In the fast-changing IT landscape, organizations are adopting the next-gen technologies to foster their growth cycle. Furthermore, the technologies like Cloud, AI and ML are enabling the organizations to work with more efficiency and agility. The amalgamation of these technologies in the IT infrastructure provides a strategic advantage and helps the companies grow despite challenging environments. In order to know more about automation with new-age technologies, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal spoke to Sushil Goyal, Co-founder & MD, Rahi. The discussion revolved around the next-gen technologies bringing positive outcomes for businesses and the role of cloud technology in the digital transformation. Read below the excerpts:
Rajeev: How are the latest technologies such as AI and ML paving the way for growth for organizations in the fast-changing IT landscape?
Sushil Goyal: The pandemic has accelerated the pace of the dynamic IT landscape. The requirements of every organisation have shifted drastically as they need a strong IT infrastructure to support their organizations and smooth functioning as employees are on a hybrid working model in the business continuity phase. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technologies can automate manual and time-consuming tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-value work. AI is used to extract new insights, transform decision making and drive improved business outcomes. However, they are now investing in AI-powered chatbots to provide enhanced customer experience and service. Machine Learning can be used to improve the security features of a company’s IT infrastructure which is a major concern in today’s world. ML allows new-generation providers to build newer technologies, which quickly and effectively detecting unknown threats. Machine Learning helps in improving customer loyalty and also ensures superior customer experience by using the previous call records for analysing their behaviour. Growing data volumes, easy data availability, cheaper and faster computational processing, and affordable data storage have all contributed to a massive machine learning boom. As a result, organisations can now benefit from understanding how businesses can use machine learning and incorporating it into their own processes. Machine learning in medical diagnosis, for example, has assisted several healthcare organisations in improving patient health and lowering healthcare costs by utilising superior diagnostic tools and effective treatment plans. Cloud computing combined with Artificial Intelligence is a revolutionary. When these two disciplines are joined, they give incredible results. Organizations that adopt machine learning have observed less errors in data analysis precision levels.
Rajeev: Please tell us about your key technology solutions that help businesses to deliver an enhanced customer experience.
Sushil Goyal: We founded Rahi in 2012, when the technology landscape was advancing. Organisations were adopting and innovating new technologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of various business operations. Our business has been built on serving as a single-source provider for all enterprise IT needs. We have developed end-to-end solutions to help customers maximise the value of their IT investments anywhere in the world. Rahi’s extended network of partners and customers is spread across sectors such as IT enterprises, education, healthcare, professional services sectors, etc. Our key offerings include:
Data Center: Our data center infrastructure solutions are helping organizations create a dynamic and efficient IT environment that can respond to today’s business demands while being agile enough to adapt to the changing landscape.
Enterprise IT Infrastructure: Our enterprise IT services extend from data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solutions, server consolidation, virtualization to storage and asset management.
Networking & Security: Any company, regardless of its size or sector, needs a level of network and security solutions in place. Not just to expand its growing environment but to also keep it safe from ever-increasing cyber threats.
Cloud Infrastructure: Our expertise in designing and implementing private or hybrid cloud environments using existing or new infrastructure has helped many businesses maintain visibility and control of workloads ensuring performance.
Audio/Video: We offer a suite of carefully vetted A/V products that can help to enlighten, entertain, increase engagement and enhance collaboration. We enable businesses with flexible options that can be tailored to a specific environment.
Rajeev: How do you see the wide adoption of cloud-based solutions among enterprises? How is it improving the overall cloud ecosystem across India?
Sushil Goyal: The pandemic has altered the global working model. Organisations have adopted hybrid work culture and as a result companies are shifting to cloud-based data centers. Innovation, efficiency, and sustainability will be the driving force behind any data center technology going forward. According to Gartner's research, user spending on data centre infrastructure will reach $200 billion by the end of 2021, a 6% increase over 2020 levels. Here are a few reasons why cloud-based data centers are superior to physical data centres:
Cost: A typical data center installation needs a lot of investment towards networking to server, hardware vendors and further frequent upgrades. Whereas, using cloud servers, it basically means that you are using someone else’s resources, whereby the provider ensures quality and maintenance of the system, ensuring better resource optimization.
