Digitalisation is the new normal with the IT Infrastructure services are in high demand. Businesses are increasingly outsourcing data storage to third-party data centres rather than building up their own server capacity in order to centralise and expedite shared IT operations and equipment. Data centre migration services are predicted to grow by 24% by 2024. Following the epidemic, 87 percent of IT decision-makers throughout the world want to speed up this process.
Sri Lanka’s extensive geographical location and its affinity towards developing communication technologies have made them offer the global market fully-fledged data centres at costs approximately 25% lower than its counterparts -making them a global competitor in terms of connection and reliability.
The Sri Lankan IT market returned to growth from 2021 onwards as pent-up enterprise demand levels got unlocked along with a GDP growth once a wider recovery started. This growth puts Sri Lanka in a great position to meet the constantly growing demand for data hosting among local and global corporations and regional businesses looking for cost and operational advantages. However, the growth and demand also invited concerns of cybercrimes – a crucial factor that threatens the nation’s digital security.
Join us at the W.Media’s Digital Week – Sri Lanka where we discuss Sri Lanka’s virtual goldmine – data centres built on high-quality infrastructure and around most dynamic businesses. We also majorly discuss the strategies and plans in place for safeguarding Sri Lanka from cyber crimes by gradually improving its digital space governance while also developing a cyber-resilient society.
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Our Conference Agenda:
Time(IST) | Topics |
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10:00 AM | Welcome Address By W.Media |
10:05 AM | Power Panel Session How the Indian Data Center market will look by 2025 – Challenges & Outlook The data center growth in India is currently exceeding the annual growth rate of American and European data center market. There are yet many cloud computing companies who have not yet made their entry in India, so this says that the data center market in India is bright. However the question is how do we reach there and what would the data center market in India by 2025 look like. Moderator: – Jabez Tan, Head of Research, Structure Research Panelists: – Pankaj Agrawal, Partner, Capitel Alex Perkins, Chief Development Officer, Stratus DC Kamal Nath, CEO, Sify Technologies Darren Hawkins, CEO & Founder, SPACE DC Sanjay Bhutani, Senior Vice President , AdaniConnneX |
10:45 AM | Keynote Address from the Gov of India 5G and Edge – India’s next trillion dollar opportunity India’s next trillion dollar digital opportunity is 5G and Edge computing. Currently 5G & Edge are thought to be trends to benefit connectivity for mobile technologies. However it is more than that, 5G and Edge is the technology that can change the way enterprises in India can operate mission critical functions with zero latency data processing, efficiency and computing power. This keynote will deliver insights on how 5G and Edge can affect technology investments as well industry infrastructure, manufacturing units, smart cities and harbors, automation, government and public infrastructure. Speaker: – Atul Bist, Senior Assistant Vice President, Invest India |
11:00 AM | Power Panel Session What is driving demand of data centers in India – Internal or outsourcing The data center growth in India is expected to grow by 4% during the 2019- 2015 cycle. While business in India is adopting hybrid cloud systems at a growing rate. The main question is whether internal growth in business or outsourcing of IT systems in India is growing the demand for data centers. Moderator: – NK Singh, Founder & CEO, Data Center Guru Panelists: – Vinod Nair, Service Head of Data Centre Ops, HDFC Ergo Dhaval Pandya, Corporate CIO, Piramal Enterprises Limited Suppan Saravanamuthu, Director of Operations – APAC, Iron Mountain Data Centers |
11:40 AM | Presentation Session Data Center Of The Future Today’s world are complex, uncertain and data center is the heard to drive all the digitation across the world. This need a holistic approach when we look out for Data Center Design not only looking at our current requirement but how it will be sustainable in the future. Schneider Electric’s Data center of the future vision has four vectors: Sustainability to meet business needs responsibly; Efficiency to optimize cost, speed, space, and capital; Adaptability to be designed for new technologies; and Resiliency to reduce vulnerability to unplanned downtime. Please attend our session to know more about it. Speaker: – Ankesh Kumar, GM – Marketing, Schneider Electric |
11:50 AM | Presentation Session Optimizing floor space Floor space usage in the data center is an important consideration, whether planning a retrofit or a greenfield build. With the ever-growing demands for computing power, more data centers are beginning to become capacity constrained. Floor space can be full, whilst, ironically, compute capacity is under-utilized, a phenomenon caused by a fragmented, siloed approach to the procurement of new capacity, often sized for peak loads. How can we improve the utilization of available floor space, optimize the floor space for maximum output and overcome the challenges of over-procurement and increased operational management? Watch us answer this question and more. Speaker: – Sanjay Motwani, Business Head, Legrand Data Center Solutions |
