Digital transformation for the development of new business models
Rohit Singal is the Vice President at Rahi Systems. Singalleads salesand is responsible for driving Rahi’s growing customer base and channels across the India & SAARC regions.Rohit spearheads operations in the country. Rohit has been in the IT industry for more than 17 years and is a skilled professional in handling audio-visual technology. He is responsible for overseeing and heading the India operations for the company. In this discussion, Rohit Singal, shared his insights on how the role of CIOs and the traditional business are changing with the adoption of digital transformation.
How is the role of CIOs changing with the adoption of digital transformation?
The urgent business need for digital transformation and increasing adoption of new technologies like cloud/AI/ML/IOT/automation are driving changes in the role of CIOs. Earlier, CIOs were less involved in business strategy and driving development and success, but today CIOs have to look into security measures, manage budgets, plan policies, and take care of IT services. CIOs are helping in building new business models rather than just being a support to the organization and responsible for managing, deploying and supporting IT systems and infrastructure. CIOs will need to work with business leaders to develop new business strategies that generate revenue and improve profit margin. CIOs are moving to cloud solutions and no longer making expensive IT infrastructure additions like servers and storage, hardware maintenance, recurring hardware replacement and management. CIOs are paying for what they use thus reducing the costs. CIOs are also responsible to prevent organizations from cyberattacks and constantly look for ways to improve security, through new security solutions that can protect, detect and respond to cyberattacks.
Cloud isn't a new trend but the deployment is still under speculation in India. What’s your view on the normalization and wide adoption of cloud-based data centers?
The new standard has changed performance models around the world. Employees have moved to a hybrid work environment and as a result companies switch to cloud-based data centers. Gartner’s research predicted the user spending of $200 Billion by the end of 2021 on data center infrastructure which is 6% higher than the 2020 levels. Innovation, efficiency and sustainability will be the driving force behind any data center technology going forward. Some trends that we are seeing are:
Cloud-based paradigm changes in DCIM - A cloud-based data center is completely different from a standard data center. Unlike a standard data center with servers, routers, storage systems, panels etc., a cloud-based data center does not need to be set up in the office or anywhere - it's all over the cloud. The data stored in the cloud is protected and stored in the cloud servers after splitting and duplicating at various locations. In the event of a failure, the service providers ensure the security of your backup data and help you connect to the internet during low downtime.
Sustainability will be key - With increased use and more reliability and IT infrastructure everything grows and goes 'Hyper', with this coming the natural costs they incur in their huge size. Data Centers are now trying to harness renewable energy to better utilize their resources and reduce environmental impacts. This trend will continue and we will be seeing more establishments in sustainable areas and improved efficiency.
HyperScale Data Centers - Hyperscale Data Centers is a large warehouse-like structure with its own servers, servers, storage system, powerhouse and networks. This is often used for large data and cloud-based applications. With growing demand for data, hyperscale data centers are expected to grow at a tremendous rate over the next decade.
Remote management of IT infrastructure - Data Center is continuous and never stops, requiring the physical presence of data professionals and administrators of the data centers to use it without wasting any time or less. One of the latest approaches from the epidemic is Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) to manage the company's IT infrastructure remotely or partially. RIM includes remote security monitoring and network services, desktop management, website and server management.
What are the key tech trends to watch out for in 2022?
Technology today is evolving at a rapid pace with digital transformation and unexpected move to remote and hybrid working. Organizations have become more innovative, agile and understood the need for updated technologies for business growth. Some key tech trends to be on the lookout for in 2022:
Metaverse - Virtual reality, massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), video meetings, and augmented reality are the closest things we have to a metaverse right now. Metaverse has the potential to make this pervasively larger, to the point where we can work, play, and live in a virtual ecosystem. To build something like this at scale will require technological infrastructure that can support colossal data streaming from application to edge while maintaining low latency. Companies are investing in novel technologies to bring the metaverse to life, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The success of metaverse highly depends on the networking and data center infrastructure.
Quantum Computing - Quantum Computing will enable machines to handle information in a very different way from conventional computers. It will give us computing power that is a trillion times more powerful than today’s advanced supercomputers. Quantum computing is seeing adoption in banking and finance, to manage credit risk, for high-frequency trading and fraud detection.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-The AI market will grow to a $190 billion industry by 2025 with global spending on cognitive and AI systems reaching over $57 billion in 2022. It provides solutions to various sectors like health, security. education, logistics and IT. AI is known for its superiority in image and speech recognition, navigation apps, smartphone personal assistants etc. Machine Learning, the subset of AI, is also being deployed in all kinds of industries, creating a huge demand for skilled professionals.
CleanTech - Organizations are focusing on environment-friendly technology solutions and one of them being clean technologies or cleantech. Cleantech reduces the environmental impact of products while increasing the use of natural resources. The top cleantech trends include rechargeable batteries, electric vehicles and motors, solar panel development, biofuel-powered turbo generators, and waste management technologies. A lot of sectors are moving to clean-tech with the reduction in the price.
