to the host
organization:
HARD DISK: The hard disk drive is the "data centre" of the PC.
All of the programs and data are stored in a hard disk between the
occasions that we use the computer. A hard disk is the most
important of the various types of permanent storage used in PCs
(the others are CD-ROMs, tapes, removable drives, floppy disks
etc.) The hard disk differs from the others primarily in three
ways: size, speed and permanence.The hard disk plays a very
important role in overall system performance. Most people dont
recognize the importance of hard disk. This is now changing. Hard
drives are now getting more attention than they deserve. The speed
at which the PC boots up or a program loads is directly
proportional to hard disk speed.The hard disk, also called the hard
drive or fixed disk, Hard disk is the primary storage unit of the
computer. A hard disk consists of a stack of disk platters that are
made up of aluminium alloy or glass substrate coated with a
magnetic material & protective layers. They are tightly sealed
to prevent any foreign matter from getting inside. If any particle
gets inside, it may causes head crash. Hard disks come in removable
and fixed varieties. Their memory capacity may also differ from
several hundreds of megabytes to several gigabytes. The capacity or
amount of information that a drive can store is measured in bytes
and higher units at megabytes or gigabytes and even terabytes.A
hard disk uses round, flat disks called platters. Platters are
coated on both sides with a special media material. This material
is designed to store information in the form of magnetic patterns.
The platters are mounted by cutting a hole in the center. Platters
are stacked in through them onto a spindle. The platters are made
to rotate at high speed, driven by a special spindle motor which is
connected to the spindle. Special electromagnetic read/write
devices called heads are mounted onto sliders. These heads are used
to either record information onto the disk or read information from
it. The sliders are mounted onto arms that are mechanically
connected into a single assembly. The system is positioned over the
surface of the disk by a device called an actuator. A logic board
controls the activity of the other components and communicates with
the rest of the PC.Each surface of both the platters on the disk
can hold tens of billions of individual bits of data. These are
organized into larger "chunks" for convenience. These chunks are
then allowed for easier and faster access to information. Each
platter has two heads, one on the top of the platter and one on the
bottom, so a hard disk with three platters has six surfaces and six
total heads. Each platter has information recorded in the form of
concentric circles called tracks. Each tracks are further broken
down into smaller pieces called sectors, each of those sectors
holds 512 bytes of information.
TRACKS AND SECTORS:
The Platters are organized into specific structure, so as to
enable organized storage and retrieval of data. Each platter is
broken into tracks which are tightly-packed in concentric circles.
This may number up to tens of thousands of them in each hard disk.
These are similar in structure to the annual rings of a tree unlike
the grooves in a record album, here the concentric circles do not
form any connected spiral and not concentric rings. A track which
holds too much information to be suitable as the smallest unit of
storage on a disk, so each one can be further broken down into
sectors. A sector is the smallest individually-addressable unit of
information that can be stored on a hard disk, and holds up to 512
bytes of information. The first PC hard disks had 17 sectors per
track. Today's hard disks have thousands of sectors in a single
track. They make use of zoned recording so that it allows more
sectors on the larger outer tracks of the disk.
TYPES OF HARD DISK CRASH:Physical Crash: When drive is making a
ticking or a scratching noise due to age or bad parts, the aperture
arm in the hard drive can fail, failed motors or the platters can
become damaged and lose the data that they hold. Physical damage
could also be due to mishandling of the drive or circuit failure of
the PCB board which is attached to the hard drive. Physical damage
always causes at least some data loss, and in many cases due to
physical damage the logical structures of the file system also may
get damaged, all such damages constitute physical crashes of hard
drive. Another physical issue that sometimes rears up is an
electronic failure. If we look at a hard drive we will notice a
circuit board on the bottom. This board is basically the brains of
the drive, and it is where the computer interfaces to the hard
drive. An electrical failure can occur unexpectedly at any time.
Even brand new hard drives are not totally immune to having
electrical failures. Sometimes it's just a faulty component;
sometimes it's improper installation (i.e. electro-static
discharge, grounding out the board, damaging circuitry during
installation).Logical Crash:Far more common than physical damage is
logical damage to a file system. Logical damage is primarily caused
by human error which includes accidental deletion of files,
accidentally formatting drive and power outages may cause file
system structures getting damaged, causing a variety of problems,
system crashes, or an actual loss of data. Logical failures are
usually a result of file-system corruption. This can occur due to a
virus, accidental deletion of key files or registry components, and
in some cases even electro-static discharge. In most cases where a
logical failure has occurred, the drive is still recognized by the
system BIOS, but it will not boot. In most cases, the data should
still be intact on the drive, even though it may appear to be
inaccessible.
