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Manoj Paul, Managing Director, India Region, GPX Global Systems explains the functioning of a cloud exchange and the nature of its traction in India.
What is the concept of cloud exchange and how it can change the future?
Cloud Exchanges are a well-established solution of allowing enterprise customers to access multiple Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) over a single link or port. This way, an enterprise can implement multiple CSP architecture and shift loads between CSPs very efficiently and thus enjoy the commercial and service benefits of a multi cloud strategy. There are multiple forms of Cloud Exchanges which vary based on functionality, reliability and costs. “GPX Open Cloud Exchange” solution is a multi-homing solution which is a fully GPX managed solution with multiple CSPs hosted inside GPX Mumbai data center campus ensuring high reliability and cost benefits. Utilizing the GPX Open Cloud Exchange Solution, enterprises can seamlessly connect to multiple cloud providers via a single port, accelerating their cloud adoption and enabling them to optimize hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud network strategies. At present there are 8 CSPs hosted with-in our Data Center with few more to be added soon.
How will it enhance the digital infrastructure of the nation?
With the global Digital Transformation underway, the economies of scale and macro trends are driving the corporate enterprise IT to migrate its workloads to the cloud. As they are doing so, the enterprises need help and they need options. GPX has partnered with major Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) who offer direct connect services in India (bypassing the public Internet) to establish an edge node on-prem inside of GPX Mumbai Data Center campus. Our customers want to connect to these CSPs and we give them that capability in an easy and cost-effective way.
We are the certified partners of globally leading CSPs such as – AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and others to offer their cloud-based services to our customers inside the GPX Mumbai data center campus.
How wide is your presence in India as a cloud exchange operator?
At present GPX Cloud Exchange is available in India with plans to expand in other cities too.
What are the solutions and services offered in your portfolio?
Our sole focus is to deliver the most reliable and secure Data Center colocation services in each market we operate. GPX has built India’s first Uptime Institute Design Certified Tier 4 Data Center offering 99.999% uptime with unique design, deploying top end mechanical and electrical equipment available, built under supervision of global experts.
We have been providing cloud solutions to our customers for the last 4 years. We are not a CSP and as such we do not offer “shared services” built off of Cloud-based platforms. Instead, we partner with globally leading CSPs such as – AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud and others to offer their cloud-based services to our customers inside GPX Mumbai data center campus. We enable our customers to take advantage of the multiple CSPs hosted in our Data Center by giving them flexible and scalable connectivity options to connect to the CSPs of their choice (by-passing public internet).
Our interconnected Ecosystem comprises 12 Carriers, 130+ ISPs, 4 IXs, 9 CDN providers and multiple content providers. This allows enterprises to establish their network edge nodes inside GPX Data Center campus to access multiple CSPs by using Open Cloud Exchange and also establish a Global WAN by virtue of multiple network partners present in the same GPX Data Center campus. We have termed it as an ‘Enterprise Edge Node’.
What are the business and operating models of your services?
Most Data Centers in India are owned by Carriers or they provide at least Internet bandwidth services. GPX does not provide any bandwidth services and thus does not compete with any Telecom Service Provider in any form. This defines our ‘Carrier Neutral Ecosystem’ where we have been able to attract ISPs and Telecom Service Providers , connected to our Data Center on redundant optical fiber networks. Today we are India’s most Interconnected Data Center, to facilitate enterprises to set-up their network edge nodes within GPX Data Center campus and establish their global WAN architecture.
US and European Data Center providers that have mature Cloud-centric service offerings include Cloud Exchange Services with varying feature-set and capabilities across Layer 2 and Layer 3 in various parts of the world. GPX is the first Data Center and Interconnection Provider in India to offer a Cloud Exchange Service. Also, GPX empowers customers for transition from on-prem to the cloud utilizing the colocation capabilities at GPX Data Center. Customers can gradually transition their workloads from colocation (at GPX DC) to the CSPs (who are also located inside of GPX DC) thereby enabling customer’s Hybrid-Cloud and Multi-Cloud network strategies, supporting mission-critical business needs.
How would you differentiate from other cloud service providers?
GPX is the Edge Data center with the best interconnected ecosystem in India and hub for Cloud Service Providers. GPX is the only Data Center operator in India which has its own Open Cloud Exchange and Dedicated Connect Edge PoPs of AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud.
