We need to use the cloud as a differentiator

At the Dataquest Leadership Conclave held at New Delhi’s Hyatt Regency on June 8, there was a panel discussion on “The rise of data cloud”. The participants were Vinod Bhat, CIO, Vistara-Tata SIA Airlines Ltd, and Sangh Gautam, CTO, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd.

Sangh Gautam, Indian Energy Exchange, said cloud-native is a bit different than being on the cloud. It brings lot of value for greater deployment. Integration becomes lot easier. One needs to have a speciality in being a solutions provider. Security is another area. In the cloud itself, there are some layers. Every layer needs some expertise. One area is work orchestration. You really need to have niche specialty. Then, there are containers and apps. Development, testing, and deployment cultures need to adapt. We are in a hybrid world. We have to think about how everything will be on the cloud. Demand is going to come, and cloud-native is the way ahead.

Vinod Bhat, Vistara, said that across industries, enterprises are becoming mature. We need to be clear about objectives. We need to use the cloud as a differentiator. We need to have cost optimization, storage, etc. There will be a lot of variants of the cloud. Lot of decentralization is also happening on the cloud. Edge computing and 5G are also there, so there will be Edge clouds. Business plans need to align with technology changes. People will know that on the go is the way to go. Lots of streams are opening up for businesses. They will be enablers.

Sangh Gautam, Indian Energy Exchange, said that we have the tools at each level. Even the skillsets are developing. People are trying to get used to those tools. Security is also an aspect. There is dearth in the skillset of developers. For business specific tools, we probably have a long way to go. A lot of training is required for all this. You have to think about cloud native right from the start. We need to have a cloud-first approach. We are catching up. Talent for this niche area has been difficult to find. It is a journey the entire team has to take.

Vinod Bhat, Vistara, added that we need to see whether we have DCs, infrastructure, and the availability of tools. We can have these on demand. The issue is about the kind of tools that are needed by an enterprise. We need to have workflow automation and business automation. We should manage business automatically via the cloud.

We also need to understand data strategy and data governance. We need to have access to data. We also need to understand the usage of cloud. We need to use it efficiently, and have some monitoring tools. We need to have the dashboard for monitoring everything. Licensing for cloud is also there. We need to have all the tools required for the cloud. We need to have a cloud plan and manage that. We cannot be exposing data to vulnerabilities.

Sangh Gautam, Indian Energy Exchange, said that security is a key area for the industry. We need to have governance. Once you are cloud-native, we need to be aware of how secure is the vendor? Governance and strictness are necessary. We have to do it right. Security governance is very critical today. The Government is also pushing for cyber security guidelines. We need to choose the right tools for cyber security. That can be a challenge! Having expertise within a team is very important. Being cloud native, security will play a role.

Vinod Bhat, Vistara, added that security has been different for almost all organizations. They are moving data and apps to the cloud. Data is also getting generated outside the cloud. We need to have the right security policy in place. We need to determine the exposure for each touch point. 

We need to have controls. We need to isolate any incident quickly, and react. Networks can also pose risk to networks. We need to have IP-centric security. The whole NOC does not converge. We need to have the right controls in place.