Monetizing cloud is what's on HP's mind

BANGALORE, INDIA: With growing unstructured data, there is a change in the way it is handled. Cloud is one platform which the companies are fast embracing to ensure that data is put to efficient use.

HP, on the other hand, has gone a step ahead in cloud implementation and expects to give other big players like VMware a tough time. In an interaction, Santanu Ghose, country head, Converge Infrastructure Solutions, HP India, tells Deepa  Damodaran of CIOL how HP planned its cloud journey and how it now sees a lot of scope to monetize it. Excerpts:

CIOL: Vendors say enterprises are looking at cloud, but when asked CIOs tell they are not because of various reasons, especially security. Your take.

Santanu Ghose: From technology perspective there is no dearth of systems and methods that can take care of security, but it is the perception that has to change.

Some CIOs do have reservations with regards to security of data. However, bankers, supposed to be the most conservative of all, are today looking at it for some of their applications because it gives them scalability.

Even many from manufacturing, telecom, IT, ITeS segments are also looking at cloud. Security is more of a concern when you are implementing applications on a public cloud. Whereas, when you set up your own private cloud you need not because data resides in your own environment.

So, private cloud is definitely happening and each and every CIO, especially in SME/SMB, has a strategy around it. The only thing bothering them is how are they going to implement it.

What customers are saying today is that they are open to host some applications on private cloud and some such as e-mails, or sharepoint on public cloud. Some are also looking at managed cloud, wherein a company's private cloud is managed by another person in the latter's premises.

Now, the problem is that user should get a seamless experience while accessing a service, which would be either in a private or a managed or a public cloud.

So now we have traditional IT, and a mix of private, public, hybrid and managed clouds. All of them reside in islands, and migrating from one to another is not an easy job.

This is where HP's Converged Cloud can play a role. It comes with a set of tools and softwares which can bring convergence in the experience between various clouds as it can manage your computer server, storage, network as a single entity.

Moreover, it supports Open Stack distribution. Open Stack is a collection of open source tools to enable applications seamlessly operate between all clouds. This will help inter-operate many applications.

CIOL: Why should companies start using cloud services?

Santanu Ghose: Today, a lot of data, especially unstructured data, is being generated especially through handhelds. Unlike before, they are used for various purposes such as to watch movies, videos, send e-mails, connect to social media, etc.

This amount of unstructured data is changing the whole format of how we need to handle data and cloud is the best way out.

On the other hand, adoption of IT is going up with cloud because today even handhelds are accessing applications. They are accessing data constantly unlike in the PC or desktop era, where we used to have a shut down time.

Moreover, with technologies such as 3G and 4G the demand and pressure on IT will only grow. 4G will drive a very different experience of content. Going forward, with the concept called OTT, i e over the top, content can also be received with PC, broadband, handheld etc, unlike before where DTH or set-top boxes used to be major distributors.

This will give rise to media cloud. Similarly, there will be education cloud where classes and courses will be remotely delivered. Such changes are putting a lot of pressure as to how much of data can we handle. And cloud is the answer.

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CIOL: But, what about the SLA part. Cloud providers do not guarantee against the loss of data.

Santanu Ghose: When you accept a service from Rackspace or Amazon there are no SLA. It is like you like it you take it, and it comes for cheaper price. People who have no concern for security will take it.

However, for those who think that data has to be backed-up, they need access to data everytime, and at any given point of time they should not lose more than two per cent of data, they will have to work on stringent SLAs.

Today, there are new players who are coming as cloud service providers who are assuring SLA-based cloud service just opposed to what has been happening.

HP's EC Cloud is a public cloud that provides infrastructure-as-a-service. Subscribers can host applications and run it from our data centre or manage their own private cloud. And it is SLA-based.

These SLAs are governed by applications such as SAP, core banking applications, and it also talks about data security, access security. We also provide archival-as-a-service, relational database as service, Cloud Map etc. We also have a common marketplace for applications for all clouds, one control management dashboard. This cloud  will also have extensions to third party cloud.

CIOL: How do you expect to take up an established player like Amazon with your IaaS cloud or VMware?

Santanu Ghose: When cloud started, people were not very serious about it. For Amazon and Rackspace this was not their core business and it just happened with them. However, as the cloud market is maturing people are demanding the same level of quality as that of traditional IT services in terms of performance, uptime, data security.

Moreover, for a company like HP, managing IT is our core business area. We have the experience and know how to do it. Delivering IT as a service is not a big deal for us because we have our own data centres. It is just that the focus was not there all this while.

And now that we are, it will be at a much bigger scale and serious in nature than what perceived leaders of cloud can deliver.

As with any industry, as a technology matures, new players come and become the market leaders. There will be a shift, but the market is big enough for everyone to exist.

Moreover, as Opensource movement gets ground, especially Openstack, it will get momentum and lot of opensource-based virtualization tools will gain ground, which are very cost effective.

So there will be definitely a pressure on virtualization companies like VMware because the market shift is happening and we do not have a choice. This will ensure that there is a right pricing.