Category "Blog"

Credits: Published by our strategic partner Tenovos.

If you’re launching a digital asset management system (DAM), you know that technology isn’t your only challenge—sometimes people are. You can have the best DAM in the industry and processes to match, but if your users don’t adhere to naming conventions or don’t categorize assets correctly, the project can devolve into a DAM quagmire. So, how do you get all the users of your DAM—from designers and partners to agencies and entire teams—to come along on your DAM adventure from the start? Your journey will involve mapping out your terrain, building your guild of allies, consulting your DAM wizards, and choosing the path to your DAM legacy.

This article will be your definitive guide to DAM adoption from the beginning. We’ll explain the process of getting users involved in selecting and rolling out your DAM, as well as the strategies you can use to ensure widespread adoption and ongoing equilibrium.

If you already have a DAM, the steps below are perfect for rethinking your adoption strategy. It’s easy for users to fall off the adoption wagon, so your strategies should be evolving to keep up. You’ll determine where to improve your engagement with your users, strengthen your desired norms, and encourage better user behaviors. From mapping out your DAM journey to setting yourself up for a legacy of success—let’s talk about how to achieve optimal DAM adoption.

1. Map out the terrain—user influence and resistance

The (not so secret) secret to DAM adoption is identifying and engaging your stakeholders early in the process. For those without a DAM (or replacing your existing DAM), it means prioritizing the needs of those who will use the DAM inside and outside your organization.

Start with a stakeholder mapping exercise—sit down and brainstorm everyone who will be using your DAM or involved in the success of implementing it. Write each name on a sticky note—from the illustrators uploading new assets, to the IT manager who will deal with support tickets. Then sort those stakeholders into quadrants:

This exercise will help you determine which stakeholders should focus your energy and support on throughout the DAM adoption process.

It’s also important to conduct resistance planning. To manage resistance, you should brainstorm all the potential reasons your stakeholders might resist your new DAM—make a thoughtful, comprehensive list. Executives may lack awareness of why a change is needed. Creative teams may fear the unknown that comes along with this change. IT may resist because they anticipate a lack of support once the DAM is implemented. In this stage, you should consider your users’ concerns carefully, making note of potential blockages will help you gather their feedback and develop a communications plan that effectively addresses their concerns.

For organizations that have already implemented their DAM, it’s never too late to map your stakeholders and consider their needs. Resistance can happen at any point in the journey. Investigate how your DAM is performing with a survey, DAM usage data, or user interviews at regular intervals. You may not be able to implement a new system, but it’s never too late to revisit your users’ needs and consider why they may be resisting your processes.

2. Build your guild—recruit your DAMbassadors

After you’ve determined which users have the most influence and interest in your DAM, you should identify who among them could be your allies. Who is likely to adopt new norms quickly? Who can assist you and offer insight into team morale? Who is most invested in the DAM planning process and its success?

Determine who among your internal (and even external partners) would be willing to offer ongoing feedback and engage with the DAM process. These are your DAMbassadors and they will help you disseminate information, encourage excitement in your engagement campaigns, and uphold the norms and processes you’ll put in place.

Recruiting them could be as easy as taking the ‘high interest/high influence’ users from your stakeholder mapping and asking if they’d be interested in taking on an advisory role. It could be for a limited time as the DAM is selected and implemented, or if your DAM is already in place, you could ask them to give feedback on an ad hoc basis. Consider incentivizing this role—people are more likely to feel appreciated if they gain something from their insights. Bonus points if some of your champions are executive-level leaders—their buy-in will be important to secure budget and support across the organization.

3. Consult your wizards—plan your processes and collect feedback

It’s never too early to start thinking about governance, or how your DAM will be managed. As a part of governance, you must define processes related to users, assets, metadata, and uploads.

You will need to answer questions like:

• Will assets be uploaded manually through the DAM, via an integration, or both?
• Are you managing web assets? Video assets? Something else? How does that change your DAM needs?
• What are your file naming conventions? And where are these documented, and how are they communicated and enforced?
• Which users/groups will be permitted to edit metadata?
• Who will be responsible for archiving and expiring files?
• Who will provide DAM access to external users? Who will be responsible for training them?
• What are the different levels of access/permissions for different users and groups? How will access change if the users are external agencies, vendors, or retail partners?

Building and documenting these norms early on allows you to run them by your DAMbassadors and important stakeholders to ensure you’re considering complex user or asset challenges that may come up when choosing, implementing, or managing your DAM.

And remember that feedback shouldn’t stop at the planning stage or after you’ve implemented your DAM—continue seeking ongoing feedback from your internal stakeholders and external DAM users. Nothing halts adoption more than users feeling like their feedback and suggestions don’t matter. Consider how you can collect feedback throughout the DAM process and follow up if user feedback influenced a decision—this builds their trust.

4. Pick your path—select the best DAM for your needs

Once you’ve determined your DAMbassadors, your unique governance idiosyncrasies, and sought the feedback of your internal and external users, you’ll be ready to select your DAM.

Picking the right DAM can often feel endlessly complicated—the time spent gathering requirements, researching applications, and reaching out to platforms can leave you feeling exhausted by the options. Narrow your focus on the top features that your organization cannot function without—based on your stakeholder feedback, of course. If you’ve done Steps 1-3 thoroughly, your organization’s ideal DAM should check off all your most important boxes.

If you’ve made your case to your executive-level leadership, done your research, and considered user feedback, your choice of DAM should set you up for the ideal user adoption scenario.

5. The rallying cry—develop and execute a communications plan

Communication plans can make or break DAM implementation. A clear comms plan will ensure everyone knows how the DAM will help them achieve their goals (i.e. what they can expect from the DAM) and how they’re involved in the implementation and management of the DAM (i.e. what’s expected of users). Use face-to-face meetings, town halls, forums, and Q&A sessions to communicate with stakeholders.

