Managing Modern Data Center

The telecom
industry and data center managers discussed the emerging demand and efficiency
of data centers in a two-city event organized on the theme 'Managing Modern Data
Center' by VOICE&DATA. In the event, telcos discussed the evolution of telecom
space and the challenges it will throw on the backhand operations, especially on
the storage needs. The participants agreed that the growing subscriber base and
increase in data services will require better and bigger storage management. The
event was held in New Delhi and Mumbai on March 10 and 12, respectively.

The operators forcasted that the biggest challenge will be
to manage space and storage demand after the rollout of 3G services, which will
lead to high definition application and services requiring faster streaming,
putting more pressure on the IT infrastructure. New telecom operators also
pointed out that they need 100% uptime, capacity and performance as they have to
make their presence felt in the overcrowded telecom industry.

The role of vendors in providing such technologies were
also discussed. The most challenging task in front of them is providing a cost
effective data center. Enterprise and telecom operators, all of them need cost
effective solutions for storage, especially in the current global economic
scenario. As the IT budget shrunk, CTOs and CIOs were under pressure to cut the
IT operational expenditure and avoid investment in new IT infrastructure as long
as possible. In this scenario, the role of cloud computing and virtulization is
important. Both the technologies were debated on the platform.

Panel discussion at Mumbai in progress

Prakash Bajpai, CEO and MD, Tikona Digital Networks while
delivering the keynote address in Mumbai talked about the need of data center's
efficiency required by the wireless services provider. He said, "As SMBs will be
scattered all over, a universal data center becomes a necessity. There are 30 mn
broadband connections in China, we have a fraction of it in India. Thus,
wireless is the key to the future data center efficiency. We have witnessed a
revolution in mobile space, and a similar revolution is expected to occur in the
broadband space."

He said that there were a new array of opportunities,
value for services, and knowledge; so it is important to convert the data center
to reach out to all these aspects empowering the rural networks. "We have to
push everything into the cloud and put it into the ubiquitous data center to
make it work for everyone," he emphasized.

In the panel discussion, enterprises and telecom operators
discussed the business and technology needs of the ecosystem. Milind Dhupkar,
GM, Infotech, Lupin Pharma pointed out that building a data center is not a IT
decision, but a business decision. "We can use applications which are much
faster and it is more economical in virtualization. Of course, a common data
center poses security risks, but since one makes use of shared infrastructure,
it amounts to shared risk and a security concern that is shared by all," he
added.

The panel also discussed the scope of virtualisation and
managed services. Sujeet Deshpande, VP, network and service operations, Tata
Communications said, "Advantages of outsourcing are limited capital for data
centers; standard model to operating cost model; reasonable costs and best
services; virtual host platforms; application virtualization; reduction of
footprint; and good RoI."

The limitations and scope of cloud computing were also
debated in the discussion. Talking about evolution of cloud computing, Prashant
Gupta, head of solutions, Verizon Business said, "Cloud evolution started when
people started using managed services and moved to software-as-a-service. Today,
it is infrastructure that is equivalent to a data center which can be configured
in forty-five minutes, leading to faster marketing. Cloud computing is a virtual
data center."

Panel discussion at the New Delhi event

Similarly, Venugopal Ramanathan, executive senior VP,
Reliance Communications said, "Cloud has been around for long, but the basic
difference today is automation sans human interaction. Thus, automation and
consolidation is what goes into the evolution of cloud. Virtualization provides
for a centralized system and protects against redundancy. Real estate is an
expensive proposition for a data center, so virtualizated data center becomes
important to reduce this cost."

Delegates at the Delhi event

Aloke Kaul, CGM, BSNL revealed that the operator is
planning to outsource its data center needs to an external agency. "We will
outsource IT processes also in another year, as we are not able to fully cater
to our data center needs. Today, an operator has to provide data center
facilities for customers as well," he said.

Speaking on behalf of enterprises who are into financial
services, Zameer Syed, VP, IT, Reliance Money said, "Outsourcing eases the
burden for the end user and responsibility lies with SP, but TCO is a concern
for end customers. Shared infrastructure for critical business applications
won't work, as uptime availability (even if it is disrupted for a couple of
minutes) makes a difference. This is negligible in a manufacturing environment,
but it is critical in an online business environment."

In Delhi, the event began with the welcome address by
Baburajan K, executive editor, VOICE&DATA. In his brief address, he highlighted
the issues faced by the telecom operators and enterprises in managing data
centers. He also touched upon the key topics to be discussed about the data
center: virtualization and green aspects.

Arvind Bali, president, Videocon Telecommunication while
delivering the keynote on 'Evolving application space and challenges facing data
center' talked about the growing need of storage for telecom operators in the
current scenario. Telecom is one of the fast changing sectors today. With the
changing face of telecom, the back-end technologies have to change to support
the needs and demands of the applications and services.

Talking about the application and VAS he said, "VAS market
in India is growing fast. Today, it is the most exciting business opportunity
for a new telecom operator as the revenue from voice has already touched rock
bottom."

He pointed out that contest and voting have moved to
social network sites from mobile. IVR, m-commerce and location based services
are likely to become the killer applications in the near future. Bali said,
"Both, consumer and enterprise applications and VAS will bring revenue. But for
this, technology upgradation will be required for back hand support and
operation to run these high-end applications as they would require high
bandwidth, streaming and storage space."

According to him, mobile advertisement and m-commerce are
the two applications having great potential to change the industry dynamics. He
added, "Mobile advertising and m-commerce will bring lot of good value to the
market. It would require extensive investment in technology and infrastructure.
In Africa, 47% of the total money transfer is happening on mobile phones. India
could be another case study of m-commerce success as the mobile phones have
better and bigger reach than banking services."

AK Bhargava, CGM, wireless, MTNL emphasized the need for a
cost-effective data center. He said, "The subscriber base is exploding, so are
VAS and other applications. As a result, the cost of data storage is going up.
The need of the hour is a cost-effective data center."

Panelists also debated on the impact of 3G services and
VAS on storage and data center management. Sukanta Dey, head, corporate business
development, TTSL while talking about the challenges that 3G technology will
throw on the technology front said, "Moving from 2.75G to 3G means need for more
bandwidth and high streaming, which will increase the storage requirement and
require upgradation of technology."

Delegates at the Mumbai event

VAS and data services will increase the need for data
storage and archiving. Krishana Basudevan, head, IT, enterprise architect and
VAS, Aircel said, "Big changes are happening in the VAS space. In 2008, VAS
offered Vannila offerings limited to music and games. Now we are talking about
more content-rich applications. By the end of 2011, VAS would completely change.
This will lead to the demand for backhand support, leading to more pressure on
data centers."

Kunwar Kishore, senior vice president, data centers
managed services and security, Bharti Airtel highlighted the need for
cost-effective data centers. After 2000, space, power and network connectivity
became the most important things. Today, most IT managers value outsourcing and
the benefits of changing technology like virtualization.

The event concluded with the note that data center is the
key for any organization. The needs of both the telcos and enterprises keep on
changing, which should be understood by the vendors to effectively address their
requirements. However, the most challenging job lies with the vendors who will
have to innovate to offer cost-effective solutions to both telecos and
enterprises.

Akhilesh Shukla/Beryl M

akhileshs@cybermedia.co.in