Accessibility: In cloud-based data centers, the data is remotely stored, managed, and backed up on a regular basis. Quality service providers offer the option of securely transmitting data and receiving them via a public network. At any given time, files and documents stored online can be accessed from anywhere.
Security: Traditional DCs hire security staff and install various security protocols to maintain safety. You have complete control over your data to ensure that its completely secure from unauthorised access. Cloud-based hosts are prone to data leak and hacking as mostly perceived, but in actual practice, they are constantly upgraded with cybersecurity protocols to make sure that all the safety measures are in line and user data is secured. Private clouds offer enhanced security as they have an isolated network environment and better control.
Scalability: Building a data center from scratch requires a huge Capex and time. Cloud-based systems enable seamless customization and scalability. Businesses can buy more storage and even reduce it as per requirements.
Rajeev: What is the role of Hyperscale data centers in reshaping India’s IT landscape?
Sushil Goyal: A Hyperscale Data Center is a huge warehouse-like structure having its own servers, routers, storage system, powerhouse, and networks. This is generally used for big data and cloud-based applications. With ever increasing demand for data, hyperscale data centers are expected to grow at an exponential rate in the next decade.
Many businesses that previously had no or limited access to IT infrastructure are increasingly transitioning to cloud-based systems, owing to the remote working paradigm. Cloud-based solutions are largely sought by the healthcare, supply and logistics industries, and educational establishments. Hyperscale data centres have benefited as a result of this adoption. These Hyperscale Data Centers provide unique ways of energy efficiency and functionality, making them the facility of choice for most businesses.
Everything is scaling and going ‘Hyper' as consumption grows and IT infrastructure becomes more reliant. And with this along comes the environmental costs due to their enormous sizes. To maximise resource utilisation and control environmental consequences, data centres are currently trying to run on renewable energy. The trend will continue, and we will be seeing more and more innovation in sustainable components with improved efficiency.
Rajeev: What is your vision considering the tendency of Indian organizations towards accelerating their digital transformation journey? Are you planning to expand your presence in the near future?
Sushil Goyal: To remain competitive and sustain business despite the challenges, IT leaders must be able to acquire and deploy technology as needed. Not when their budget cycles allow, which occur every 3-5 years. The best option is to consume technology through a service-centric consumption model and pay only for what you use. This flexible IT consumption model will be ideal for IT leaders in today’s time when business and technology needs are constantly evolving and organisations are moving towards digital transformation.
Businesses must also implement a network architecture that enables operational efficiencies and is flexible enough. Since the pandemic, the network has grown to global offices, homes, and on-the-go mobile devices, all the while providing data-driven and personalised experiences. IT staff are inundated with management tools, dashboards, and a slew of ad hoc technologies that often may not align. Therefore, they need a resilient network architecture. And lastly, IT leaders need a reliable partner who can leverage the most flexible IT consumption model and network architecture for sustaining business and reducing risk in a constantly changing and uncertain market. Organizations should move to agile data center in the era of the Internet of everything. Traditionally, infrastructure and software upgrades in a data center are time-consuming, require maintenance windows that take the IT systems offline, and risk outages due to incompatibilities. Cloud infrastructure is now a critical component of IT infrastructure, as Indian enterprises branch further into investing in digitization and look for secure alternatives for their workloads. Flexibility and security are the top factors that enterprises are looking at in terms of choosing the right environment for their workloads.
Rahi has offices in almost all metro cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata. Our offices are spread across the country and we can service businesses anywhere remotely even without direct presence. Our expansion plans are fluid presently but being in ever changing technology provider business, it will not take us long to jump on the expansion bandwagon if required.