12:00 PM | Power Panel Session Cloud Computing priorities & outlook for new decade The IT environments for organizations in India are becoming more complex with multiple public clouds, private clouds, and traditional systems needing to be interconnected, integrated, and collectively managed. Most of Indian organizations are clustered around early stages of cloud maturity and find it challenging to move ahead in the adoption curve. As Indian organizations move towards a cloud-first strategy, enterprises will now have to decide on the cloud priorities and how they see the use of cloud for challenges of the next decade. Moderator: – Gaurav Khera, Director – Digital and Technology Advisor, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Panelists: – Mohit Kapoor, Group CTO, Mahindra Group Mayuresh Purandare, Head – IT Infra & Cyber Sec, Marico Ltd Rohit Chatter, CTO, Inmobi Dave McCrory, VP of Growth, Global Head of Insights & Analytics, Digital Realty Manish Gaur, Head of IT, Patanjali Ayurved |
12:45 PM | 12:45 PM Power Panel Session Accelerating Data Center sustainability to the forefront with new age power & cooling Technologies In the dynamic, fast-paced data center industry, a passion for change is essential. Enhanced data center cooling system reliability, with best-in-class cooling control technology is now demand of the hour and this session will share insights on recent trends, mechanisms and how to overcome challenges. Moderator: – Venkatesh G, Deputy Editor, W.media Panelists: – Kevin Kant, CEO, Critical Facilities Efficiency Solutions Marcel Jacobs, Managing Director, Circl8 N.K.Jain, Founder, N.K. Jain Consulting Engineers Sudhanshu Datt, Sector Lead – DC & Mission Critical Infra, AECOM Venkataraman Swaminathan, VP & Country GM Secure Power Division INDIA & SAARC, Schneider Electric |
01:30 PM | Networking Break |
02:00 PM | Power Panel Session How digital transformation in the right way can refresh your business If your organization is busier than ever “digitizing,” you’re not alone. Digital efforts have been proliferating for years as companies strive to catch up with technological innovation. However, this accelerated wave must not be confused with the real business transformation needed for success in the digital age. The former is mostly about enabling business as usual and “staying in the game,” while the latter is about building real, long-term competitive advantage to succeed and that’s what this session is all about. Moderator: – Shalil Gupta, Chief Business Officer, Mosaic Digital Panelists: – Eric Vas, President – Electric Vehicles, Bajaj Auto Ltd Anindya Karmakar, Head – Digital Transformation, Aditya Birla Capital Rajat Teotia, CTO, Junglee Games Ankur Arora, Director & Head – Digital & Innovation, Sodexo India Arvind Sekar, Lead- Partner Sales Engineer, Freshworks |
02:40 PM | Power Panel Session Creating a highly efficient Data center for the future with 5G, Edge Computing and Next gen Infrastructure Management In a hyper connected world no enterprise would like to use a Data Center with efficiency & infrastructure issues. The demand is growing for an enterprise Data Center which can push network and data center processing to the edge. This session will discuss how organizations can overcome Data Center Infrastructure, efficiency issues in a hyper connected world where speed is the new demand with the help of next gen Infrastructure & technology so that Data Center & Operation heads can stay ahead in the race. Moderator: – Mahesh Trivedi, SVP, NTT Panelists: – Kamlesh Harchandani, Head – DC Designs and Development, CapitaLand Vikram Tiwathia, Deputy Director General, COAI Sanjay Bhutani, Senior Vice President , AdaniConnneX Manish Israni, EVP & CIO, Yotta Infrastructure Sreejith G, AVP – Data Center Operations, STT GDC |
03:20 PM | Power Panel Session Dealing with cloud migration challenges Cloud migration can be an extremely daunting task for enterprises especially with vendor lock – in issues, migration of critical workloads or legacy applications. This session will bring together experts to discuss their experiences and how they went about successfully migrating their business applications from on-prem to cloud, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. Moderator: – Arun Gupta, Technology Advisor, Shalby Hospitals Panelists: – Shobhana Lele, CIO, The Bombay Dyeing Manufacturing Company Limited Atanu Pramanic, CIO, Hindalco Industries Arivuvel Ramu, CTO, Tonik Bank Ajay Meher, Group CIO, Ampersand Group |
04:00 PM | Dialogue Session How cloud will decide the future of India’s banking & financial sector for 2021 The earlier reluctance to move core activities to the cloud has softened. Many banks are putting strategies in place to migrate their core services such as consumer payments, credit scoring, wealth management, and risk analysis to the cloud. However the role of cloud in enhancing the financial services sector is not over yet. Join us for our dialogue session and learn the future of cloud for India’s BFSI sector. Moderator: – Sanjeev Assudani, Senior Architect – Cloud, Wipro Limited Panelists: – Anil Sinha, CTO, Early Salary Pinkes Ambvat, CIO & IT Director, CRIF India |
04:30 PM | Closing Remarks |
Time (GMT +5:30) | Topics |
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01:55 PM | Opening Address by W.Media |
