‘India generates 20% of data, but has 2% of data centres’ : US Pioneer Global VC DIFCHQ Riyadh UAE-Singapore Norway Swiss Our Mind

interview: STEVE LONG, GM, Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, Intel Corp & SANTHOSH VISWANATHAN, MD & VP, Sales, Marketing & Communications Group, Intel India

Intel has been present in India for over 30 years. It has over 14,000 employees where 90% of them are technical, working on different product lines and doing different pieces of R&D or engineering work. There is a tonne of value in having a good, large R&D site that not only helps Intel scale but also helps solve local problems, two senior executives — Steve A. Long, GM of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, Intel Corp, and Santhosh Viswanathan, MD & VP, Sales, Marketing & Communications Group, Intel India – tells Sudhir Chowdhary in a joint interview. Excerpts:

How is Intel navigating the current scenario of volatility vis-à-vis geopolitics and supply chain disruptions?
Steve A. Long (SL): We see opportunity in a balanced and diversified resilient supply chain. This is an advantage Intel can take because of global footprint. We build in Asia, the US, Europe, and Israel, then we have design centres that are decentralised globally. That’s proven through some of the Covid-induced disruptions but now, the geopolitical diversification that clients are looking for is actually a strength for Intel because we are in a position where we can assist those  who want that. We are looking at  opening our factories and showing customers that not only are we  going to build our own products, but we are investing capital to play differently in the ecosystem where we can build products for others. This is a key part of our company’s transformation.

What are the opportunities you see in the Indian market?
Santhosh Viswanathan (SV): The pandemic led to so many important shifts in India. Look at the unique identity or KYC verification, it happens instantaneously with the help of the networks. The apps I use in India, it probably exceeds the number of apps of any country that I’ve lived in. Thanks to the startup ecosystem, the data generated at the network, device or at the edge and making sense of this data using AI is going to transform many things in India and that’s a huge opportunity.

India still has less than 2% of the world’s data centres. What kind of opportunity does this present and what is Intel’s play in it?
SV: The key for us is that while India accounts for 20% of the world’s data, it currently has less than 2% of the world’s data centre capacity. Therefore, the data is going somewhere else. As much as we think of physical infrastructure, digital infrastructure is equally critical. Hence, having policies around data protection will help propel the industry and ensure we have the infrastructure right where the data is generated. Secondly, sustainability is another top priority for data centre operators. There are numerous ways of cooling technologies that we’re experimenting with like liquid immersion cooling, to ensure we are being fair to the environment with the growth of these data centres.

How is India R&D leading the innovation charter for Intel globally?
SL: Our India site is engaged in cutting-edge engineering such as 5G networks, IPs, SoC design, graphics, software, and platform for data centre, client, and IoT markets involving advanced technology like AI, 5G and autonomous systems. So it plays a strategic role in Intel’s growth.

SV: There is a tonne of value in having a good, large R&D site that not only helps us scale but also solve local problems. There are customers who look at differentiated solutions and our engineers go back and analyse how we can optimise them. Their biggest challenge is power. We optimise workloads, develop new cooling technologies, and help lower their power consumption costs.

https://www.financialexpress.com/life/technology-india-generates-20-of-data-but-has-2-of-data-centres-3100814/