The key message is simple: If the DAM works as intended and users adopt it as directed, everyone’s lives become easier. This plan defines the philosophy of the DAM, how it will be used, and how success will be measured for all users. It should include a timeline for implementation and onboarding and where users can go for ongoing DAM best practices, support, and training. You may choose to include how your organization plans to work with the DAM vendor and how the transition from the current asset system to the DAM will take place. The more clear and thoughtful your comms plan is, the more likely you’ll be to reduce friction post-launch and improve adoption.

6. Create a legacy—make onboarding and ongoing training impossible to ignore

Your DAM adventure has begun. It’s filled to the brim with users accessing your DAM for many reasons—approval workflows, sharing assets, archiving past campaigns. How do you manage to keep all those users following your carefully curated governance rules and norms? You create onboarding and training tools that are tailored-made to teach. Here are 3 DAM onboarding and training ideas to keep your journey of asset management smooth:

• Launch a frequently asked questions (FAQ) video series in your DAM
  Take a page out of Webflow University’s book and make a library of quick videos to onboard users, answer common questions, and reiterate helpful governance norms. Host your FAQ library in your DAM and link its location to the dashboard of every user. Each video can be casual and even funny—the point is to make learning and relearning DAM conventions accessible and impossible to ignore.
• Create a DAM help desk
  Sometimes users don’t know where to get their questions answered. Creating a DAM help desk, either in person or virtually, gives them a predetermined window to come to you with questions and feedback on the DAM. Have your DAM managers, IT staff, or DAMbassadors cycle through ‘office hours’—they can be on standby until a user reaches out with a question. This also works great asynchronously as a Slack or Teams channel.
• Build a governance document
  Remember the governance planning you did in Step 3? Consider creating a governance resource that users can refer back to. Create an artfully designed landing page—an internal search engine that points people to common solutions to their problems. Give clear guidance on how to use common metadata terms, manage metadata, and upload assets. Include anything else that users may forget or make mistakes from time to time.

You may notice that this resource and your video FAQ library will have some overlap—it’s important to have resources available in multiple formats and places. The more accessible, interesting, and valuable this information is, the more likely your users are to adopt it.

Your DAM adoption journey begins with a single step

User adoption is the single defining characteristic of a successful DAM implementation. Are your users accessing the DAM as intended? Is it working for them as intended? In your DAM adventure, user adoption is an ongoing process—a never-ending story. But, if you can map out your desired digital asset system, bring along the right users to see it through, plan and communicate your processes, and keep people engaged—widespread adoption is possible.

For organizations with entrenched DAMs (and tired DAM managers), it’s never too late to address user adoption. There’s always the opportunity to seek feedback on how to improve your DAM processes, make training easier to access, or develop a comms plan that revitalizes users’ desire to make the DAM better.

After all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Your adventure awaits.

Want to know what types of data your DAM should be providing? Reach us at marketing@sifycorp.com

Written by Michael Waldron, CMO, Tenovos

 

– An article by Prashant Pimpalekar, covered by Enterprise World

SAP has ramped up a bulk of its resources, innovations and R&D investments to transition SAP Business Suite/ERP customers (i.e. on SAP ECC6.0) to SAP S/4 HANA on Cloud. The campaign it launched worldwide (“Rise with SAP”) has been well-received by its customers and prospects.

While SAP has provided multiple choices for the said transition, it has created some confusion in customers’ minds. Rise with SAP but how? Which way to go? What is the best option suited for my organization?

Instead of directly telling the options available under Rise with SAP (deployment models for S/4 HANA Cloud), this article takes a customer-centric view and provides multiple scenarios of SAP customers/prospects and recommendations for the best-fit possible.

• Yours is a startup raring to go. You want an ERP software which will provide a rich functionality of all the key business processes (right from procure to pay, order to cash, record to report, hire to retire etc.) seamlessly integrated, can accommodate the scorching business growth, would be Cloud-based (and so scalable) with subscription-based pricing giving SLA-bound performance with lowest possible TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). And all this in record time, ready to run! In this case, SAP S/4 HANA Cloud (Public Edition) could be the best option.
• Or, you head a lean organization with SAP ERP ECC6.0 implemented (or you could be on a lower version of S/4 HANA, say 1503, on-premise), say, 6 to 8 years ago. In that long period, your SAP system has been customized on many instances to meet the business requirements on an ad-hoc basis. Due to various reasons, master data quality has not been up to the mark. Customizations done years ago seem to be no more relevant in the changed business scenario of today. Overall, the SAP deployment satisfaction index is not high. Given a chance, you would like to discard the chaotic system and start afresh on a blank slate. But while doing it, you don’t want to lose the rich functionality of integrated and reliable business processes and the comfort of SAP users. Keeping in tune with the changing times, you want to avail the elasticity of Cloud, want to see greenfield Implementation of SAP S/4 HANA in record time with a competitive budget. In this case, SAP S/4 HANA (Public Edition) could be the best option.
• Or, yours is a big organization with SAP ERP ECC6.0 implemented, say, more than a decade ago. Most of the key business processes have been mapped and are being used across many plants, branches spread across the country (or even across many nations). Mirroring the business, the business processes are complex and due customization has been done to cater to local/country-specific requirements. You have maintained relatively high data hygiene in the SAP system and the SAP deployment satisfaction index is pretty good. You can’t afford to lose all that and so can’t think of any greenfield implementation. Your organization also puts much more emphasis on security and so want to go for single-tenant tenancy on Cloud. In that case, Brownfield migration to SAP S/4 HANA Cloud (Private edition with Hyperscaler) could be the best solution. The SAP system/servers could be hosted on one of the hyper-scalers like AWS, MS-Azure or GCP (Google Cloud Platform).