02:00 PM | Key Note Address By Government of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka’s National Security – Make, Guard and Preserve The analogies for Sri Lanka with all of its natural assets, and with proper management and investment, has become the ideal location for offshore data centres. In the wake of modernising and guarding its data protection framework, Sri Lankan Cabinet has drafted two bills – the ‘Defence Cyber Commands Act’ and a bill for imposing cyber protection law. Once implemented, these regulatory policies will serve as the defence frontier for Sri Lanka’s digital security and will enable them to achieve their digitalisation goals while keeping investment and operating expenses low. This keynote address will discuss the government’s and regulatory bodies’ plans and initiatives to push Sri Lanka onto a global market in terms of data and cyber reliability, boosting a digitally resilient culture, talent and workforce and enable the frameworks for a digitally inclusive Sri Lanka and . Keynote Speaker Chanuka Wattegama, Head of Policy, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka |
02:20 PM | Power Panel: Leaders Talk Next-Gen Energy Efficient Data Centres – What It Takes For Sri Lanka To Be In The Global Race! To establish the most secure and scalable data infrastructure and to position Sri Lanka as a leader in this digital age, building another standard data centre won’t do! Atleast, the post-pandemic era clearly demands us to re-think! So, here, we try to answer the question of how one can re-invent the data centers of the future that are not only digitally supreme but are resilient, sustainable, efficient, and adaptive in nature. This power panel discussion will focus on how to prepare your network and workforce for the next-gen sustainable data centres, secure them and create globally resilient strategies. The discussion will shed some insights into how to radically simplify digital infrastructure challenges for local and regional enterprises and drastically improve the speed at which they conduct their business Panelists |
03:00 PM | Panel Discussion Forces Shaping Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy A country’s market forces and policies define the demand and growth for data centers and its other pockets. Sri Lanka’s plunge into acquiring high-end digital data infrastructure built on world-class enterprise solutions providers will necessitate a larger use of the globally competitive data hosting capabilities. The key enterprise players and the public and private interests for this global push will enhance the provision of a secure and reliable data hosting facility and cloud computing services in Sri Lanka. This panel discussion will share insights into the contributing forces behind Sri Lanka’s evolving data centre ecosystem and how the increasing consumption of this era’s new digital behaviour will naturally stir the demand for data centre services, and drive new requirements. Moderator Venkatesh Ganesh, Deputy Editor, W.media Panelists Azain Ghany, Group Chief Information Officer, Emjay Penguin Ruwanthi Fernando, Chief Information & Process Officer, Hela Clothing Navin De Croos, Senior Manager – Globe IS/IT, Nestle Lanka PLC Nishan Thevathason, Vice President, John Keells Holdings PLC Irshad Deen, Deputy Chief Digital Officer, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC |
03:45 PM | Presentation Adopting An Unified Environment For Cloud Migration The increased adoption of cloud-based services has been driving the demand for the data centre in Sri Lanka. Critical enterprise applications are migrating towards the cloud for improved security, service assurance, operational efficiency, network connectivity, management, and seamless scalability. This presentation will talk about providing businesses with a unified cloud experience and emphasises the necessity to systematise their hybrid multi-cloud environments, taking into account migration, security, compliance, data, performance, scalability, and network requirements. |
04:00 PM | Panel Discussion Building A Cyber Resilient Sri Lanka With AI The core foundation of developing countries and developed countries is having a successful digital economy. A successful digital economy is defined by the extension of investment in digital infrastructure – fibre and wireless connectivity and high-end technologies – and its expansion. As it is increasingly becoming important to safeguard the nation’s digital security, government and private organisations have taken steps to address the new cyber threat landscape. However, with expanding concerns over cyber security, the progress to counter has been too slow. While cyber attacks are considered negative disruptors, AI is considered as a disruptor of a new hyper tech era. With looming concerns about digital sovereignty and the resilience of vital operations, deploying AI to safeguard organisations against AI-augmented hacking attempts has therefore become a necessary part of cyber security defense protocols. This panel will discuss how organisations can use AI to become more resilient to cyber crime and anticipate and respond to changes in the threat landscape over time. Moderator Sujit Christy, Director, President, (ISC)2 Colombo Chapter, Sri Lanka Panelists Suresh Emmanuel, Chief Information Security Officer, Hatton National Bank PLC Shehan Savio, Senior Manager – Information Security, Cargills Bank Limited Sunari Dandeniya, CISO, Commercial Bank of Ceylon |
04:45 PM | Closing Remarks by W.Media |
Our Speakers:

Head of Policy
Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

Chief Information Security Officer
Hatton National Bank PLC

Deputy Chief Digital Officer
Sri Lanka Telecom PLC

Group Chief Information Officer
Emjay Penguin

Senior Manager- GLOBE IS/IT
Nestle Lanka PLC

Chief Information & Process Officer
Hela Clothing

Director
Layers-7 Seguro Consultoria Private Limited.

Senior Manager – Information Security
Cargills Bank Limited

CISO
Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC
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