Digital Week South Asia Sri Lanka edition

February 22, 2022

By South Asia Team

Thurs, 29th April 2021, 10am – 1.10pm (GMT +5.30)
Registration Closed

The developments happening in Sri Lanka.

Research and Markets forecast that Sri Lanka’s IT market will be back to growth in 2021. In 2020 Sri Lanka telecom opened up the National Data Center a purpose built tier 3 data center with a capacity of 500 racks located near the capital city Colombo.
Sri Lanka Government has implemented the National Cloud and Data Centre infrastructure to accelerate the digital transformation, established Local Government Network (LGN) project which integrates all the government establishments in the country for effective communications.

Sri Lanka is located in an advanced strategic location compared to other countries and is also the gateway to communications and submarine networks for the Asia region. Sri Lankan enterprises are also going forward for adoption of best in break cloud technology for their business needs.

However although there are great developments happening in the tech space there are still challenges that enterprises are facing in Sri Lanka including

Lack of Cyber tech Adaptation & tech know how shortage
Lack of knowledge on cloud concepts and benefits vs trade offs
Infrastructure & investment issues for development, Sri Lanka is expected to receive significant investments of Data center and cloud security

As a tech enthusiast In order to make sure you are well versed with these updates & challenges W.media has created the largest platform for Sri Lanka’s tech enthusiasts to join together and get insights from the top experts from across the world.

Welcome to W.Media’s Digital Week South Asia – Sri Lanka edition starting from the 29th of April.

Our Conference Agenda:

Time(GMT+5.30)	Topics
10.00 AM	Welcome Address by W.Media
10:05 AM	Keynote Address from the Gov of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka as the Asian Digital Tiger – Key cloud & data center trends Learn about the new policies and initiatives for fast forwarding Digital Transformation and taking Sri Lanka to the forefront as we see growth in data center Government Digital initiatives and Digital Payments. We have seen an increase in demand for multi-tenant data centers and also with captive data data centers in the banking sector. Speaker: – Mahindra B Herath, CEO, ICTA
10:20 AM	Power Panel Session Making Data Center’s the focus for Sri Lanka – Key needs of the hour Sri Lanka is strategically located and has the resources to be the leader in tech from Asia. However it’s not yet at the top and the million dollar question is how do we take Sri Lanka to the top of Cloud, Data Center and Cyber security market? A) What does Sri Lanka need to leapfrog in the Digital Economy? B) With such a strategic location why has it not already been at the forefront? C) What is missing? D) The type of Infra and Investment it needs to advance further? E) Are modular data centers the need of the hour in Sri Lanka? Moderator: – Savithri Rodrigo, Founder, Stratyx Promotions & Media Concepts (Pvt) Limited & Stratyx Write (Pvt) Limited Panelists: – Rajendra Theagarajah, Non Executive Chairman, Digital Reality ( A Dialog Axiata & Orion Smart City JV) Marco Brandstaetter, Regional Director Middle East and SHORTCODE ERROR: ThirstyAffiliates did not detect a valid link id, please check your short code!, DE-CIX Navin Pieris Vice President – Enterprise Business and Large Enterprise Sales, Dialog Enterprise
11:05 AM	Power Panel Session How to overcome the absence of benchmarks and business need to go with green data centers in Sri Lanka Green data centers is not just a buzzword in developing countries like Sri Lanka anymore. It’s a priority as Sri Lanka is located in a highly strategic area it already has the tolls but lacks the expertise, an example to follow and most importantly CEO’s still do not feel the business need for investing in green data centers while data center managers have been urging for this change since long. Moderator: – Lakmal Embuldeniya, Assistant General Manager, Tech One Global Panelists: – Hessam Saifi, Managing Director, DC PRO BV Dinesh Wickremanayake, MD & Sri Lanka Location Head, WNS Global Services Dr. Harshana Jayashantha De Silva, Manager – Data Center, KBSL information technologies ltd Amal Kaluarachchi, Consultant – Data Center Services, Dialog Axiata PLC
11:50 AM	Power Panel Session Unbolting Sri Lanka’s Digital transformation opportunity There are real growth opportunities for organizations in Sri Lanka who are ready to follow a digital transformation process. Despite the blistering pace of global technological change, many emerging economies such as Sri Lanka and it’s enterprises have not yet started their digital revolution. If this continues then it will ramp up competition, disrupt industries and will force companies out of business. So in order to fast track the digital transformation process enterprises in Sri Lanka will have to look at the opportunities, challenges and technological resources available to save their business. Moderator: – Rohan Mahakelam, Associate Manager – Delivery (Project and Program Management), Virtusa Panelists: – Eranga Perera, Head of IT, Jubilant food works Lanka Pvt Ltd Zaheer Meeran, Head of Information Technology, Habib Bank Limited Dr. Samila Fernando, Managing Director, Fastrupee Pvt Ltd
12:30 PM	Power Panel Session Why the importance of Enterprise cybersecurity should never be misjudged in Sri Lanka In Sri Lanka 53% tech leaders say it is likely their enterprise will experience a cyberattack in the next 12 months and 62% say their cybersecurity teams are understaffed. In the midst of COVID-19—in which 92 percent of IT audit and security professionals say cybercrime is increasing—data and information are critical, including data about cybersecurity performance: This panel session will help you learn on what does and does not work, how and where improvements can be made, and what peers are doing in their enterprises. Moderator: – Sujit Christy, Group CISO, John Keells Holdings PLC, Sri Lanka Panelists: – Roshan Razik, Head of Technology Ops and IT Security, Pearson Lanka Commander (Rtd.) WASN Ananda, Chief Information Security Engineer, CERT – Sri Lanka Sunari Dandeniya, Chief Information Security Officer, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC
01:10 PM	Closing Remarks