GPX Open Cloud Exchange solution is a multi-homing solution which is a fully GPX managed solution, offering connectivity to multiple Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) hosted inside GPX Mumbai data center campus. A big differentiator for GPX Open Cloud Exchange is that it is not dependent on any other data center or network carrier as the Cloud Exchange and the CSP Routers are in the same data center campus, ensuring
Reliability: GPX Cloud Exchange connects to the CSP router over LAN fiber without depending on Telecom Service Providers networks
Scalability: can easily scale bandwidth by deploying a fiber cross-connect to the CSP router inside the Data center
What effect will this cloud exchange have on the business environment in India?
Today enterprise applications are becoming even more portable on the cloud, compute cycles are becoming easier to procure in real-time, data integration platforms are streamlining connectivity and vendors are forming cross-platform alliances. With this, the multi-cloud trend might start looking more like an Omni-cloud one in the near future and a Cloud Exchange will be pivotal for this change.
Our customers can establish a direct private connection to a CSP or can connect to multiple CSPs through a common and neutral switching architecture owned and operated by GPX. The CSPs’ edge nodes are deployed inside the GPX data center enabling GPX to offer highly reliable, flexible, and scalable ways to connect to CSPs. So, if an enterprise requirement grows from sub 1 gig to over 1 gig, they can directly connect to the CSP router at GPX Data Center bypassing the Cloud Exchange, thus GPX provides a clear roadmap for growth in future for customers which other data centers and cloud exchange providers cannot claim. Enterprises can leverage this flexibility and grow their business
What are the key offerings and support services extended to customers adopting the cloud infrastructure?
GPX Cloud Solutions offer GPX Direct Cloud Connect; a direct connection to a CSO on a simple cross-connect with port speeds starting from 100 Mbps, all the way to 10Gbps. The CSPs available at GPX Mumbai that offer direct connection services (bypassing the public Internet) are AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Interconnect and Oracle FastConnect.
GPX Open Cloud Exchange is a multi-homing connection via enabling quick and seamless Multi-Cloud workload deployment.
GPX Cloud Value-Added Services (VAS): As part of GPX Cloud Value-Added Service, GPX offers ‘Cloud Data Upload Service’ that enables customers to upload their bulk data to AWS in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
The pattern of Net consumption has changed post COVID19. There has been an increasing OTT content consumption. Plus with WFH being prevalent we have witnessed more remote working. How have you seen the Internet traffic increasing and what are the trending patterns?
In the last few months of COVID, our customers are seeing big growth in demand of their services
- Cloud Service Providers are seeing big growth in demand for their services due to enterprises moving to cloud to accelerate their presence on digital platforms and for enabling WFH which is better implemented on cloud,
- OTTs content consumption has skyrocketed with people having more time at home and other modes of entertainment are restricted
- Video Conferencing service providers are expanding their presence for the growing usage by enterprises and also by educational institutions
- Carriers and ISPs are seeing huge growth in bandwidth from homes and even enterprises. ISPs are seeing big revivals in their business and all this means a big growth in our business with them. In certain cases, some of our customers have doubled their business for co-location space with GPX over the last few months.
What is the GTM model you follow and how has this changed post COVID?
Our GTM has been predominantly dependent on reaching out to customers through digital mediums and meeting targeted customers in selected conferences. We also reach out to customers over emails. However, our biggest strength has been customer references and we get several new opportunities through references of our existing customers. Our customers operate in every business vertical being it be ISPs, BFSI, IT, Media, Manufacturing etc. The reason our customers choose GPX is because of our Interconnected Ecosystem which facilitates connectivity to multiple Networks, Internet Exchanges and CSPs under the same roof. With COVID, demand for third-party Data Center, Cloud Adoption and Network has gone up
Most of the mentioned GTM have not been impacted due to COVID except that the conferences are not happening and face to face meetings have become restricted. Virtual events do not give a forum to network. And customer visits of Data Center have got restricted and in pace of that we provide a virtual video tour of our Data Centers.
What are the dynamics of the partner program you have for India?
We work with our partners to help them give more value to their customers and bring business to GPX. For example, we are working with our Cloud Service Provider partners and have done consultation sessions with their sales team on how they can leverage GPXs Tier 4 Data centers and pitch our co-location space for their customers who have a hybrid model of captive (on-prem) Data Center and some workload on Cloud. It’s a win-win partnership between GPX and the CSPs.
