Category "Blog"

As cloud adoption accelerated, service providers listened to their customers experiences and problems; tweaked and optimized their cloud solutions to create the Hybrid cloud solution – a cloud platform with the benefits of both the public and private cloud. Hybrid cloud allows enterprises to cherry-pick the cloud solutions that provide the perfect balance between their business needs and budgets.Its no surprise, that hybrid cloud has seen the fastest adoption rate in the last year, with over 70% of enterprises deploying hybrid systems. But what exactly makes it so popular in the business IT world?Here are the reasons..

Best of both clouds

Public cloud offers flexibility, scalability and cost benefits, while private cloud allows greater control and complete data security. With a hybrid cloud platform, businesses can merge the two cloud models to maximize benefits while minimizing the risks. Companies can keep sensitive data on their private servers and use public cloud for running less critical applications and larger workloads.

Cost benefits

After deploying hybrid cloud, businesses can count on a quantifiable reduction in costs. The pay per use models drive cost efficiency and reduce wastage of resources.

Enhanced security

With the flexibility of storing sensitive data on dedicated servers, the biggest cloud concern around security has finally been laid to rest. Businesses do not need to miss out on the advantages of cloud computing while prioritizing compliance and security.

Are their challenges in moving to Hybrid Cloud?

As with any migration to new systems, deploying and operating hybrid cloud also has its fair share of complexities. Building a complex hybrid system needs skills and strategy and can get expensive if not handled and planned well. The biggest challenge lies in integrating data with applications and ensuring compatibility across the two levels of infrastructure.

But with increasing adoption of hybrid cloud systems, it is obvious that service providers and businesses have found a way to successfully deploy and integrate hybrid platforms in diverse business settings.

With almost 95% businesses using cloud in some form or another, the business world has accepted cloud computing as an inevitable IT structure. The debate has moved on to the pros and cons of the various cloud platforms. With the hybrid model the search for the perfect platform, with all the advantages and none of the risks, is finally over.

 

Sify offers Public, Private and Managed Cloud services, leveraging enterprise-class technology to guarantee high availability, performance, scalability and security. The services are a testament to Sify’s proven expertise in Cloud services and are offered in customizable, cost-effective models that are easy to deploy and use. The breadth of Sify’s expertise in end-to-end IT services makes Sify the ideal partner to manage the full spectrum of the IT needs of all organizations, across sector and scale.

According to a recent survey conducted by Right Scale– 93% of businesses are using cloud technology in some form or another. Chances are that your competitors are already using cloud platforms and are growing their businesses at your expense. To stay competitive it’s imperative to leverage the benefits of cloud. Embracing the cloud is no longer a choice; it has become inevitable.

But migrating your business to the cloud is easier said than done, like all large and potentially expensive business decisions it requires detailed analysis. Among countless choices, one critical decision is choosing the right type of cloud platform, a cloud solution that fits the requirements of your business, now and in the future.

There is a lot of discussion around the competing benefits of private and public cloud; But what are the main differences between the two and which is the best fit for your business?

Private Vs Public Cloud

Public cloud

In a public cloud your data and applications are hosted on shared physical hardware owned by the service provider, your company has no hardware and maintenance costs at all – the service provider bears complete responsibility for the management and upkeep of the Data Center.

Public cloud offers unmatched scalability, businesses can ramp up or down within minutes and pay for only what they use. Economies of scale work in favor of public cloud systems, businesses have access to fast and reliable IT resources at a fraction of what it would cost them to build and run their own IT infrastructure.

Private Cloud

Private cloud or Enterprise cloud, is custom made infrastructure dedicated to your company, but can be hosted either on premise or in Data Centers run by service providers.

Security and control are the obvious advantages of the private cloud and for organizations with strict regulations and compliance obligations this is an absolute must. Private cloud also allows for greater customization of the hardware and other resources to serve specific business requirements.

A quick checklist to find out which cloud fits your business

While cloud platforms, on the whole, offer huge advantages over traditional IT ecosystems, enterprises need to carefully consider the pros and cons of the various cloud solutions in the market.

Public Cloud could be the right choice for you if:

• Your business is dynamic and has seasonal bursts of intense activity, requiring a corresponding spike in bandwidth.
• You need access to the latest IT resources to grow your business, but do not have the budget to build your own IT infrastructure.
• Businesses that have stringent security and regulatory requirements.
• Organizations with deeper pockets who can afford to spend on capital investment.