*Brownfield migration- Here you are getting SAP master data, transactions, configured business processes, RICEF objects, balances from SAP ECC6.0 into S/4 HANA (whichever is the target version). No need to create them from scratch (or upload them via batch programs). It also gives you an opportunity to configure new business processes, rectify some old processes, add any enhancements etc. if you perceive a need.

• Or you are a CXO of a very large organization using SAP ERP ECC6.0 say, since more than a decade. Most of the key business processes have been mapped and are being used across many plants, branches spread across the country (or even across many nations). Mirroring the business, the business processes are fairly complex and due customization has been done to cater to local/country-specific requirements. You have maintained relatively high data hygiene in the SAP system and the SAP deployment satisfaction index is pretty good. You can’t afford to lose all that and so can’t think of any greenfield implementation. Besides, your organization works in a highly regulated environment (federal/state/local regulations) like life Sciences / Utility / BFSI putting heavy emphasis on various compliances. So besides opting for single-tenant tenancy on Cloud, you also want the SAP system/servers residing on a designated private data center (like HP, Dell, Lenovo). In that case, Brownfield migration to SAP S/4 HANA Cloud (Private edition – Customer data center) could be the best solution.

Following table captures the essence of above explanation along with some important data points (which could not be covered earlier) which should assist in your decision-making process of S/4 HANA migration.

RISE with SAP Deployment Models for S/4 HANA Cloud –

Conclusion –

Scenarios explained above need to be taken with a pinch of salt. It is highly possible that even a large organization may discard their current SAP system and may go for greenfield implementation, or a unicorn startup may go for Private edition (Hyperscaler). It all depends on N parameters (some of which are discussed above), budget, timeline expectations etc. So, while there is no one-size-fits-all nor is any solution right or wrong, this article should assist the CXOs in deciding which way to go for SAP S/4 HANA migration.

Check out the full feature here

In today’s hyper-connected world, a stable and efficient Wi-Fi network is essential for enterprises to operate seamlessly. A robust and dependable Wi-Fi network is the foundation of success for any thriving business, facilitating seamless employee communication and offering a platform for engaging with customers.

Managed Wi-Fi providers offer a range of services, designed to make your Wi-Fi network hassle-free and optimized for performance. But how to choose the right managed Wi-Fi provider? In this article, we will explore the key factors you must evaluate when making this decision.

Understanding your core requirements

Before beginning your search for a managed Wi-Fi provider, it is crucial to understand your core requirements. It might depend on your business type, size, number of devices connecting to network, bandwidth & coverage needs, security demands, compliance, and more. Here is a list of essential features and services your potential managed Wi-Fi provider must offer.

1. Performance
   

   The foundation of successful business operations is a stable and high-performance Wi-Fi network. When evaluating managed Wi-Fi providers, prioritize reliability and speed. Downtime or slow connectivity can disrupt operations and negatively impact potential lead interactions. Ensure the provider can offer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with guaranteed uptime and performance levels that meet your business needs.

2. Scalability
   

   One of the most critical considerations when choosing a managed Wi-Fi provider is scalability. Your network needs may change over time as your business grows or usage patterns evolve. Look out for a partner that can accommodate scaling up or down without significant disruptions. Ask potential providers about their scalability options and whether they can adapt to your future requirements.

3. Reliability and Redundancy
   

   A reliable Wi-Fi network is a non-negotiable requirement for businesses. Downtime can lead to lost revenue, frustrated customers, and decreased productivity. When evaluating managed Wi-Fi providers, inquire about their network reliability and redundancy measures. Look for providers with a track record of minimal downtime and robust failover solutions to ensure uninterrupted service.

4. Security
   

   Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, and your network must be protected from potential breaches and attacks. Make sure your provider offers robust security measures such as firewall protection, intrusion detection, and encryption. Additionally, inquire about their approach to security updates and patches to stay ahead of emerging threats.

5. Quality of Service (QoS)
   

   Different devices on your network may require varying levels of bandwidth and priority. For example, video conferencing and voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls demand low latency and consistent bandwidth. A managed Wi-Fi provider that offers Quality of Service (QoS) allows you to prioritize traffic according to your needs, ensuring a seamless user experience for critical applications.

6. Network Management and Monitoring
   

   Effective management and monitoring are essential for maintaining a healthy Wi-Fi network. Your managed Wi-Fi provider should offer robust tools and platforms that allows you to monitor network performance, troubleshoot issues, and make necessary adjustments. Look for providers that provide real-time visibility into your network’s status and offer proactive support to address potential problems before they impact users.

7. Support and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
   

   Consider the level of support your managed Wi-Fi provider offers. What are their service level agreements (SLAs)? Do they provide 24/7 customer support? Can they respond quickly to network issues? Clear communication and reliable support are crucial, especially during network emergencies. Ensure that provider support offerings align with your business needs and expectations.

8. Cost and Pricing Structure
   

   Cost is undoubtedly a significant factor when choosing a managed Wi-Fi provider. Some providers might charge based on the number of devices connected, while others may have data usage-based pricing. Make sure you are aware of any potential hidden fees or overage charges and choose a pricing model that aligns with your usage patterns.

9. Compatibility and Integration
   

   Consider your existing technology infrastructure when selecting a managed Wi-Fi provider. Will the provider’s solution seamlessly integrate with your current systems, such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, security cameras, or other IoT devices? Compatibility and integration capabilities can significantly impact the efficiency and effectiveness of your network.

10. Reputation and Reviews

    Finally, research the reputation and customer reviews of potential managed Wi-Fi providers. Online reviews and testimonials from current clients can provide valuable insights into a provider’s performance, customer service, and overall satisfaction. Additionally, inquire about case studies or references to gain a deeper understanding of how the provider has helped businesses similar to yours.

