SWITCH TO CLOUD TO SAVE DATA
Cloud is changing the security equations today, by moving security to the ‘application’ level, rather than at the network level. Veera Swamy Arava, CEO & Director, SAT Infotech, tells us more
What are the risks and challenges generally associated with multi-cloud environments?
The Industry statistics show us that multicloud is pervasive today, with more than 80 percent organisations using multiple cloud providers. Depending on the size of the organisation, challenges around multicloud vary largely. For the large enterprises, where multicloud is a more relevant discussion today, the typical challenges will be around security, governance, and cost management. Among the SMEs, multi-cloud is yet to make an impact.
What are the factors driving the growth in ERP implementation in cloud?
There are multiple factors that are driving a clear shift to cloud-based ERP systems. In the last one year or so, we have seen an increasing number of our customers preferring a cloud model for their new ERP implementations. I’d say, this is primarily because of the infrastructure cost, and management complexities associated with the on-premise ERP implementations. For instance, in a typical ERP implementation project, the hardware is often oversized to avoid frequent upgrades. As a result, the customer ends up bearing substantial upfront cost. In a cloud, organisations are able to eliminate this upfront investment and move to a more flexible, pay-as-you-use model.
The other critical driver of cloud is the challenges associated with maintaining an on-premise ERP system. This requires investments around new resources and skill sets, especially, in areas like AI and machine learning, which are now very much part of the new ERP modules. Widening skills gap is critical problem in the ERP sector today. Managing an on-premise ERP system involves expensive resources and great efforts. Cloud effectively addresses this challenge for many organizations, especially SMEs.
How is the security awareness around cloud evolving today? How is a player like SAT addressing this aspect?
While many organisations are moving critical applications and sensitive data to the cloud, security still remains a major concern. This is more of a ‘perceived’ concern than an actual one. Whether on-premise or on cloud, data breaches will continue to happen. In fact, cloud is changing the security equations today, by moving security to the ‘application’ level, rather than at the network level. Security is an essential aspect of most of today’s cloudnative applications. We are moving toward a ‘security-bydesign’ architecture.
That said, many large cloud providers today are at an increased risk of being targets of data breaches---the recent cyber incidents stand testimony to that.
Hence, SAT positions itself as a specialist in the industry, because there are already plenty of generalists in the market. Our extensive knowledge around operating systems, open source technologies and data security bring in a differentiator. We are one of the very few solutions partners for SUSE, which is the de facto operating system for SAP implementations. Our cloud architecture is built on industry-standard security best practices, and we provide managed services, which has a huge security focus.
What is your value proposition for Indian SMEs, a key target vertical of yours, considering that their technology adoption is generally not on par with their large enterprise counterparts?
A large majority of SMEs in India are currently on a transformation phase, where they are striving to be globally competitive by addressing the dynamic needs of the market. Technology is a key enabler for them in this process, cloud specifically.
Cloud is an extremely appealing proposition for SMEs in their endeavour to stay profitable and relevant. A NASSCOM report recently pointed out how SMEs are becoming one of the key drivers of the SaaS market in India.
However, SMEs also require custom-made cloud solutions and technologies, which is a big challenge in the market. This is where SAT is trying to make a difference. Due to our years of experience serving this segment, we are able to deliver that customization and industry-specific flavour to our cloud solution.
WE HAVE HAD PARTICULAR SUCCESS IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR, WITH OUR SATEDGE PACKAGED SOLUTION FOR MANUFACTURING FIRMS. CLOUD-BASED DISASTER RECOVERY IS ANOTHER NEW AREA WHERE WE ARE SEEING A LOT OF MOMENTUM IN THE LAST TWO QUARTERS
How are enterprises embracing SAT’s solution?
Since the time we launched our integrated cloud management platform Kavsk (pronounced Ka-sK), we have witnessed significant growth in our cloud business. 100% of implementation projects are deployed on to our cloud KavsK. In addition to this, couple of on-premise customers were moved to our cloud “KavsK”.
We have had particular success in the manufacturing sector, with our SATEdge packaged solution for manufacturing firms. Cloud-based disaster recovery is another new area where we are seeing a lot of momentum in the last two quarters.
Elaborate on the SATEdge for manufacturing. Who are some of the current users?
SATEdge is an out-of-the-box solution for the manufacturing sector, built on SAP best business practices. It’s an endto-end packaged solution offered on a cloud model that helps manufacturers automate their process and reduce their dependency on manual processes, which are historically been a part of manufacturing.
Manufacturing companies today are at an increased pressure to improve profitability and productivity while keeping costs under control. Traditional monolithic ERP solutions often do not address these aspects in an effective way. SATEdge helps firms to leverage data in a better way in real-time, collaborate with multiple departments and raise the overall supply chain efficiency. The package comes bundled with SAP S/4HANA licence, implementation services offered through our indigenous cloud platform with managed services offerings.
Our user base today includes companies such as NCL Altek & Secular, Sapthagir Camphor & Timla Foods.
How is Satedgemigrate helping businesses migrate?
Satedgemigrate is again a pre-packaged solution that helps firms convert their existing SAP ERP 6.0 running on non-HANA database. SAP HANA—the in-memory database platform—has emerged as the digital core platform for businesses. Businesses see this migration as a basic necessity, rather than an option.
The biggest value proposition we bring to the table is the ability to ensure system conversion ‘time-to-value’ of as less as 12-16 weeks. We are also able to effectively address the typical change management issues associated with SAP S/4 HANA Migration projects with our years of core expertise in SAP, SUSE and ERP consulting. It’s a seamless one-step migration and we provide a test environment of the client’s productive system on our managed private cloud, which is another great value-add.
What i s SAT doing i n the Software- Defined Infrastructure (SDI) business?
Data centres are progressively becoming software-driven, with more intelligence build in. As a software and services focused company, SDI is naturally a key focus area for us. A large part of the current SDI implementations is based on open source technologies; whether software-defined compute, storage or networking. Not just that, today’s hyper-convergent systems and automation initiatives are built on open source platforms.
As a long-standing open-source evangelist, SAT has invested significantly on open source technologies and skillsets. The future data-centres are going to be completely open-source based. To that end, we have delivered enterprise-class solutions in the areas of cloud, OS replatforming, clusters, virtualization, and enterprise storage.