Extended Reality - We now have more augmented reality (AR) power on our devices (especially our phones and tablets), and we are seeing a larger push towards virtual reality (VR). By 2022, we will see new, simpler, more portable VR devices, so instead of having complicated earphones that require a Wi-Fi connection, we will have glass-like devices that connect to our phones and give us a higher VR experience on the go. This expanded reality development paves the way for an amazing experience in the metaverse, a continuous visual world, shared by users through various devices and platforms.
In your view, how can enterprises make their infrastructure more resilient and future ready?
IT road-mapping always comes with a level of unpredictability. It is the nature of the fast-evolving, competitive era we now live in. The pandemic brought a great level of uncertainty and threw IT leaders off their game. Companies had to enforce work from home for leadership, marketing, finance, and IT and they were not prepared. Overnight IT leaders had to make decisions such as which applications could be securely moved to the cloud and how many employees needed VPN access.
To stay competitive and sustain business despite the challenges, IT leaders need the ability to acquire and deploy technology when they need it. Not when their budget cycles allow, which come about every 3-5 years. The best option is to consume technology through a service-centric consumption model and pay only for what you use and when you use it. This flexible IT consumption model will be ideal for IT leaders in today’s time when business and technology needs are constantly evolving.
How are technologies like cloud/AI/ML helping in business growth?
The epidemic has accelerated the pace of the changing IT landscape. Cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are not just the future of business in the new normal but these technologies help to provide enhanced profitability, customer satisfaction, competitive advantage.Cloud has brought a revolution in the way businesses around the world operate. The deployment of cloud helps organizations to save a lot of money on equipment, maintenance, and usage costs. Cloud allows users to access resources and collaborate from anywhere with speed and efficiency. Organizations can outsource technology support to cloud vendors and concentrate on growth and expansion. Today, organizations are able to rent resources and enterprise solutions on a subscription basis hence this helps to reduce costs. Cloud protects the data from phishing, ransomware, and data loss especially for those without a dedicated IT team.Cloud helps to provide employees with a better work-life balance by automating specific tasks such as routine admin work, project management or email marketing. Cloud offers improved speed and agility required to reach new markets, develop new products and provide enhanced consumer satisfaction.
Organizations across the globe are implementing Al and ML in their business operations to help meet their objectives. It provides companies greater visibility of their future finances, empowering them to make better decisions to achieve the goals. Artificial intelligence can identify cyberattacks by monitoring patterns from data input and prevents future threats. AI and ML automates most of the time-consuming and repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-value work. ML improves customer satisfaction and ensures superior customer experience by using the previous call records for analyzing their behavior.
How is the role of CIOs changing with the adoption of digital transformation?
The urgent business need for digital transformation and increasing adoption of new technologies like cloud/AI/ML/IOT/automation are driving changes in the role of CIOs. Earlier, CIOs were less involved in business strategy and driving development and success, but today CIOs have to look into security measures, manage budgets, plan policies, and take care of IT services. CIOs are helping in building new business models rather than just being a support to the organization and responsible for managing, deploying and supporting IT systems and infrastructure. CIOs will need to work with business leaders to develop new business strategies that generate revenue and improve profit margin. CIOs are moving to cloud solutions and no longer making expensive IT infrastructure additions like servers and storage, hardware maintenance, recurring hardware replacement and management. CIOs are paying for what they use thus reducing the costs. CIOs are also responsible to prevent organizations from cyberattacks and constantly look for ways to improve security, through new security solutions that can protect, detect and respond to cyberattacks.
Cloud isn't a new trend but the deployment is still under speculation in India. What’s your view on the normalization and wide adoption of cloud-based data centers?
The new standard has changed performance models around the world. Employees have moved to a hybrid work environment and as a result companies switch to cloud-based data centers. Gartner’s research predicted the user spending of $200 Billion by the end of 2021 on data center infrastructure which is 6% higher than the 2020 levels. Innovation, efficiency and sustainability will be the driving force behind any data center technology going forward. Some trends that we are seeing are:
Cloud-based paradigm changes in DCIM - A cloud-based data center is completely different from a standard data center. Unlike a standard data center with servers, routers, storage systems, panels etc., a cloud-based data center does not need to be set up in the office or anywhere - it's all over the cloud. The data stored in the cloud is protected and stored in the cloud servers after splitting and duplicating at various locations. In the event of a failure, the service providers ensure the security of your backup data and help you connect to the internet during low downtime.
Sustainability will be key - With increased use and more reliability and IT infrastructure everything grows and goes 'Hyper', with this coming the natural costs they incur in their huge size. Data Centers are now trying to harness renewable energy to better utilize their resources and reduce environmental impacts. This trend will continue and we will be seeing more establishments in sustainable areas and improved efficiency.