Because of its irresistible combination of speed, agility and scalability with cost effective models, cloud is now the default IT system for all businesses; it is definitely here to stay. As the technology matures, service providers and ICT companies will continue to create and offer a larger variety of options to its customers. But as always, the choice between money and security will be the key deciding factor for most businesses.

Sify offers Public, Private and Managed Cloud services, leveraging enterprise-class technology to guarantee high availability, performance, scalability and security. The services are a testament to Sify’s proven expertise in Cloud services and are offered in customizable, cost-effective models that are easy to deploy and use. The breadth of Sify’s expertise in end-to-end IT services makes Sify the ideal partner to manage the full spectrum of the IT needs of all organizations, across sector and scale.

The biggest digital disrupter of the decade has finally hit the IT industry! The convergence of new technologies – social, mobile, cloud and data analytics, has fundamentally changed the way business is being done. Enterprises are, naturally, under immense pressure to adapt their existing infrastructures, strategies and workforce to deal with these changes.

But during this hectic time, businesses need to pause and reflect on how they want digital transformation to impact their long-term strategy and growth. Do they want to fire fight the next wave of disruption or be ahead of the curve? Do they want to patch on technology cures or create a future ready system?

To ensure that digital transformation finally results in a strong and adaptive business structure, here are the 5 key areas of consideration

Invest in creating a Digital Vision

Transformation is a top down process: senior management, from across all departments, need to come together to create a long term and holistic strategy to deal with enterprise digital transformation.What is needed is a digital vision to articulate the immediate impact and long-term opportunities that could come up due to the transformation process.

100% Customer focused approach

To create a truly future focused and adaptive business, the customer must be kept at the center of all business functions: this is the fundamental on which enterprises need to base their long and short term digital strategy.

Enterprises that listen to its customers, present and potential, are the ones that will, not just flourish in the current digital rich environment, but will be better prepared to ride the next wave of disruption. To build customer loyalty and a differentiated brand, customer engagement has to be amped up to deliver continuously improving and truly interesting and innovative 360° customer experience.

Follow the data, but with a context

Even though organizations are using Analytics and Big Data mining to improve their bottom-line, often the sheer amount of data can leave managers with a sense of uncertainty.

What is needed here is Context. An open communication structure within the organization will encourage employees from different departments to weigh in on how to interpret and use the data.

Transform your employees

Transformation will only work as well as the people running it. For many employees digital transformation can be a disruptive and challenging process and targeted training and change management will help to keep the workforce motivated.

To change ingrained mindsets is not an easy task, but to create an agile business, inter departmental collaboration must become part of the work culture. Employees, new or existing, must be encouraged to stay updated and learn digital skills and should be assessed on their ability to contribute to the new system.

Embrace the culture of Innovation

Finally, organizations have to foster a deep-rooted culture of innovation and experimentation. Talented teams from across departments must collaborate to constantly experiment and test new technologies and processes to reach more and more digital users. This quick thinking and agile workforce will create a business that is not just ready to manage the next big change but will actually create the next new technology disruptor.

Digital transformation is not an end in itself; it is a continuous process. For enterprises to constantly stay ahead of the curve, digital culture must seep into its very core. It changes not just how companies deal with its customers, but also impacts its internal structures, functions and processes. It becomes part of the organization’s DNA.

We are Sify and we transform businesses for a digital world like no other. With our SMAC network, global inter-cloud connectivity, agile IT and seamless access across platforms, we transform the way enterprises do businesses providing a unified customer experience.

Government and public service bodies were the late entrants into the digital world; slow and hesitant at the start they have now embraced digital with gusto. What started as online payment portals for electricity and phone bills has developed into a mission to provide digital access to all citizens.

The Digital Start

The first step to digitization started with online payment portals for public utilities, digitization of data such as land records, e-procurement projects and public sector banks sites.

