As technology evolved businesses from traditional to becoming modernised, data centres have played a key role in providing the essential backend support for the transformation. However, with the onset of cloud, the data centres have enabled businesses with more agility, accessibility, and better data management. Though there are concerns regarding the security in the cloud environment compared to the data present on-prem, so many organisations took the hybrid route to get the best of both worlds. Shedding light on the data centres and their key role in enabling successful digital transformation of businesses, Sreeni Venugopal, Group Chief Information Officer (CIO), KIMSHEALTH spoke to Express Computer during Technology Senate, Goa 2023.
Venugopal said, “The concept of data centres has evolved over the years. We have been traditionally on-prem with servers on racks. Later we moved to a proper hyper-converged architecture.”
Considering the rapid adoption of technologies that gave Indian businesses a digital makeover, he couldn’t miss but address the market trends and the present-day scenario of the data centre industry. “Looking from the data centre market perspective, large global players are setting up their fronts in India as the market has witnessed a rise in demand. However, from the technology standpoint, solutions with more efficient servers, integrated computing and storage, and more, are the new trends in the market. Today, when I look for data centre solutions, I get solutions that are integrated, consolidated, and modularised. End-to-end data centre solutions are available at a single window. Organisations, today, need not look for separate vendors for cooling solutions or power management or monitoring solutions.”
Adding to the market trends he pointed out that the number of players we have in the Indian market has increased and many of these organisations are showing interest in setting up in different parts of the country. “So, for a hospital like us, we have providers that are closer to us considering the latency aspect. On the wide variety of solutions available, data centre service providers, today, provide customised services that organisations can buy without worrying about the cybersecurity of their data centre, management of databases, monitoring, etc.”
Nevertheless, the adoption and deployment of any new technology is not an easy task for organisations, especially when it’s about data centres where they have to shift their workloads. Venugopal opened up on challenges that organisations face while deploying data centre solutions. He highlighted “yes, there are challenges because there is no one-fit-for-all solution. I am presently working with the healthcare domain, however, prior to this, I have worked with the automotive industry and in the banking sector as well. The challenges in these industries are way different from each other.”
However, he also brought to light the fact that processing and decision-making have become more real-time in the present-day scenario. Therefore, the movement towards the edge is more and, hence, more and more edge data centres are being set up.
It is as clear as day that data centres can be looked at as the turning point of the fourth leg of the industrial revolution. These not only enabled businesses for effective data management but helped them harness the power of data to strengthen their product line, services, and even decision-making.