Transforming Cloud Services with AI: Ravi Maguluri Discusses Sify Technologies’ Innovative Approach

In this insightful interview, Amit Singh sits down with Ravi Maguluri, CTO of Cloud and Digital Services at Sify Technologies, to explore the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on cloud services in India. Ravi discusses how AI is revolutionizing every aspect of cloud service delivery, from customer selection to performance optimization. He also highlights Sify Technologies’ cutting-edge AI-powered solutions and addresses the challenges and prospects of AI adoption in the Indian cloud services landscape

Amit Singh: How do you envision AI transforming cloud services in India? What are the elements of cloud services that AI is transforming? 

Ravi Maguluri: AI is transforming ‘everything’ about cloud services. If we look at it from a lifecycle perspective, of how customers choose, configure, manage, monitor, and optimize the cloud services. While it was all about automation that started and continually improved the cloud services offerings, there is massive amount of data generated in the cloud services delivery that is now becoming the foundation for the application of AI and ML for qualitatively enhancing every aspect of the cloud service delivery.  

Amit: What specific AI-powered cloud services does your company offer, and how do they address the needs of Indian businesses? 

Ravi: We offer InfinitFSO or Full Stack Observability a holistic service that eliminates noise and predicts the probable root cause of an availability or performance problem of an IT service up to 70% to 90% faster compared to traditional means. 

Amit: From your perspective, which industries in India are leading in the adoption of AI-powered cloud services, and what factors are driving this adoption? 

Ravi: The arrival of Generative AI and the foray of all major technology vendors like Microsoft, SAP, ServiceNow, and many more into offering AI-powered services has generated enough enthusiasm across the board. Every business wants to do something with AI and the concerned teams are chasing potential success criteria for envisioning and budgeting the POCs/Projects. 

Amit: What are some of the main challenges hindering the widespread adoption of AI-powered cloud services in India? 

Ravi: The cost of adoption is the primary challenge. And then due to skill shortage and apprehension of the timelines and lack of assured success, customers prefer proven readymade solutions, little receptive to the fact that each business runs on its tacit knowledge and any insights, or wisdom generated at some other company may not necessarily be applicable straight away. The mindset to create solutions on AI/ML frameworks is found rarely. 

Amit: How do you see the landscape of AI-powered cloud services evolving in India in the coming years, and what role does your company aim to play in this evolution? 

Ravi: Transforming the stakeholder experience inside or outside the business is the priority. We will continue to enhance the engagement layer with the development of enterprise copilots and help businesses make better business decisions with AI under the hood by embedding AI for decision support by way of insights and foresight. We are on the lookout for developments in the area of AI native solutions that are emerging and how they may be harnessed for business use.