Sify Edge Connect: One-stop Solution for your Managed Wi-Fi needs

Sify Edge Connect is a comprehensive suite of services involving Edge connect Advisory and Implementation services combined with wireless management and intelligent edge analytics. It is a fully managed secure wireless platform that integrates IT, OT, and people. Edge Connect offers a seamless expansion of its core services to edge devices while delivering centralized management for streamlined operations, infrastructure near the end-user for reduced latency, and expert management of policies for data protection.

A few salient features of Sify’s Edge Connect are:

• Cloud-based centralized management platform
• Controlled Internet access to guest users with GIS mapping
• Highly scalable and resilient
• Pan India deployment & support
• Service-based model with end-to-end ownership

Wrapping Up!

Choosing the right managed Wi-Fi provider is crucial decision that can impact your business efficiency, security, and customer satisfaction. By carefully understanding above factors, you can make an informed choice that aligns with your specific needs and goals. A well-chosen managed Wi-Fi provider will ensure a reliable wireless network and empowers you to focus on what matters most while growing your business and serving your customers.

Boost your network edge for all-round digital transformation with Sify’s Edge Connect now!

The conversation around networking solutions has reached a critical juncture, and software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) have become central to this discourse. The SD-WAN market is projected to reach USD 13.7 billion by 2027, growing at a compounded rate of 31.9% annually. As enterprises demand agile, built-for-purpose, future-ready, cost-effective, and secure networking solutions, SD-WAN represents a preferable alternative to the limitations of traditional networking solutions. This article delves into the transformative business benefits of SD-WAN, its advantages over traditional WAN technologies, and why enterprises must take immediate notice.

What is SD-WAN and how has it evolved?

Consider this scenario: A retail chain with stores in multiple cities, each running different promotions, handling distinct inventory, and serving diverse customer needs. How do they ensure that all of their branches communicate efficiently with the headquarters and with each other? How do they safeguard sensitive data that is exchanged over their network?

SD-WAN emerges as a game-changing solution in these contexts. It leverages software-defined networking (SDN) to establish a more agile and responsive network ecosystem. It dynamically optimizes WAN performance, delivering an exceptional user experience.

Traditional WAN vs. SD-WAN

Traditional WAN architectures offer robust stability, compatibility with legacy systems, and regulatory compliance. Through high-quality connections like MPLS, they guarantee performance where it is critical. Being a widely adopted technology, many organizations have the in-house expertise to manage them efficiently. On the other hand, they are known for their rigidity and inefficiency, often requiring a lot of manual configurations. The lack of centralized management is also a major drawback. All of this results in higher costs, poor performance and lack of scalability.

SD-WAN revolutionizes this space by offering significant WAN optimization. SD-WAN shines in its ability to offer agile, cost-effective, and scalable networking solutions with centralized management. Leveraging software-defined networking, it optimizes traffic routes, prioritizing essential applications for enhanced performance and reliability. Additionally, built-in security features, such as end-to-end encryption, fortify the network, making it an alternative to traditional WAN technologies.

Organizations adopting SD-WAN can expect to reduce networking costs while significantly improving their bandwidth. Its fast, reliable, and secure network can handle any unprecedented surge in users. Centralized management and better visibility keep diverse locations connected efficiently.

Sify’s Managed SD-WAN: Features and benefits

Sify, a recognized niche player in the Gartner Global Managed Services Magic Quadrant, offers a cutting-edge managed SD-WAN platform, developed in collaboration with top OEMs. Sify SD-WAN helps enterprises to meet the evolving network requirements with unmatched agility, security, and scale.

• Improved performance:
  

  Superior application steering, intelligent routing and application prioritization result in accelerated performance, reduced latency, and enhanced user experience.

• Cost savings:
  

  SD-WAN brings down hardware costs and optimizes bandwidth and network assets utilization, helping to derive the best long-term ROI.

• Simplified management:
  

  Centralized control, policy management and automation simplify network management, reducing manual configurations and enabling efficient scaling. Management dashboards offer granular views based on business intent.

• Enhanced security:
  

  SD-WAN security benefits include bolstered overall network security, encrypted traffic and secure connections for remote offices.

• Application awareness:
  

  SD-WAN excels in application-aware dynamic bandwidth allocation, particularly useful in high-demand scenarios. Pre-configured SD-WAN policies can immediately identify and prioritize latency-sensitive traffic to ensure there is no degradation in quality.

• Automatic failover:
  

  SD-WAN’s intelligent algorithms detect congestion or failure on the primary connection, and they automatically switch traffic to a secondary connection, ensuring uninterrupted user experience.

For more insights into a best-practices-driven SD-WAN implementation, click here to learn how Sify’s SD-WAN services combine robust performance with cost-effectiveness.

Emerging trends: The future of SD-WAN

SD-WAN as-a-Service: Managed SD-WAN deployments are growing rapidly, with more enterprises choosing to outsource WAN management to specialized service providers. By 2020, this number had risen to nearly 50%, from just 8% of deployments in 2017. There has been a noticeable shift towards offering SD-WAN as-a-service, with businesses able to adopt this technology without hefty upfront investments.

SD-WAN and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE): When integrated into a SASE framework, SD-WAN benefits from an additional layer of security, which makes policy-based, secure access to network resources efficient and highly secure. For example, SD-WAN enhances secure remote access by providing encrypted pathways between remote locations and central networks. To add to this point, the focus on zero-trust security models further boosts SD-WAN’s credentials as a secure networking solution, by ensuring that all traffic is verified before access to the network is granted.