HyperScale Data Centers - Hyperscale Data Centers is a large warehouse-like structure with its own servers, servers, storage system, powerhouse and networks. This is often used for large data and cloud-based applications. With growing demand for data, hyperscale data centers are expected to grow at a tremendous rate over the next decade.
Remote management of IT infrastructure - Data Center is continuous and never stops, requiring the physical presence of data professionals and administrators of the data centers to use it without wasting any time or less. One of the latest approaches from the epidemic is Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) to manage the company's IT infrastructure remotely or partially. RIM includes remote security monitoring and network services, desktop management, website and server management.
What are the key tech trends to watch out for in 2022?
Technology today is evolving at a rapid pace with digital transformation and unexpected move to remote and hybrid working. Organizations have become more innovative, agile and understood the need for updated technologies for business growth. Some key tech trends to be on the lookout for in 2022:
Metaverse - Virtual reality, massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), video meetings, and augmented reality are the closest things we have to a metaverse right now. Metaverse has the potential to make this pervasively larger, to the point where we can work, play, and live in a virtual ecosystem. To build something like this at scale will require technological infrastructure that can support colossal data streaming from application to edge while maintaining low latency. Companies are investing in novel technologies to bring the metaverse to life, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The success of metaverse highly depends on the networking and data center infrastructure.
Quantum Computing - Quantum Computing will enable machines to handle information in a very different way from conventional computers. It will give us computing power that is a trillion times more powerful than today’s advanced supercomputers. Quantum computing is seeing adoption in banking and finance, to manage credit risk, for high-frequency trading and fraud detection.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-The AI market will grow to a $190 billion industry by 2025 with global spending on cognitive and AI systems reaching over $57 billion in 2022. It provides solutions to various sectors like health, security. education, logistics and IT. AI is known for its superiority in image and speech recognition, navigation apps, smartphone personal assistants etc. Machine Learning, the subset of AI, is also being deployed in all kinds of industries, creating a huge demand for skilled professionals.
CleanTech - Organizations are focusing on environment-friendly technology solutions and one of them being clean technologies or cleantech. Cleantech reduces the environmental impact of products while increasing the use of natural resources. The top cleantech trends include rechargeable batteries, electric vehicles and motors, solar panel development, biofuel-powered turbo generators, and waste management technologies. A lot of sectors are moving to clean-tech with the reduction in the price.
Extended Reality - We now have more augmented reality (AR) power on our devices (especially our phones and tablets), and we are seeing a larger push towards virtual reality (VR). By 2022, we will see new, simpler, more portable VR devices, so instead of having complicated earphones that require a Wi-Fi connection, we will have glass-like devices that connect to our phones and give us a higher VR experience on the go. This expanded reality development paves the way for an amazing experience in the metaverse, a continuous visual world, shared by users through various devices and platforms.
In your view, how can enterprises make their infrastructure more resilient and future ready?
IT road-mapping always comes with a level of unpredictability. It is the nature of the fast-evolving, competitive era we now live in. The pandemic brought a great level of uncertainty and threw IT leaders off their game. Companies had to enforce work from home for leadership, marketing, finance, and IT and they were not prepared. Overnight IT leaders had to make decisions such as which applications could be securely moved to the cloud and how many employees needed VPN access.
To stay competitive and sustain business despite the challenges, IT leaders need the ability to acquire and deploy technology when they need it. Not when their budget cycles allow, which come about every 3-5 years. The best option is to consume technology through a service-centric consumption model and pay only for what you use and when you use it. This flexible IT consumption model will be ideal for IT leaders in today’s time when business and technology needs are constantly evolving.
How are technologies like cloud/AI/ML helping in business growth?
The epidemic has accelerated the pace of the changing IT landscape. Cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are not just the future of business in the new normal but these technologies help to provide enhanced profitability, customer satisfaction, competitive advantage.Cloud has brought a revolution in the way businesses around the world operate. The deployment of cloud helps organizations to save a lot of money on equipment, maintenance, and usage costs. Cloud allows users to access resources and collaborate from anywhere with speed and efficiency. Organizations can outsource technology support to cloud vendors and concentrate on growth and expansion. Today, organizations are able to rent resources and enterprise solutions on a subscription basis hence this helps to reduce costs. Cloud protects the data from phishing, ransomware, and data loss especially for those without a dedicated IT team.Cloud helps to provide employees with a better work-life balance by automating specific tasks such as routine admin work, project management or email marketing. Cloud offers improved speed and agility required to reach new markets, develop new products and provide enhanced consumer satisfaction.
Organizations across the globe are implementing Al and ML in their business operations to help meet their objectives. It provides companies greater visibility of their future finances, empowering them to make better decisions to achieve the goals. Artificial intelligence can identify cyberattacks by monitoring patterns from data input and prevents future threats. AI and ML automates most of the time-consuming and repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-value work. ML improves customer satisfaction and ensures superior customer experience by using the previous call records for analyzing their behavior.