Many System Integrators (SIs) and Indian Cloud Service Providers are using GPXs Data Center to roll out their services. We also partner with Sis to provide additional services to our customers which GPX cannot provide. Any customer requiring internet bandwidth, we pass on the leads to the empanelled ISPs in our data center, thus generating business for them.
Why did GPX choose India as their primary location?
Globally we are experiencing a shift towards a more transformative phase, where being digital is at the very core of the organization. Cloud adoption has been seeing steady growth worldwide and also in India. According to Gartner, with the total public Cloud services spent in India at $2.4 bn in 2019, India has recorded the third-highest growth rate of 24.5% in 2019 after China (33%) and Indonesia (29%). The growing penetration of the internet, smartphones, social media, AI, IoT, Big data and digital payment services is expected to increase the demand for cloud services in India. With burgeoning Digital Transformation, underway in India, the nation’s Cloud market is expected to grow threefold to $7.1 billion by 2022, according to a recent Nasscom report.
India offers the right market where certain services like Tier 4 Data Centers, Cloud Exchanges, Internet Exchanges are still new with good scope for growth alongside growing demand.
Through our cloud exchange we intend to enable our clients to build platforms of the future and move towards becoming cognitive enterprises leveraging hybrid, multi-cloud environments to deliver flexibility, agility, and cost-effectiveness.
Which verticals are the target audience and what are the nature of traction?
GPX has till recently been focusing on Carrier, Content (OTTs, CDNs) and Cloud Service Provides (3 C).
With the launch of Open Cloud Exchange and availability of additional capacity in our new Data Center which has a capacity of over 1400 racks, GPX is now focusing on enterprise customers who wish to leverage the Tier 4 Data Center infrastructure with presence of multiple Cloud Service Providers in the data centers for direct cloud connectivity with the Data Center within the DC.
We are seeing a growing requirement of our 3C customers and a new wave of requirement coming from enterprise customers too.
Content and OTT providers – India is the only country with over 25 homegrown OTTs and 7 international OTTs, with around 10GB download per month per smartphone-highest in the world. More and more content including movies would be consumed over mobile, smart TVs platforms which would mean demand for more resources on the cloud to cater to this increased demand.
Education – will be a lot more on digital media and most learning institutes instead of buying hardware and software will roll out online services using the power of the cloud.
Financial Institutes – More and more people will adopt electronic payments and most of the new-age financial institutes rely heavily on cloud services.
E-commerce – will grow and so will be their use of Public Cloud.
Banking and Insurance – More and more people will adopt electronic payments, branchless banking, number of online transactions would grow as most of the new-age financial institutes rely heavily on cloud services The companies in this sector are actively using Interconnection to scale so they can better serve all the players and consumers that need to interact in real-time within the growing banking and insurance industry, along with the mobile digital payments industry.
Telecommunications – Telecom companies are also becoming content providers and delivering platforms for new modes of doing business, eg Jio. Many telecom companies would also use cloud services. These Communications carriers create new types of Interconnection services to fight commoditization and scale those services to remain relevant in a more competitive marketplace.
Manufacturing – New segments in this the traditional market, such as the Industrial Internet and the Internet of Things (IoT), are driving the need for compute and storage in the cloud and greater Interconnection that allows manufacturers and their customers to gain new efficiencies by scaling the digital capabilities of their IT infrastructures and reducing costs.
Securities and Trading – Controlled within a regulatory environment and measured by the speed in which they can handle a growing number of transactions, financial services companies are leveraging cloud and better Interconnection to distributed users to scale their digital platforms to do more trades faster, while maintaining strict compliance regulations.
What are the key focus areas for the next 12-18 months?
Our focus is around growth in Edge Data Center Colocation Services and availability of new services in our Data Center. So far as growth in Data Center Colo services, we have recently launched our new Data Center of 16MW capacity in Nov 2019. We will continue to expand within Mumbai and the rest of the country, so that the enterprises get the benefit of our Tier 4 Data Center facilities for co-location and our Interconnection Ecosystem for establishing their Enterprise Edge Node (network node) within GPX Data Center campus.
Post the initial launch of Open Cloud Exchange, GPX will also continue to roll-out new features and functionality for the GPX Open Cloud Exchange service offering. GPX will continue to work with additional CSPs and provide increased options for customers to establish a direct private connection to the CSPs—whether it is via GPX Direct Cloud Connect service or via GPX Open Cloud Exchange service. Additionally, we will continue to announce additional Cloud Value-Added Services for our customers.