The start was rocky, plagued with continuous downtime and untrained employees, but as Internet and digital technologies improved, these initial unwieldy digital platforms transformed into sophisticated Common Service Centers (CSC), access points connecting 2.5 lakh villages to a multitude of e-Services, from banking services to train ticketing and healthcare to agricultural information.

e-Governance matures – Aadhaar and India Stack

With Aadhaar and India Stack, the Government has finally incorporated Digital in its DNA. With more than a billion people registered – Aadhaar is the world’s largest biometric identity project. Launched in 2010, it is the ultimate example of IT technology joining hands with the government to radically change public service delivery.

The India Stack consists of digitized layers built on top of Aadhaar:e-KYC, eSign, Digital Locker and Unified Payment Interface. Together they create an end-to-end digital architecture that enables a paperless, cashless and presence less system. And the Government has made this user base of over a billion people available as an open API, enabling organizations and developers to innovate and build on the robust foundation of the India Stack.

Vision of Digital India

In 2015, the Government has laid out a clear vision for the digital future of India – to provide good governance that leads to inclusive growth, better jobs and access to services for all citizens. The Digital India Campaign, with a slew of policy initiatives, products and excellence centers, aims to fulfill this vision of making India truly Digital.

e-Governance has certainly come a long way since its inception, successful implementation of digital technologies has ensured, that the days of unending queues and unresponsive services are long gone. The next step is to move beyond providing services and become an instrument for good governance, transforming into a two-way channel of communication between the Government and its Citizens.

Watch the video below to see how Sify helps India Post, one of the oldest communications provider touching every part of the country, transform itself to a services centers while retaining the post and logistics.

The IT industry is no stranger to digital disruption, over the last 3 decades, new trends and technological leaps have time and again changed the direction of the industry. The first wave in 1990s permanently transformed industries such as music, photography and video rental and the 2000s saw major disruption in industries like television, travel and recruitment. We now face the third wave of digital disruption, brought on by the huge amounts of rich data produced by social media and mobile technologies.

How quickly and efficiently businesses respond to this challenge, will determine whether they will be competitive and profitable in the coming decades.

Challenges of Digital Transformation

State of existing IT

Business need to know where they stand in terms of their IT readiness.For digitally mature organizations the change is manageable, but some businesses might have to restructure and invest more deeply to embrace the digital environment.

Change Management

The digital way of working is based on openness and creativity; it promotes a flatter and less controlled organization. Enterprises need to embrace and incorporate this into their work culture and existing workforce must be motivated to join this new work culture with an open mind.

Digital Employees

For a business to succeed in a digital world, it needs to be staffed with people who live digital and breathe data. To fully understand the digital experience offered to customers, managers have to be comfortable with the technology themselves.

Customer is the king

Customer experience must remain the primary focus while designing and implementing digital systems. How you want to engage and service your customer? What are the business models that you offer? These are some of the questions that will drive your ultimate digital goal.

Leadership

Clear vision and strong leadership are two vital factors for long term Digital Success. Digital transformation is a top down process and a focused leader with a clear, detailed roadmap will successfully lead the organization through its digital journey.

Transformation, digital or otherwise, is crafted and enacted by people. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the success of digital transformation lies more with employees, managers and other stakeholders rather than implementing technologies. The right people will enable organizations to deal with, not just this wave of digital disruption, but all future changes that come their way.

We are Sify and we transform businesses for a digital world like no other. With our SMAC network, global inter-cloud connectivity, agile IT and seamless access across platforms, we transform the way enterprises do businesses providing a unified customer experience.

The digital world has always been fast paced, ready to evolve and innovate quickly. But new innovative technologies are disrupting the familiar digital landscape at a rate never seen before, forcing businesses to overhaul old systems and reinvent existing technologies.

To remain competitive in the face of this digital challenge, businesses must embrace the SMAC STACK, a new platform that harnesses the combined power of these new disruptive technologies.

SMAC STACK- explained

SMAC is a digital architecture based on the convergence of four diverse technologies;Social media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud computing.

There are over 2 billion active social media users and more than 4.5 billion mobile phone users in the world today. No industry or organization can afford to ignore the opportunity these staggering numbers offer for connecting directly with consumers.

The huge amount of data generated by these users provides a rich source of information, which can reveal buyer patterns and behavior. Using advanced analytics, enterprises can get invaluable insights to make informed business decisions.

With data storage moving to the cloud, the physical restraints of server space management have disappeared. Cloud infrastructure provides a flexible, cost effective and scalable foundation, which can be leveraged by businesses to innovate and increase overall productivity.

