“Security big issue for Data Center”

Sanjay Motwani, Country Director – India and ME, Raritan International India (P) Ltd. talks to Bhawna Satsangi about the changing trends in Data Center (DC) and adopting new trends is the need of the hour.

1. How do you look at India’s data center market today?

It’s growing fuelled by Cloud computing and increase in outsourcing and consolidation of technologies.

2. How are you positioning your products and solutions in India?

We are positioning our products as ‘Solutions’ which increase efficiencies in Data Center. We give solutions in specific areas of Power, space, infra etc.

3. What is the size of this market in India? How fast is it growing in India?

It is difficult to tell about the size of Data Center market as multiple reports have multiple projections.

4. What is your go to market strategy for India?

Our go to market strategy is channel led with direct focus by Raritan on Key Accounts. Raritan plays the role of educating and developing the market.

1. What kind of emphasis do you give to the SI community when it comes implementing your solutions and reaching out to the enterprise customers?

We laid much emphasis on the SI community. There are various means through which we give our support to them:

(a) Learns from new solutions

(b) Benefits from business development by Raritan

(c) Are engaged for pre-sales, implementation and ongoing support.

6. How has the data center evolved over the past many years? And where is it heading to?

From small 4 – 10 servers in one corner of a floor it has evolved to entire buildings. Developing and managing has become an art, science. Multiple skill sets are required to manage it. From taking out shoes before entering the Data Center one has now to take out hands, eyes and some cases even voice before entering.

1. What are some of the big trends happening in the data center space today?

The Big Trends that are evolving in the Data Center space are Virtualisation, Precision cooling, Data Center designs, measurement of environmental factors at multiple points in Data Center, security, asset management, power management etc all happening now.

8. What are some of the big challenges that you are facing as an organization?

a. Awareness amongst users of ‘Data Center tools for improving efficiencies.

b. SI community has low skill sets in pursuing solution sales – these require 6-9 month gestation periods. SI community is not ready to invest so much time which is a real challenge.

9. How do you plan to overcome these challenges?

By developing market ourselves and demonstrating to community the benefits of solutions sales.

10. What is your market share in India’s data center space?

We are leader by huge margin in intelligent power solutions.

11. What kind of growth are you expecting from India?

We are targeting double digits growth.

12. According to you, what is the biggest mantra to succeed in India’s data center space?

We engage with the customer when the customer is thinking of building or upgrading the Data Center. We become a part of the strategic thought process and not just a vendor sending quotes however fancy they maybe. We try to give end to end solutions to the customer.

13. How is this concept of data center over the cloud shaping up in India?

It is a very nascent stage as security is a big issue and is not going to be solved soon. Non critical applications can be put up. Large organisations will however go onto developing private Cloud Data Centres.

14. Do you have any customers in India?

We have over 200 customers in India using our solutions.