SD-WAN and Cloud: Traditional WAN architectures often struggle to efficiently route cloud-bound traffic, leading to suboptimal performance and potential security risks. SD-WAN dynamically routes traffic based on application type, quality of service requirements, and network conditions. It can identify the most efficient path to a particular cloud service and optimize the route for performance, reliability, and security. Furthermore, SD-WAN solutions often have native integrations with major cloud service providers. Such “cloud on-ramp” capabilities empower SD-WAN for rapid and secure cloud access.

SD-WAN and AI: AI-driven automation is enhancing SD-WAN by enabling smarter traffic management and improved security through anomaly detection. By integrating AI and machine learning, SD-WAN becomes capable of intelligent network optimization and predictive analytics. A unified approach (often enabled by a single management console) consolidates heterogeneous networks and traffic onto a single platform for easier management and also serves as a rich source of network and security data.

SD-WAN and the Edge: SD-WAN enables near-real-time data processing and analysis at the source, reducing latency and boosting application performance. Its dynamic traffic routing capabilities also enhance efficient data handling at distributed edge locations, allowing organizations to deliver timely insights and actions.

Conclusion: Key considerations for implementing SD-WAN

SD-WAN will play a pivotal role in the next wave of digital transformation. Organizations that are considering the switch should begin by assessing their needs and choose an SD-WAN solution or a service provider who can offer the full suite of capabilities suited to these needs.

Sify delivers a managed SD-WAN platform that enables the network agility and security needed by the modern-day enterprise. Sify’s SD-WAN platform supports customers’ network needs across a multi-service provider and multi-media environment. Learn how you can empower your network with our SD-WAN services. Learn more

The Indian data center market has witnessed phenomenal growth in recent years, driven by the increasing adoption of digitalization, internet penetration, e-commerce and cloud computing. Due to accelerated adoption of public cloud and data sovereignty policies, major global players are investing heavily in hyper-scale facilities, turning the nation into a hyperscale data center hub to meet the increasing demand of cloud services.

According to a report, the data center industry in India to cross 1.3 GW capacity and grow 2.4x by 2024. The hyperscale market is expected to grow 20% from 2021 to 2026, with over 300 new hyperscale sites in development globally today, that number is expected to surpass 1,000 by end of 2024.

Hyperscale Data Center Colocation Providers in India are Revolutionizing Data Center Infrastructure:

Having a data center in India has its own benefits. Several prominent data center providers have already made significant investments in data centers that offer massive colocation facilities, capable of housing high-performing servers and storage systems, providing immense computing power, storage capacity, and scalability. These data centers cater to all the needs of Public Cloud providers, global Enterprises, and OTT players, who require massive infrastructure to support their digital services and handle the exponential growth of data.

Let’s explore the reasons why India is an attractive destination for hyperscale Data Centers

1. Vast market size and growing digital economy
   

   The proliferation of data generation at edge, vast market size with favorable business environment, and India’s rapidly expanding digital economy, fuelled by the government’s Digital India initiative is making India- one of the main data centers destinations in the world. Policies aimed at data localization and data sovereignty has incentivized both domestic and international CSPs to establish hyperscale data centers in India to comply with these regulations.

2. Increased adoption of cloud services in India
   

   The increase in cloud services adoption in India reflects a broader trend of digitalization and technology-driven innovation. As organizations continue to realize the benefits of cloud computing, India is poised to play a pivotal role in the global cloud services landscape.

   Cloud-born startups and automation-dependent businesses are defining the growth and scale of data center services. For instance, hybrid cloud adoption is enabling digital enterprises to leverage private infrastructure for compliance, sensitive workloads, greater control on the applications and environment, and tap into the high computing power of public clouds for bursting or scaling requirements, enabling digital innovation, and easier access to next-gen technologies like AI/ML, thus accommodating evolving business needs.

3. Scalable data center campuses with growth options for up to 10 years
   

   Scalability is one of the top challenges that hyperscalers and enterprises face as the demands on their technology systems increases. To help customers data processing seamlessly, hyperscale companies need exceptional storage, capacity, and flexibility to match their internal data processing requirements.

   Hyperscale-ready data centers facilities in India are designed to become agile to cater the growing demand and meet any load they service. By setting up new availability zones set up and built-to-suit capabilities, most data center providers offer growth options for up to 10 years, enabling faster time to market in a cost-effective manner.

   Sify’s data center in Rabale, Mumbai is an expandable mega data center campus designed for 10 towers, with 5 of them fully operational. The large campus has a 200 MW IT power capacity with up to 15,000+ racks. The remaining towers are in development and planning phase to favor hyperscale and retail clients’ dynamic workloads.

4. Dense interconnect networks
   

   The availability of dense interconnect networks has played a significant role in contributing to the growth of data centers in India. Hyperscale data center providers help businesses seamlessly connect to public clouds through high speed, low latency network while ensuring enhanced quality of services (QoS), secured information exchange, and guaranteed performance.

5. Ample Stable power
   

   The rapid growth of data center usage results in a growth of energy needs of the facility. Hyperscalers look for locations with access to stable and redundant power infrastructure, including multiple power grids, reliable electrical connections, and backup generators. India hosts several locations across its geographical reach that offers ample power and the capacity to scale up as hyperscalers’ operations expand. Data center providers assess the availability of power grids, transmission lines, and substations in the vicinity to attract and meet hyperscalers core requirements.

6. Abundant Renewable Energy Potential
   

   India offers substantial renewable energy potential, including solar and wind power. The country’s focus on renewable energy development aligns with the sustainability goals of hyperscale data center operators which is to make themselves carbon-neutral, making India an attractive choice for establishing environmentally friendly data centers. Most data center service providers in India are investing in green practices to meet the sustainability guidelines.

