Securing India’s Data Center Industry
“Good cloud computing infrastructure is a must for enabling our start-ups to manage their business economically and efficiently,” says Piyush Somani, MD & CEO, ESDS Software Solution Pvt. Ltd. In conversation with Express Computer
On data privacy related issues, how do the policies in European Union differ from that in India?
There is a vast difference between the European privacy policy and the policy in India. The European Union and countries like Japan and Singapore have been consistently revising their policies to match the pace of digital revolution and cloud computing. The European Union has made it mandatory for any organisation with more than 50 employees to host their data within Europe. Such organisations are also required to have full time “data controllers” to communicate with the “data privacy and security” teams in EU. The European Union has also signed agreements with countries like United States of America to enable American companies to host European people in the USA. However, American companies have to follow the rule of employing full time “data controllers” who must share information with the European Union in a prescribed format to track any illegal activity or breach of data security.
We keep hearing that if we have massive cloud computing infrastructure, there will be greater computerisation and loss of jobs. What is your view on this issue?
If we look at history of industry and employment creation, we find that new technologies have always led to the creation of better employment opportunities for larger numbers of people. People thought that the coming of computers would mean fewer jobs, but the truth is that computerisation has created more avenues for people to be gainfully employed in areas like data analytics, storage, networking, mobile apps, and much else. Rise of eCommerce has created new opportunities for millions. It is true that computerisation often leads to the change in the nature of jobs, but the change is always for the better. In most advanced countries, where they have good cloud computing infrastructure, the problem of unemployment is mostly under control. Also cloud computing requires massive Data Centers, which need large numbers of professionals to create and manage the infrastructure. A good cloud computing infrastructure in the country is a must for enabling our start-ups to manage their business economically and efficiently. Many of these start-ups may grow into larger enterprises, and start employing many more people. Today the size of India’s cloud computing sector is just $400 million, this is not even 2% of Japan’s cloud industry. So there is huge potential for the growth of this sector in India. This sector can easily add 20 lakh jobs in India in the next 7 to 8 years.
What kind of cloud computing model should the government organisations use for improving their efficiency and transparency?
The usage of the Data Center and the Disaster Recovery Centre should be made completely transparent. The organisation must only pay for the resources that they are using. In case of many government organisations, the current utilisation of the Data Center is below 5%. This leads to huge loss of revenue, when you take into account the money that has been invested by the government. The Disaster Recovery Centres are rarely used—they are there only to ensure that the business is not affected in case the main Data Center goes offline. It makes more sense to set up the Disaster Recovery Site on a resources sharing model, with multiple PSUs and other government organisations sharing the compute resources.
What steps can the government take to ensure the growth of the domestic Data Centre enterprises?
The Indian Data Centre companies must have level playing field in order to compete with the multinational companies. In the current environment, we face significantly high taxes, which drive up the cost of our services in the country. Also, the cost of hardware in India is almost 50% higher than what it is in countries like USA—this is a cause of concern for us. The government must develop policies to ensure that the Indian Data Centre companies are not burdened with higher taxes and we also have access to low cost hardware.
The high cost of bandwidth in India makes it unviable for companies to host data in the country. What steps can be taken to bring down the cost of bandwidth?
Currently we are dependent on submarine optic fibre laid in the seabed, and this is bound to make the cost of bandwidth exorbitant. Much of our data is hosted abroad and this data travels through the submarine optic fibre cables laid on the seafloor. But if we start hosting India’s data within the country, then our dependence on submarine optic fibre will come down, as the cost of optic fibre laid under the ground is much cheaper than the submarine optic fibre. This will lead to the drastic reduction in the overall price of bandwidth. Also, we must also ensure that all the NIXI centers in all our metros are allowed to peer with each other. Currently the NIXI center in Mumbai is not allowed to peer with the NIXI centre in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai or any other city. This makes it difficult for all the cities in India to exchange their bandwidth with each other. We should be following the LINX (London Internet Exchange) model, which allows for easy peering. Once all the cities in the country are able to exchange bandwidth with each other, the price of bandwidth will come down and it will become cheaper to host data within the country.