The fusion of these technologies has created a completely new way of using digital processes and systems to engage with customers and drive business growth.

The SMAC effect

Some companies have already embraced the SMAC platform and incorporated it as part of their core digital architecture.

In India, ecommerce firms were the first to adopt SMAC technologies and are now benefiting from the SMAC effect;according to a report by UBS, the e-tailing market in India is set to grow 10 times by 2020 to $50 bn. Firms like Firstcry.com, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India are actively using the SMAC technologies to get a competitive advantage in this aggressive market.

Is SMAC the future?

If SMAC is the future, then that future is now. These four forces of digital technology have swept away old mindsets and systems and transformed businesses already. But implementing SMAC Stack is easier said than done, businesses need to fully understand how to integrate and optimize the new technologies and partnering with an experienced ICT service provider is essential. With decades of experience in providing IT services and Data Center solutions, Sify is perfectly placed to unlock the full potential of SMAC for your business growth.

With the intermingling of social media platforms in all aspects of our lives, the digital world has become more multifaceted and complex.Social platforms combined with cloud systems and mobility has disrupted the existing business models and forced enterprises to develop new business models to generate fresh revenue streams and find new ways to engage with their customers. But to be really competitive in this new market place, enterprises need to wholeheartedly embrace digital models and systems.

Challenges of digital transformation

To become a truly digital enabled company and to successfully launch digital services, organizations need to embrace digital processes within the organization as well. The challenge here is that all enterprises are not IT ready. In some organizations the current systems may need to be overhauled, upgraded and, in some cases, completely discarded to successfully transition to digital.

The second challenge is that, businesses can no longer point out their customers with any certainty; they don’t know who these new consumers will be or how they will access the organization’s services and products. Add to this, the digital divide that exists in our diverse country, with 22 official languages only 16% of the population speaks English. With over a billion users, mobile phones are the biggest connectivity tool across the country, but not everyone has access to smartphones and the Internet. To directly connect this diverse customer base to services, enterprises need to create a completely different kind of business model.

CIOs driving the digital transformation

Across industries, the business landscape has moved online; the retail industry has embraced Ecommerce; healthcare, insurance and banking industries have seen an upsurge on their digital platforms and with the advent of Aadhar and various government service portals,e-Governance is making services available to all citizens.

To succeed in this online world of business, CIOs need to take a 360-degree approach to understanding their customers, they have to design and deploy a business model that creates a unified customer experience.

CIOs will need to take charge and create a long-term roadmap to make their organizations future-ready.Ultimately it will be their visions and projections that will enable business growth in the next decade.

 

The two-day event at the JW Marriot, Pune, honoured the best, the brightest and the transformative CIOs of the Indian IT industry.

Known as the Oscars of the Indian IT industry, this year’s CIO 100 event brought together CIOs from across various vertical sectors to participate in a two-day symposium which was about transformation, leadership, and innovation.

In an era where digital transformation is necessary for businesses, CIO 100 awarded the transformative 100 of the Indian IT industry.

The two-day symposium was inaugurated by Arvind Gupta, BJP’s IT Head, who spoke about how CIOs can help the government alter the digital DNA of the country.

International keynote speaker, Stuart Knight, who is an author and a motivational speaker, spoke to the audience at multiple sessions on how to incorporate human qualities in a leadership role. The keynote sessions, which were powered Sify Technologies, were very well received, thanks to the energetic Stuart Knight.

Leaders from various companies spoke about how CIOs should look at digital transformation as a strategy in their organization.

Kamal Nath from Sify Technology spoke about IT transformation which is at the core of digital IT.

Dr Ravi Chandran gave his views on transformational leadership.

Taru Dahiya from Google spoke about how employees should be empowered by tools for digital transformation.

Indian Ocean and Taal with their music made sure that the CIOs had a good time.

One hundred CIOs received the main award this year-The Transformative 100. Eight special awards, namely, Sourcing Shoguns, Networking Pioneers, Information Masterminds, Mobility Mavens, Intelligent Enterprise Champions, Business Transformers and Security Supremos, and Collaboration Champions, were given out. The Hall of Fame Awards were presented to CIOs who won four consecutive CIO 100 awards from the same organization.