   Sify data centers are green and energy-efficient data centers with 200+ MW of renewable power contracted. Additional nation-wide Green power for upcoming Data Center facilities is underway. With a reduction in carbon footprint by 28% during 2021-22, Sify ensures implementation of innovative practices to achieve low PUE (ASHRAE guidelines) and low WUE (Green Grid guidelines). It is a significant commitment to dedicated solar and wind renewable investment.

7. Skilled Workforce and Technological Expertise
   

   India has a large pool of skilled Data Center professionals with deep Subject matter expertise in electrical, mechanical and Data Center design as well as operations. India has traditionally been strong in developing IT professionals, with a strong foundation in software development, network engineering, and data management. This talent pool is critical for operating and managing hyperscale data centers. The presence of a thriving IT services industry further contributes to the availability of skilled personnel with the necessary expertise.

8. Cost Advantages
   

   India offers several cost advantages in terms of real estate, labor, and operational expenses compared to other established data center destinations. Lower land and construction costs, competitive energy prices, and ease of business driven by government support and diverse favoring policies contribute to the cost-effectiveness of establishing hyperscale data centers in India.

9. Strategic Geographical Location
   

   India’s geographic location provides a strategic advantage for international organizations seeking to expand their data center footprint. Its proximity to emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Africa makes India an ideal hub for serving these markets with low-latency connectivity. Hyperscale computing companies in India can act as gateways to these regions, facilitating faster data transmission and ensuring enhanced user experience.

   The Mumbai subsea cable landing station serves as a key entry point for international internet traffic and facilitates high-speed connectivity to and from India. It supports global data communication and is vital for businesses and enterprises requiring robust international connectivity.

   Chennai’s location along the Bay of Bengal makes it an ideal location for subsea cable landing stations. It serves as a critical gateway for international data traffic, enabling data transfer between India and other parts of the world. This connectivity is crucial for businesses, content delivery networks, and cloud service providers operating in India.

   Sify data centers in Mumbai, Chennai, Noida (Delhi-NCR), Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Bangalore are strategically positioned to meet the unique needs of businesses and organizations in these expanding regions. They play a critical role in supporting government initiatives, digital transformation efforts, technological innovation, and data-driven operations.

Wrapping up!

India possesses numerous attributes that make it an attractive data center powerhouse. The country has witnessed massive infrastructure investments in the past years from International and domestic companies who recognized the potential of India as a strategic location to establish their hyperscale infrastructure. Keeping these investments and key factors in consideration, it can be assumed that in the future, the hyperscalers will invest more in India while focusing on the sustainability standards.

As India’s first commercial data center provider, Sify encompasses an extensive infrastructure with 11 DCs PAN India with 100 MW capacity. Additionally, with an aim to add 350 MW to their infrastructure by 2025, Sify will capture a large portion of the market hosting a mix of hyperscalers and retail clients.

Know more about Sify Hyperscale data centers here!!

Sify to invest Rs 3K crore in 5 years to boost data centre capacity.

The data center market is booming in India as enterprises migrate to the cloud. In this demand-driven market, Sify is all set to accelerate its capability with an investment of INR 3000 crores to expand its data center capacity across India over the next five years.

With 11 Data Centers PAN-India, Sify’s current DC capacity stand at over 100 MW and will go up to 350 MW in the coming years.

Three greenfield data centre projects are currently under construction with a design capacity of close to 200 MW. The first one with a capacity of about 38 MW, is expected to be operational at Mumbai in October 2023. The remaining two projects in Noida and Chennai, with a design capacity of 80 MW each, are expected to become online by the end of this financial year.

Data localisation and cost efficiency are among the key factors driving demand for data centres in India. “There is no point for content which is consumed in India to get hosted somewhere else where it goes all the way and comes back every time. The data should be localised.” said M P Vijay Kumar – Executive Director & Group CFO at Sify.

He also added how Sify has been driving a significant portion of data center consumption in the country, with two-thirds of its capacity serving hyper scalers, and the rest-hosting enterprises across segments like Government, BFSI, e-commerce, media & entertainment, manufacturing, and retail.

Check out the full news here.

 

Managing a hybrid cloud environment demands a holistic approach. In the rapidly evolving landscape of modern computing, data centers are burdened with the challenge to meet the ever-growing demands of enterprises, while remaining agile, cost-effective, and secure. One solution that has helped data centers immensely is the adoption of a hybrid cloud model, which is a computing environment that combines both public cloud capabilities and a private cloud infrastructure. By combining the strengths of public and private cloud environments, a hybrid cloud architecture offers enterprises a transformative approach to data center management.

The foundation of a successful hybrid cloud implementation lies in establishing a robust infrastructure that seamlessly connects private and public cloud resources. Data centers need to manage data movement, synchronization, and replication between their on-premises infrastructure and public cloud providers. This requires robust data management and integration capabilities within the data center.

Enterprises must invest in modernizing their networking and storage infrastructure, employing software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined storage (SDS) technologies to enable efficient data movement and workload mobility across environments.

Potential of a hybrid cloud for data centers

Hybrid cloud networking is crucial for establishing seamless connectivity between data centers and public cloud providers. Implementing high-speed, low-latency connections, such as virtual private networks (VPNs) or dedicated links, ensures reliable and secure data transfer. Data centers must focus on network optimization, traffic routing, and intelligent load balancing to maximize performance in hybrid environments.

Enterprises must implement a unified hybrid cloud management platform which is capable of providing visibility, control, and automation across diverse cloud resources. This central management framework streamlines operations, ensuring consistent policies, security controls, and compliance across both – private and public clouds.

Working with a hybrid cloud services provider

A hybrid cloud services provider acts as a strategic partner that empowers enterprises to seamlessly integrate public and private cloud resources. By partnering with a reliable provider, data centers gain access to a comprehensive suite of tools, technologies, and expertise required to architect and manage hybrid cloud environments effectively.

