Cloud is the largest enabler of data in the world today. Using data to understand business needs adds an extra touch of intelligence and understanding. That said, there can also be challenges around the data flood. Let’s look at some issues surrounding the cloud, data management in the cloud, the speed at which services can be accessed, and issues such as privacy and security.
Ravi Chhabria, Managing Director of NetApp, spoke to Senior Editor of The Economic Times, Ashutosh Sinha, about the various opportunities and benefits that cloud-based services offer.
Is It a Perfect Time to Work in the Cloud?
The shift to the cloud began nearly two decades ago with the primary goal of cost optimization. Today we are faced with some real questions. During the pandemic, the survival of the companies was put to the test. We see that companies that have managed to really thrive in the context of the cloud outperform others. They accelerate – to the point that they create a wave that catches other companies. Unsurprisingly, there is a monumental shift to Cloud Services that is gaining momentum.
Sometimes companies have too much data, so how do you classify it so that storage costs are optimized and the performance of the services that the end users have access to and the access of the companies is not compromised?
Over time, we have moved from systems that were very good at transactions to systems that are now very good at interacting. The video output of each virtual event translates into data in the cloud that should be accessible to people from different devices. This segment will double itself in the coming year. So that’s been a big difference. But the idea of extracting value from data has been around for centuries. You need to be able to optimize data in massive amounts and derive value from the bits that matter — at one time, without losing the ability to maximize the value you might get at another time.
Data optimization is very important, and data protection is extremely important, along with its security. Whether the data is in your country or in another country, governance is another important factor to consider. Our goal as an industry is to take the complexity out of it so the companies can extract value from it – to make data an enabler. There are many success stories that prove that data is now seen as the new oil.
What are some of the steps smaller businesses can take to take advantage of the data and cloud capabilities?
If you and I were starting a business 15 years ago, we would start planning our IT infrastructure. We would think of a data center, we would raise capital and build an IT infrastructure and do more of what is not core to our business. What you see today is the generation of countless unicorns. People have built these giant companies without building data centers. In today’s world, the computing capacity and the IT capacity can be easily used as a utility or as a service. In our startup accelerator program in India, the NetApp Excellerator, we have 23-year-olds who have never seen a data center.
They build companies in various industries built on AI and ML or other modern technologies without having to worry about the infrastructure. This is how the cloud has enabled new businesses as well as the transition of legacy businesses that have moved to the cloud. As the challenges grow, now is the time to look at what is designed for the cloud and what is not. If you are a small and young company, it’s easy. On the other hand, if you are a legacy business and run a data center, you need help. That’s the kind of capability we’ve built – to empower new businesses with the cloud and help existing businesses transition to the cloud.
Traditional companies have a certain way of working. What are some of the hot and cold data best practices that you recommend, keeping in mind that this could also be for legacy companies?
When you choose one of our largest customers worldwide, you will realize that at the core of their data center they have specialists – people who specialize in managing storage. There is a lot of insight or experience that they bring to their organization. A few things have changed in the cloud world; we now have systems that optimize themselves. The things we’ve built to modernize the data center are definitely paying off in the cloud. Because the cloud user does not really have the expertise in the field of data management. They consume storage and expect that their storage consumption will increase with the increase in business revenue. They also believe that operations should be cost optimised. They hope to cut costs on offers that aren’t used – in fact, they spend more consciously and only as they use them. So at some point there has to be data introspection without calling in a specialist. NetApp wants your systems to be the specialist. To put it in the context of our portfolio, we have products like CloudInsight to tell you what’s happening. The system gains insight into the data, optimizes it, all without any initiative from the end user. It ensures that your data is reported to you in an intelligent way.
Also, this exclusive partnership with Amazon is making headlines around the world. What else could it mean as services for the corporate customers?
The partnership is the result of our 9-year relationship with AWS, enabling us to accomplish something that is extremely easy for our customers. It is an integration that took about three years. It has reached its zenith today in a way that allows us to reach our customers in a new way. We’ve essentially created an opportunity that literally scans every choice, small or large business, new business or legacy that they choose and want to engage with. And we didn’t do it because we put in ten times the effort, we put in the same effort, we put in the same storage operating system and created a big company. That’s unique. There is no one who can tell you that they have this middleman to manage data, to secure data, which remains constant as you move from one cloud to another, facilitate the movement, to be born in the cloud and back to go into the data center or be in the data center and storm into the cloud. Therein comes our uniqueness.
What is happening in the Indian market in the public cloud at NetApp?
There was a time when we thought that the Indian market, or the Indian IT sector, is lagging globally, which is no longer the case. Today, however, most of the data centers in the world run in India. If you look at what we used to think of as Indian technology companies, they run the world’s data centers, anywhere in the world. There has been a shift in the way technology has been developed, even in India. A few decades ago, we delivered talent to the world. A decade ago, we started core development. Right now, if you look at our broad IT ecosystem, India basically runs the world’s data centers, no matter where they are located. But things like cloud capacity allow a company like NetApp to scale like it never has. What finally happened a week ago was that with the push of a button, a NetApp service lying in your data center suddenly became available to you, anytime, anywhere with the most frictionless transaction possible.
https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate-news/india-is-running-the-worlds-data-centers/87865969