Human Error:Human Error is the single largest contributor to
incidents of data loss. Common human errors include Accidental
drive format File/folder deletion MIS/Administrator errors,
Mishandling Trauma caused by drop or fall Software Corruption:
Popular desktop operating systems have reported to have hung and
caused severe damage to disk systems area resulting in data loss.
Incidents when popular applications like word-processor, spread
sheet, database, and email have caused corruption resulting in data
loss are widespread.
Computer Viruses: Wide spread instances of severe data loss have
been reported when anti-virus software could not stop a virus from
causing severe damage or when an anti-virus was not updated.
PART-VII
7. SWOT Analysisstrength:Stellar Information Technology Private
Limited has a worldwide presence. And has more than 1 million
satisfied clients. It is the only private company that has Class
100 Clean Room in India. The other Class 100 Clean Room available
is in IIT Bombay, Powai which is specifically used for research
purpose that too only under strict norms and regulations. The
company guarantees 100% result in data recovery as per the
assessment report which is generated within 24 hours of submission
of faulty media.The company has its own proprietary tools and
techniques for data recovery unlike others who use 3rd party
softwares for data recovery. The company provides employment for
over 150 engineers, who are specialized in data recovery. Stellar
data recovery has a spare hard disk inventory with more than 12,000
hard disk of almost all known specification and configuration
available in the country. Stellar ensures that every hard disk
being available in the market is being stocked into its hard disk
inventory so that in specific cases of damages, the spare device of
exact same configuration is available in its inventory.More than
100 R&D specialists are being employed by Stellar Data
Recovery. The software development and support team of stellar are
known for the efficient softwares they have made. Stellar has a
dedicated technical support team and 24*5 helpdesk. Stellar
Information Technology Private limited has more than 30 Indigenous
data recovery softwares under its name. Hence the brand name of
Stellar can be considered to be strong when compared to its
competitors.
Weakness:The major weakness of the company is its pricing policy
which is 2-3 times higher than the market rates at which 3rd party
vendor does recovery services. Local data recovery service
providers and 3rd party data recovery service providers have shown
little interest in consulting stellar even in cases of severely
damaged devices. The brand perception that stellar has created is
that Stellar is an international brand that caters to high end
corporates and multi- national companies.Stellar Data recovery is
yet to start an aggressive marketing campaign, which could increase
the brand awareness about stellar among the potential customers.
Lack of man power in the sales force could also be considered to be
a weakness of the company.
opportunities:The potential of the company to grow is huge.
There is a large untapped market in the data recovery segment which
is still being occupied by 3rd party vendors and local data
recovery vendors. These local data recovery vendors include
freelancers as well as small shops that solely uses the software
solutions provided by Stellar Data Recovery. Signing up or entering
into a tie up with these 3rd party vendors could greatly boost the
sales figures of the company. These vendors could be carefully
molded into partners rather than categorizing them as competitors
by means of contracts or commission for sending clients etc.The
digitalization of governance and administration has improved the
number of digital data storage devices. Large number of schools and
colleges has moved into digital platform for keeping records. The
Big Data or large chunks of data are being generated by automated
systems they need to be stored for later use. As the number of
digital data storage devices increases, chances of encountering
faulty data storage device also increased.threats:Easy availability
of open source softwares like Recuva, advancement of open source
operating systems like Linux provides options for easy recovery of
data from logical crashes is a threat to Stellar Data Recovery.
Online piracy and easy availability of cracked versions of Software
solutions offered by Stellar does possess an instant threat to the
company.The entry barrier to get into data recovery industry is
low. With the help of desired toolkits and instruments any player
can get into this nascent industry. This could easily intensify the
competition and thus hamper the profit margins of the
companyCustomers are often inclined towards low priced products
instead of quality. Often customers trade off confidentiality and
quality of service to lower service charges.
Bibliography
Websites:
http://www.stellarinfo.com/
http://www.stellarinfo.com/company/about/stellar-overview.htm
Company Brochure Stellar data recovery Software catalogues -
Stellar Data recovery Knowledge shared by Mentor
http://www.linkedin.com/company/stellar-information-systems-ltd
http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/stellar-information-system-ltd
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/over.htm
http://www.stellarinfo.co.in/services/data-recovery-process.php
http://www.stellarinfo.co.in/
http://www.stellarinfo.com/services/data-recovery-capabilities.php
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