Enterprises benefit from cloud adjacency or the close proximity of their data centers to hybrid cloud service providers’ points of presence or regional hubs. This arrangement offers several benefits, such as reduced latency, improved data transfer speeds, lower network costs, and better interconnectivity.

The provider of a hybrid cloud architecture offers unparalleled flexibility and scalability, allowing enterprises to optimize resource allocation, by leveraging private infrastructure for sensitive workloads, and tapping into the vast compute power of public clouds for bursting or scaling requirements. This dynamic approach enhances operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness, accommodating evolving business needs.

Adopting advanced technologies to automate and streamline multiple data center processes helps increase efficiency and reduce costs. Data center architects need to design data center infrastructures that can seamlessly integrate with public cloud providers, enabling the efficient movement of workloads between on-premise data centers and the public cloud. By adopting a hybrid cloud model, data centers can easily track and monitor their networks, applications, and user behaviour.

Benefits of adopting a hybrid cloud

The emergence of the hybrid cloud has significant implications for data centers. Here’s an overview of what hybrid clouds have in store for data centers:

1. Flexibility and Scalability: A hybrid cloud enables enterprises to scale their computing resources up or down based on demand. It enables data centers to accommodate the dynamic nature of workloads that may span across both private and public cloud environments. During peak periods or when facing sudden spikes in workload, the public cloud can provide additional capacity, ensuring smooth operations without compromising performance.
2. Connectivity and Network Setup: Hybrid cloud deployments offer strong connectivity between a private data center and a public cloud provider. They ensure reliable and low-latency connectivity. Hybrid cloud connectivity extends beyond the boundaries of the data center, encompassing various cloud services and endpoints. To fully harness the benefits of hybrid cloud, data centers should prioritize interconnectivity between on-premises infrastructure, public clouds, and other external services.
3. Data Center Modernization: To support hybrid cloud environments, data centers may need to modernize their infrastructure, adopting technologies such as software-defined networking (SDN), virtualization, and automation through AI/ML. These upgrades allow for better integration and management of workloads across between colocation, private cloud, and public cloud environment. By harnessing real-time monitoring, data visualization, and predictive analytics, organizations can optimize data center performance, enhance reliability, and proactively address potential issues. The benefits of data center monitoring analytics extend to improved resource utilization, reduced downtime, enhanced security, and better decision-making.
4. Security and Compliance: Data centers play a critical role in ensuring the security and compliance of data and workloads in a hybrid cloud environment. A robust hybrid cloud management platform offers a unified view of resources, facilitates workload placement decisions, automates provisioning and scaling, enforces security policies, and enables seamless workload migration between clouds in a secure manner. Enterprises need to implement robust security measures, access controls, encryption, and monitoring systems to protect their data in the hybrid cloud. Here are some common security practices that data centers must embrace:
   • Limiting physical access to authorized personnel through key cards, biometric authorization or other access control mechanisms.
   • Implementing perimeter security such as fencing, gates, and security patrols.
   • Deploying firewalls to control and monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic.
   • Installing Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems to detect and prevent suspicious activities and potential attacks.
   • Encrypting sensitive data both at rest and during transmission using strong encryption algorithms (e.g., AES, RSA) to protect against unauthorized access.
   • Implementing SSL/TLS protocols to secure data transmission over networks and web applications.
   • Conducting regular vulnerability assessments to identify potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the data center infrastructure and applications.
   • Establishing a well-defined incident response plan to handle security breaches and incidents effectively and minimize their impact.
5. Data Placement and Workload Optimization: Enterprises are able to make intelligent decisions about where to place their workloads and data based on factors like performance, cost, compliance requirements, and data sovereignty regulations. This involves optimizing workload distribution between the private and public components of the hybrid environment. Doing this prevents bottlenecks and minimizes downtime. By analyzing sensor data and historical trends, data center service providers can improve equipment uptime by up to 20% with advanced predictive analytics.
6. Data Backup for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Implementing a robust data backup strategy helps ensure data integrity and availability in the event of data loss or corruption. Data centers must also develop comprehensive disaster recovery plans to recover critical systems and data in case of a disaster or major outage.
7. Multi-cloud Strategy: A multi-cloud strategy empowers data centers with greater flexibility, resilience, and cost optimization. By diversifying their cloud resources across multiple providers, data centers can take advantage of the strengths of different vendors, optimize performance, and maintain operational efficiency even in the face of disruptions or changes in the cloud landscape. Additionally, a multi-cloud approach enables data centers to adapt to evolving business needs while maintaining control over their infrastructure and data.

Unlock the benefits of the hybrid cloud for your enterprise with Sify

With the right hybrid cloud services provider, robust infrastructure, streamlined connectivity, and effective management platform, data centers can unlock the full potential of hybrid cloud and position themselves at the forefront of digital transformation. A hybrid cloud can not only future-proof data centers but also enable enterprises to thrive in an increasingly competitive and dynamic business landscape.

At Sify Technologies, we understand the importance of hybrid cloud for data centers and how it revolutionizes the way enterprises utilize and leverage cloud services. We empower data centers to optimize resource utilization, improve operational efficiency, and enhance overall productivity and profitability.

We also help data centers to adapt to evolving business needs, optimize resource utilization, and deliver exceptional performance. We have invested in more than 200 MW of green power because we are committed to reducing our global carbon footprint by promoting the usage of sustainable energy. Our green data centers are designed to help enterprises reduce energy costs by up to 40%.

