'Service providers deliver as per SLAs but very few organizations measure SLAs'

Kuoni India is the largest travel company in India with
business interests in outbound, inbound and business travel. The company also
runs a BPO company called VFS, which is currently operational in forty-two
countries worldwide. In an interview to VOICE&DATA, the company's CIO,
Dhiren Savla, talks about the IT networks that power Kuoni. Excerpts:

For IT to function seamlessly, a robust back-end network is a
must. Can you talk about your network architecture?

By any standards, ours is an extremely diversified operation with
point-of-presence in the remotest locations of the world. To manage and support
businesses across these locations, being networked is extremely important.
Today, all businesses of Kuoni India are running in centralized mode, and over
200 offices are connected to a central setup with multiple links depending on
criticality of IT for the business. In many cases, significance of availability
and performance of network is extremely high as some of the businesses like VFS
can not be performed without connectivity.

Can you talk about the range of connectivity solutions you use?

Today, we have deployed multiple technologies and at times, the choice was
governed by technology availability in the particular country. In India, we have
MPLS VPN network connectivity at all our offices with an ISDN backup, and we are
looking at setting up a backup network for key locations to ensure high
availability. For Kuoni India's international operations, we have an MPLS
network, wherever available, from one of the leading service provider. However,
there are countries where we do not have PoP of service provider, wherein we
have established IP-Sec VPN over the Internet. All these locations have high
available network with a minimum of two modes of secure connectivity. There are
some countries in Africa and the CIS region where VSAT is the only option to
have last-mile connectivity.

What about the IT applications deployed within Kuoni?

All our key LOB business applications are deployed on this network. Core
applications of tour operations, business travel, destination management and
multiple applications of VFS run on this network. This network also runs the SAP
and enterprise mailing solution.

We run video conferencing facilities across key offices in India
and abroad over ISDN or other mode of connectivity. However, we are in the
process of deploying telecom solution and the MS-Live Communication Server to
connect people seamlessly with data, chat, voice and video, in a cost effective
manner.

While selecting an enterprise application, what should be the
key parameters to consider?

While selecting an enterprise application, the first question a CIO needs to
ask is: what does the enterprise need. When the RFP is out, every partner will
present one's product as the best possible solution ever made. However, being
the business IT manager, who is internal to the enterprise, CIOs should align
business requirements and priorities with what is required and offered. The next
step is to prepare a business case, which is far beyond technology. Consider the
total cost of ownership (TCO)-not limited to the initial license cost, and on
considering costs of customization, implementation, and support, the picture can
change dramatically. TCO should be considered for the expected life of
investment, and returns on the buck spent should also be considered.

While choosing an application, parameters like support in the
local market, existing implementation of similar type and size, industry
specific modules availability, and vendors plan for the product support, should
be considered. The biggest success or failure factor is implementation-even
the best systems can fail with poor and unplanned implementation. The choice of
partner can also make a huge difference, and assessment of enterprise readiness
for the new systems is essential.

What are your key networking challenges? How do you address
them?

In India, challenges were limited because over the last few years we have
made significant progress on the networking front. The only challenge we
normally face is with our partners, understanding of business pressures and
needs. At times, rooftop rights and other incidental issues pose as problems for
the rollout, which need to be managed. While going international, the path was
easy with countries like Singapore and Malaysia. However, it became complex when
we started operations in Bangladesh and Nepal, where telecom infrastructure is
far below the standard we need. We had to work on hybrid solutions and explore
various service providers to build redundancy, which was no easy task. We had a
monopolistic situation in the Middle East and some parts of the CIS region. In
parts of Africa, locals not allowing the dish to be placed on the roof resulted
in VSAT connectivity with very high latency as a huge challenge. Today, the
biggest challenge we face is latency in running a centralized setup for
international operations. We are reviewing options of setting up data centers in
two other regions like the UK, Russia, Middle East and China with disaster
recovery in mind.

In the process of evolving a network backbone, what key things
topped your agenda?

Key things to be considered were high availability, latency, minimum
dependency on one partner or component and the overall cost of ownership.
Networking is becoming expensive and running costs can really impact business
considerably.

Can you tell us about the mission critical nature of your
networks, given the demands of your operations?

Since our entire IT system is running centrally, it is impossible to operate
without a network being available. There are businesses which can operate with
four to eight hours of downtime, but some businesses like tour operating cannot
afford downtime beyond fifteen minutes as the business is customer facing. VFS
cannot afford downtime of even a few minutes due to crowd management issues and
contractual obligations with clients.

Today people talk about 99.99% uptime. This brings to focus the
SLA. Do service providers give you maximum uptime?

While designing solutions and finalizing contracts, in my view, attention
should be paid to the SLA. Even in the same organization, different businesses
may need different SLAs. A 99.99% uptime in the eight working hour window allows
less than one hour of downtime but when it is 99.5%, it becomes 15 hours and
98.5% is a good 44 hours. Normally, service providers deliver as per SLAs but
very few organizations measure SLAs. Today, there are tools available to manage
SLAs, which can certainly be handy.

But still downtimes happen. How do you manage this issue?

Yes. It does happen when you are least prepared. A solution for this is to
have an alternate mode of connectivity for all critical sites. This includes
different equipment, different mode of connectivity (no two wireless, or no two
leased circuits from the same exchange), and different source/service providers.

How do you rate the overall improvement in the connectivity
services in India?

Significant improvement, I must say. When we look back to the early 90s,
mid-90s and say 2000, we have really come a long way. Now more and more service
providers are becoming solution partners. Also, we now have more diversified
options.

With increased connectivity, security has become a big problem?
Given that, how do you manage network security at Kuoni?

This is one of the biggest concerns for any CIO. When we say connectivity
security it includes the central data center, data in transit and point of
connections. We have significantly invested and continue to invest in security
solutions. This is not limited to deploying firewall, and includes IDS/IPS
tools. We have been an early adopter of managed security solutions. Also, for
various businesses local firewalls, VPN encryption, and SSL gateways are
deployed. We work closely with Symantec and are currently rolling out solutions
to secure the network and IT infrastructure.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in