The COVID19 pandemic has driven companies to find remote work solutions overnight. Getting applications and infrastructure on the cloud, finding ways to manage and store data far more securely and meet the pandemic challenges and build resilience in a very uncertain future.
The global data centre market today is valued at about 215 billion. That was in 2021, and this is likely to grow to 288 billion by 2027.
With accelerated demand for flexibilities in cloud computing, data centers are also moving towards a multi-cloud or hybrid data centre model to speed up digital transformation for enterprises.
During South Asia, Digital Week 2022 thought leaders discussed how a united leadership, centralised management, and a uniform governance strategy will improve a business’s decision-making for the company’s overall benefit. In a panel discussion titled ‘Enterprise & Data Centre: A Collaborative Governance’.
The session was moderated by Namrita Mahindro, Chief Digital Officer, Aditya Birla Group. The panelists included Sanjay Bhutani, Senior Vice President, AdaniConneX, Sharad Kumar Agarwal, CDIO, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, Debashish Roy, Director & Head, Pfizer Digital andUtkarsh B., Chief Architect, Flipkart.
Hyperscale Data centres
The Hyperscale data centre and hyperscale cloud are two other sides of the same coin.
“Let me give you more perspective. When enterprises talk to them they are CSP which is a cloud service provider, and the cloud service providers are helping big-time enterprises to shift workloads into a cloud which is a need of the hour and currently, India is adopting cloud at a very fast pace,” said Sanjay Bhutani, Senior Vice President, AdaniConneX.
He further explained that developed countries have reached a very mature level of 60 per cent to 70 per cent cloud adoption. India is at the nascent stage of 9 per cent to 11 per cent.
At the same time, the pandemic actually forced all the IT leaders and all the enterprises to shift into workloads which actually brings in lots of agility.
Secondly, the discussion on the cloud is currently IT and the CIOs are actually seen as a support system, they are the ones in the driving seat today. When technology is driving businesses, a hyperscale cloud is actually masifying in India, and that is leading to more data centres.
The other aspect is cloud. So cloud means that cloud is called a Data centre. That is something which is a very simple way to explain what a data centre is and cloud is nothing but actually, a shared environment where, where people are able to use it and people are able to adopt new technology in a similar manner.
As far as fandom goes, there is a lot of competition for IT leaders to think and speed their actions in a direction that is actually helping India to grow faster.
“The last one is I think virtually you touched upon people working remotely who are working from home. That also people realise the cost of the Cloud and a data centre. So, those two costs are different one, when people are migrating to a cloud, other people are still thinking, can they be on-premise or can they go to a third party,” Bhutani added.
Hybrid models are going to evolve in India and we have seen across the globe people have adopted two hybrid models. So both the engines are going to fire big time, and there is a long runway, so it’s an exciting time for India and a lot of innovations happening within India, and people are eyeing it as a global IT hub. India as a global IT of a geopolitical environment is also helping India to become a world leader.
Challenges and Opportunities faced by Organisations
A data centre is a centre of digital transformation. There are multiple components to it. One is, people used to buy IT hardware, people used to buy boxes, and ultimately everything has become an opex model today, and opex is something which is a pay-per-use model that India is adopting and a lot of enterprises have resisted if they don’t donate.
“How will they run their business someday someone can run away or someone can deny them access to those, I think that that fear is taking place. As far as this ecosystem goes there are multiple things one is the undersea cable that comes to India is very important. Ultimately, access to data, and how can I bring in a better customer experience is something which is the most important aspect and India has been an India the legacy of only cable landing only to Mumbai Chennai. I think that we need to solve it, and Adani, and AdaniConneX as a company, we are, we are helping to solve this two decades issue and we are trying to get into business, and will solve this in coming years,” said Bhutani.
Secondly, India is a developing nation and fiber is something that is becoming an issue for a data centre and for the IT leaders. So there are ways and means to use India, such a vast country, we can use a lot of utility networks like terrestrial networks which are used for power.
Actually, fiber can run along with those lines. So there are a lot of Gail, RailTel, and there are a lot of organisations, and the power grid is another organisation, those have a utility set up and Adani also has that kind of setup wherein we can use that setup to make sure our fiber is reliable.
“Third is sustainability is another key aspect which India needs, and India has been very progressive India has been working very, very progressively on that, and sustainability is not only from a power perspective, not from a green power perspective there are multiple elements to sustainability. I think holistically if we look at this package,” Bhutani added.
He further pointed out that there are multiple elements, if we stitch it at a faster pace and there is a lot of progress all over, and obviously the government is playing a vital role in bringing all this together and there are policy advocacy happening in the state and, and at a central level, which is one of which is playing a key role in integrating all.