And of course being the Keynote Sponsor for CIO 100, Sify Technologies pulled all stops to deliver an interesting experience for the CIOs with Waxed Hands, Tweet Café, Selfie Contest and Mini Golf contest.

With every passing year, IT security is becoming the most significant issue for the industry. While threats to any part of the infrastructure are a big risk, Data security is the biggest fear in enterprise.

The Data Center has grown up from being a multiple server, energy guzzling mammoth to a practically invisible, sleek, virtual storage arena, mostly on the cloud. It has become smarter, faster, more agile and highly scalable, at very little extra cost.

But this development comes at a price. Now, it has the added threats that the cloud faces, or virtualised networks and data face…or worse, the connected technologies face. Mobile networks, cloud based and virtualised accessibility, in other words, has made the Data Center extremely vulnerable to hacking or cyber attacks. So, evolving with the Data Center, these threats also present a new security paradigm that enterprises need to be ready to meet head on.

Risks unique to virtualisation are now coming to the forefront, as Data Centers adopt the virtualisation technologies. Here are a few known risks:

In a virtualised environment, protected by traditional security apps, there is no visibility to machines on the same host, unless they are routed through outside the host machine, creating critical Communication blind spots. One of the ways to meet this risk is to dedicate security scanning virtual machines that scan the communication connecters between the VMs within the host. But for a cloud host, they will need self defending virtual machines.

The connected nature of virtualised environment makes guest devices a big threat. One compromise means risk for all the devices and machines. You need a firewall and a malicious activity detection system at the VM level. An attack on the hypervisor often means bigger risk since then all the machines are compromised, especially when the API is threatened. Most vendors strive to keep the API s secure, because that is the first line of threat for the data canter and everything else that’s on the platform. The risk goes even higher when critical data is stored on the same host as less critical ones, resulting in Mixed Trust Levels. Then it is difficult to protect only the critical data, and the way out is usually self- defending VM security that can help protect against.

Data Centers on the cloud also face the same threats- since the cloud sits on a virtual environment. In addition, the cloud computing devices, which cover multiple points like roaming mobile devices, stretch the perimeter and make the environment more vulnerable. In addition, on a cloud based Data Center, data is often moved around for optimal utilization…and this means the owners are often unaware of the location of their data. Also any residual data, which may be critical, needs to be eliminated during this shifting. Multi tenancy clouds are anyway more vulnerable, provided the security is designed so that any one user cannot access any other Data center. Data encryption is most often the security app used, but with evolving usage and constant expansion of the environment, threats will always ensue.

So is there any way of staying secure with your next generation Data Center? Of course- the answer is next-gen security!

The traditional means of Data Center security will definitely not help to secure your modern infrastructure. To keep your virtualised data safe, an answer could be security appliances with numerous points in the Data Center. Their virtual nature allows them to keep track of all parts of the network, and in some cases, these can be programmed to do a specific security function as well, creating a new layer of security can help fight malware, unauthorized devices and network viruses. In addition, advanced deep scanning engines like data-loss prevention (DLP), intrusion detection/prevention services (IPS/IDS) can help create a security lock. Intelligent network monitoring algorithms can also help control the movement of data in and out of the machines, while access can be prevented for certain type of devices, unless authorised. The smartest move for a keeping a modern Data Center safe is layered security. This can place entire apps behind intelligent engines that continuously scan for anomalies.

Despite all the technology, security threats will always be there. Deploying intelligent applications and barricades for Data Centers could be your safest bet in a battle that will never end.

As Data Center technologies evolve, so will threats. The best one can do is to have the right teams, armed with the right kind of technologies and applications to counter this threat that modernisation and evolution brings.

Are we all aware of the staggering statistics about Future of Internet?

India will add 40% of the world’s incremental Internet users by 2020!

More than 175 million people will do their purchases online because of convenient payment options like e-wallets and easy payments. E-commerce business will be worth $17 billion at the end of FY 2016.

82% of CMOs (across all Industry verticals) report that the Brand health of their organization is directly proportional to the number of visitors of their websites.

