AI/ML, IoT, blockchain finding real-life use cases: Manish Israni, Executive VP and CIO, Yotta

As a managed data center service provider, Yotta Infrastructure has a vision to create an ultra-scalable, hyper-density data center ecosystem that is ready for the future growth of data.

As a part of the Hiranandani Group, Yotta represents a trinity of real estate acumen, data center expertise, and power generation capability. All brought together to offer scalability, flexibility & quality on large economies of scale, leading to unparalleled savings for our customers.

Here, Manish Israni, Executive VP and CIO at Yotta Infrastructure, talks about the challenges ahead in 2020. Excerpts from an interview:

DQ: What are the three challenges before you in 2020?

Manish Israni: The advantage of starting new is that you do not have any legacy. Yotta is a 100% digital company and being a young brand; we use the latest technology to add value to our business models, customer experience, and internal operations. We are setting new benchmarks in the industry and want to exceed our own benchmark constantly. We are focused on maintaining consistency and aligning with the digital transformation journey of the country.

At the same time, we are providing innovative solutions to our customers and offering them the best value propositions for their IT needs. Our teams are regularly reviewing our internal processes and implementing advanced solutions to ride the digital wave. Our teams form the core of our operations and we place utmost importance to acquiring the right talent and retaining them.

DQ: What are you doing to foster innovation in 2020?

Manish Israni: Innovation cannot take place in isolation. A company cannot roll out products without considering the needs of the customers. At Yotta, we have an inclusive approach, we are offering solutions that are industry-first.

We are speaking to our customers, partners and businesses, what are the challenges that they are facing with their IT infrastructure, technology solutions/products. We are engaging with OEMs and SMEs for innovative solutions and service platforms to integrate futuristic technologies like IoT, AI/ML, etc., in our operations to provide seamless access and better experiences to our customers.

For instance, with our disruptive ‘pay as you go’ model, enterprises need not block their IT capex for services that they may require in future and may add up or scale down as per their requirement.

DQ: How are you connecting the decentralised hardware and software?

Manish Israni: In today’s time, it is essential to bifurcate the data load and store confidential information in-house and remaining information in the public cloud. We, being a hybrid cloud provider, have planned and segregated our data into on-prem and public cloud, and have created a redundant network connectivity link through multiple link operators and media platforms like the Internet and VPN.

This ensures that we are scaling loads between hardware and software by creating our low latency network to keep decentralised hardware and software always connected.

DQ: How are you dealing with disruption in 2020?

Manish Israni: As technology enablers, it is our responsibility to disrupt the market with innovative solutions. Emerging technologies like AI/ML, IoT, Blockchain are finding real-life use cases. Businesses will have to adapt to these new technologies to compete. This is where our role comes in; as a technology provider, Yotta provides solutions for businesses that are disruptive and easy to consume under Yotta Tech.

With the Covid-19 crisis, which caught everyone off-guard, businesses have realised the importance and reliance on technology. We are already witnessing digital transformation initiatives taking center stage to adjust to the trend of remote working and monitoring.

Yotta entered the data center industry as a disruptive player, backed by the resources of the Hiranandani Group, with its captive land, power and domain knowledge to build and operate its own data centers, with the support of latest technologies. We plan to emerge as the most significant data center player in Asia and are creating large scale data center parks across India.

Our overall plan for the next five years is to build data centers in Navi Mumbai and Chennai with the capacity of 60,000 racks and 500MW. Not just colocation, we are also offering DC build on colocation model, this enables hyper scalers to utilise Tier IV infrastructure without the need to block their Capex. We also provide them scalability at the same site, in case they need to expand their operations.

DQ: How are you planning to adopt emerging technologies, such as analytics, AI/ML, blockchain, IoT etc. in 2020?

Manish Israni: We are working with companies to create innovative solutions by using IoT, AI/ML, predominantly. We are building a system that will digitally keep track of all ongoing processes and everything that comes inside and goes outside the data center based on IoT, RFID tagging, involving no manual intervention. This gives us real-time statistics which will help us in inventory accounting, and in-turn helps our customers for IT auditing.

We are adopting multiple solutions in the area of AI, IoT and analytics for our in-house operations which are customised as per our needs for smooth functioning.

DQ: Which are the divisions within your organisation that have adopted any new technology? 

Manish Israni: Yotta is a 100% digitised company and technology, and automation are at the core of every department. Since the day we commenced our operations, we are using various automation tools for all divisions, including human resources, marketing, finance and sales. All the departments have adapted to digitised processes for day to day operations and are equipped to function in a digitised work environment.

DQ: How are you finding and retraining talent with modern skills?

Manish Israni: Getting the right people for the right job is one of the significant challenges that CIOs across industries face today. At the same time, although skills are essential in this industry, the will to perform also is as important. We focus on hiring employees who are trained in the current technology skillset and give them hands-on experience to apply their learnings on a project. They get an opportunity to work with the latest technologies and further hone their skills.

We are also bringing in different technologies and allowing employees to get trained on them, which further gives them exposure to new industry tools and aids. We plan to keep them engaged and motivated, train and enhance their skills to generate efficiency and productivity.