The cloud is definitely the way to go

Cloud computing plays a pivotal role in driving business successfully and in the coming years will remain a key component of any business, feels    Murli Mohan, Director & General Manager, Dell Software Group. In this new business functionality, channel partners will play an increasingly significant role in adoption, migration as well as maintenance, and it is extremely unlikely that any enterprise can do without it- the support or the cloud. Dell has it all sorted out- security to ensure cloud adoption suffers no fallouts, great partnerships to ensure a steady market, and of course, foolproof technology to back its products.

Though the utility of the cloud is done to death, the adoption rates do not seem to skyrocket. Why do you feel this is happening? Do you see faster adoption in the next 2-3 years?

Over the years, more and more organizations are turning to cloud computing to transform their businesses. According to the recent global technology adoption index survey by Dell and TNS Cloud adoption in India is popular in Indian enterprises with 98% organisations either currently using or planning to use the cloud. Out of this 56 % of Indian organizations were currently using the Private Cloud and 48 % using the Private Off-Premise Cloud. Hybrid cloud adoption rate additionally was high in Indian organizations with 54 % organizations currently in use of the hybrid cloud. However 31 % of organizations noted cloud expertise in the datacenter to be one of the key expertise needs lacking in organizations

Cloud computing plays a pivotal role in driving business successfully and in the coming years will remain a key component of any business. According to a Forrester research, cloud computing market is predicted to grow from a market size of $58 billion to $191 billion by 2020.

 In terms of adopting the cloud for core enterprises processes, channels will play an increasingly significant role. What do you think they need to do to be ready for this responsibility?

According to Dell, Channel partners are not just suppliers but they are the trusted advisors of any organization. Below are few roles that channel partners should adopt for them to amplify the existing value that they add to the business:

• Cloud Builder – Understands the customer’s business needs and builds complex solutions based on cloud technology, typically delivered on-premise at the end-customer

• Cloud Provider – Provides solutions and services based on cloud technology and principles typically delivered through its own IT resources and/or infrastructure

• Cloud Reseller – Offers a variety of cloud services to their customers typically delivered through best-in-class off-premise cloud suppliers

• Cloud Integrator – Integrates cloud and non-cloud technology, providing a tailored business-driven solution

Security, as you mention, will be big in 2015. Do you think the security apps that are on their way are equipped to meet the ever smarter attacks of APT? How do you see 2015 unfolding?

Security is one of the fundamental pillars of the Dell Software Group, and over the years Dell has invested significantly in building capabilities in this space through strategic acquisitions.  We believe that we are uniquely positioned to address this market with a comprehensive portfolio of multiple security solutions that covers next generation firewalls, VPN security, email security solutions, identity and access management solutions. In the last few years, we have witnessed huge change in the way cybercriminals perform their attacks. Even though “traditional threats” are still a significant risk for organizations, there has been a trend towards ones we have already seen throughout 2014: attacks that were tailor-made for particular victims. We call these attacks as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)

What role do you see channels playing in adoption of virtual enterprise spaces- cloud, virtualization and of course, processes like BI, analytics and communication on the cloud?

Industry forces such as cloud computing, mobility, big data and software-defined are rewriting the rules of IT and in turn are changing the way technology architectures are being developed.  IT Decisions Makers in India and globally are realizing the importance of these trends and the influence they are having on IT.  With the Tier 1 markets reaching a saturation point in terms of adoption of technology, the growth is now coming from tier2 and tier3 markets. In these markets, Channel Partners have huge influence in the adoption of solutions by a customer. In such a scenario, it is important that a Channel Partner is aware of the latest trends in the industry and can advise the customer with the right solutions necessary for them to meet their business objectives.

Dell has a stronghold in hardware as well. Any forecasts to where the Indian hardware industry is headed in 2015?

According to Gartner, Indian information technology (IT) spending is expected to reach $73.3 billion in 2015, up 9.4% from $67.1 billion in 2014. According to the same firm, India is also expected to be the third largest IT market within the Asia/Pacific region by the end of 2016 and will further progress to become the second largest market for IT by the end of 2018. From an enterprise product portfolio standpoint i.e. for storage, server and networking market, the year 2014 has been positive especially in the second half of the year. If we look at the last one year, the networking industry has grown at a rate of about 5%* whereas the server market has grown at a higher rate of 7%*. It is the storage industry that has witnessed de-growth from a revenue standpoint as the cost of $/TB has gone down. However, the amount of terabytes sold in the last one year has witnessed a year on year growth in 2014*. From our conversation with our customers, it is evident that with the advent of forces of Big Data, Mobility, Cloud and Software Defined Everything, the workloads are changing and shifting the ways in which IT infrastructure is being deployed. The IT infrastructure requirement to meet these new age workloads  are relevant to all the verticals such as BFSI, IT/ITeS, healthcare to name a few and we expect the growth 2015 to be led by technology refreshes aided by higher adoption of these technologies in all the verticals