When computing power was at a premium in 1990s, web pages were often hosted in local standalone servers and were served as unchanging text files. This type of static content is efficient, but it can quickly become stagnant and viewers lose interest. With the advent of low-cost computing and faster Internet speeds, the concept of Dynamic Content was burgeoned that could capture user attention due to sheer dynamism and possibilities of creativity. The low-cost pay-as-you-go model is ensured via virtualization when we have transformed to Cloud. In bygone days, IT would do a CAPEX investment in Hardware purchase and invest in maintenance especially when your best hired resources should be focusing on core business.

For the organizations where-in Internet facing Application/Site performance and users experience is the key to growth, Cloud Services powered by best CDN (Content Delivery Network) is the panacea. Quick, reliable, secure and personalized viewing experiences across all the devices on your fingertips is what CDN offers.

Empiricism is the theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses. That’s where human beings sense of feeling will always reign over machines or robots. Businesses in all verticals flourish only when Empiricism gives way to a satisfied customer. It thrives on the fact that customer thinks exactly the thoughts which you want them to think so that they get hooked-on and his brain signals his fingers again and again to key in just the URL of your website and better still – don’t even open the competitor’s website on the adjacent tab.

CDN service providers delivers Internet contents like – web-objects, Applications, live/on-demand streaming media and social networks to the end-users.

Load-time, Availability, Response time, Security are few parameters on which a good CDN is adjudged.

Direct visible impact of CDN is on Business Revenue, Business Agility and increase in ability to take it to global scale.

How?

Take an example, Mr. ABC, the CIO of organization – XYZ is sitting in US with best Internet Connection speed (25 Mbps), his site is hosted in Data Center in India with Best Compute, Storage, and Network, Redundancy ensured at the First mile. When he accesses his website – www.xyz.com, he starts counting – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7…..while his eyes are forced to see that vexatious Loading icon.

Oops, it takes 8 seconds to load the Home Page of his own Brand. If I were a site visitor, I would definitely go to next tab and load another site to do justice to those 8 wasted seconds. So result is rise in distraction, confusion and higher chances of site abandonment and hence Revenue.

That’s where the concept of CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK was incepted.

Following are the series of steps executed when customer keys in his web-site address on the address bar of his browser:

Step 1: Browser contacts DNS for conversion into IP address

Step 2: Browser will establish connection with the web server that hosts the website using IP address

Step 3: Retrieval of HTML code over the internet of the requested web-page

Step 4: HTML Content is delivered over the internet to the browser which then displays the HTML page – bare bone html structure, followed by hyper-linked stuff – static images etc. and lastly Dynamic content.

Step 5: When you leave the browser window idle for long or close it, the connection with Web server will end

So Step#4 above entails the need of a CDN to ensure rendering of page with lightening speeds. In absence of CDN, the complications of middle-mile will ruin all the performance optimizations, best coding practices you might have followed in creating your website.

Static files like images, javascript, css files can be cached by the browser so that in future it doesn’t have to fetch them again. Of course, many technologies and CDNs exist which ensures caching. The Site owners face the chill wind with regard to performance only when there is good amount of Dynamic content in their website.

Dynamic content is web content that changes between subsequent requests based on user access time, user preferences and personal information in order to ensure an engaging online experience. Some of the world’s largest websites are powered primarily by dynamic content as static content cannot capture user interest. According to recent studies, Seventy-four percent of online consumers get frustrated when a website promotes content that isn’t tailored to their interests

E.g. Amazon is delivering you a personalized content experience in an attempt to make you buy more. Notice the section called “Buy It Again” below the items you want to purchase. Amazon is populating this section by pulling your previous orders from its backend servers. This is much more effective for upselling purposes than listing random items.

The very reason why site performance is impacted in case of dynamic content is due to enforced round trips to the origin server, as it cannot be cached.

Only few CDNs on the planet give the required acceleration to dynamic content. Several techniques like route optimization are needed to optimize communication between the CDN edge servers and origin infrastructure to deliver dynamic content to the user that avoids Internet problem spots.

So the philosophy of having good dynamic content in your website with the lure of increasing user interest and hence hits, should be carefully chalked out along with the appropriate choice of CDN adoption.

Walking with the false myths of considering CDN as just a redundancy (or good-to-have) service can jeopardize the Business strategy significantly and will eventually become the bane of Business advancement prospects.

Facing performance pressures with your Websites and Web Portals? Feel free to reach out to us at cdn@sifycorp.com.