A pioneer in the industry, Sify Technologies has been consistently helping enterprises with bespoke hybrid cloud management and data center services for several years. Our customers work with us because we:

• Conceptualize, architect and implement the most efficient hybrid cloud
• Provide a consistent user experience across clouds
• Automate the discovery and tagging of critical resources across cloud environments
• Offer AI-driven workload optimization for enhanced app performance
• Ensure detailed tracking of billing data

Learn how your enterprise can benefit from the Sify Data Center experience.

Credits: Published by our strategic partner Tenovos.

We live in a data-driven age, where information is the key to unlocking value.

To make decisions with data, we depend upon metrics. But metrics can be a double-edged sword: choose them wisely, and you can zoom in on growth-accelerating insights. All too often, though, we choose our metrics based on what we usually measure or can measure with our existing tools — not what we should be measuring, or would choose to measure in an ideal world.

One of the biggest offenders in the Digital Asset Management (DAM) universe? Return on Investment, or ROI.

How ROI Gets It Wrong

The theory goes like this: implementing a new DAM system costs time and money. Since your company is in the business of making more than it spends, it’s important to make projections of how much your DAM will save and how much additional revenue it can generate. So you make some educated guesses to sell stakeholders on a DAM project, and try to piece together what the DAM helped with later on.

It’s that last piece that often fails to hit the mark. While it’s easy to know what was spent on a DAM project, it’s a lot harder to find where and how it made a difference. Moreover, the ROI calculation can only prove one thing: whether the DAM project saved money or not. That’s a good start, but … what’s the real purpose of a DAM?

Return On Asset (ROA): A Smarter Metric for a Smarter Era

With Sify DAM platform, we’ve got an answer that goes beyond ROI, to give you more in-depth answers that help you determine strategies and understand your customers, all while illuminating the true value of our platform.

It’s called ROA: Return on Asset.

When you use the Tenovos platform to find the connective tissue that turns your assets into stories, each of those assets can be seen in a new, value-driven light. When you maximize the return on your assets, you maximize your return on investment, too — now with additional insights that enable your growth goals.

With Sify DAM, you can find underperforming and overperforming assets when they’re still in active use to tell stories better and achieve a higher ROA. Dig through the buried treasure of campaigns past with AI-augmented DAM to find what stories resonated with your buyer and how to make lightning strike twice.

Improve ROA for Storytelling Success

The story of digital assets in the 21st century has been one of meteoric growth. More assets are being produced than ever before, with ever-expanding file sizes and project costs. Video strategy is now mission-critical to digital marketing, but producing videos can cost far more per asset than photography or written work.

As budgets tighten and the world braces for more uncertainty, one thing is for sure: the era of throwing assets at the wall and seeing what sticks is over. It’s time to get smart. Enterprises need to know what’s likely to work (and what isn’t) before the project budget is spent and the campaign gets a postmortem.

As your teams all over the world create assets for their individual campaigns, the Tenovos platform illuminates what’s working, including suggestions that connect and unify your story across business units and geographies.

These kinds of connections — created using the same types of technology that power AI recommendation tools from heavy hitters like YouTube and Netflix — are the DAM and the missing link between your current asset management tactics and a unified storytelling strategy.

The Bottom Line: Getting the Return that Matters

The real mark of a good metric is that improving it has a “rising tide” effect: as it rises, it lifts up other metrics that are also good signifiers that your business is doing well.

When it comes to DAM implementations, ROI just isn’t enough. You can raise ROI on a DAM project by decreasing headcount, or by reusing assets, but those cost savings don’t necessarily translate into continued growth.

It’s a metric that is limited in value to ensure that you didn’t lose money — which is why, at the end of the day, most ROI is really all about CYA.

ROA goes further, without losing anything: you can still calculate the value of your DAM implementation, now with a granularity that allows you to iterate and improve on every aspect of your storytelling operation.

In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, businesses rely heavily on their network infrastructure to ensure seamless communication, data transfer, and access to critical resources. From enabling seamless communication among employees to providing a platform for customer engagement, a strong and reliable Wi-Fi network acts as the backbone of any successful business.

According to a report, the global Wi-Fi market is expected to reach a market evaluation of $31.3 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 20.4% for the forecasted period 2022-2027. However, as businesses continue to evolve, managing and maintaining Wi-Fi networks can become increasingly complex and time-consuming.

To bridge this gap and unlock the true potential of networking, Edge Connect, commonly known as Managed Wi-Fi services has emerged as a transformative solution. In this blog, we will explore the power of Managed Wi-Fi, how it is transforming business networks, and how Sify drives business success with advanced managed network solutions.

Understanding Managed Wi-Fi: A Paradigm Shift in Networking

Edge Connect, commonly known as Managed Wi-Fi represents a paradigm shift in networking, moving away from traditional centralized data centers to a decentralized, distributed architecture. At its core, Edge Connect leverages edge computing and networking principles to bring processing power and data storage closer to the end users and devices.

By reducing the distance between users and the network resources they need, Edge Connect minimizes latency, enhances performance, and improves overall network efficiency. Over the years, Managed Wi-Fi services have gained significant traction due to the increasing reliance on wireless connectivity in businesses of all sizes.

Currently, enterprises prefer to entrust the management of Wi-Fi infrastructure to professional providers like Sify, who offer end-to-end services, including installation, monitoring, troubleshooting, and security updates. By delegating these tasks to experts, businesses can focus on their core operations and enjoy the benefits of a robust and scalable Wi-Fi network.

Transformative Impact on Business Networks

1. Enhanced Network Performance

   Speed is of the essence! One of the primary advantages of Managed Wi-Fi services is the assurance of enhanced network performance. The service providers deploy state-of-the-art access points strategically to ensure optimal coverage throughout the business premises.

   It eliminates any dead zones and delivers a seamless Wi-Fi experience for employees and customers. Sify offers ubiquitous wireless coverage, actively monitors network traffic, and makes real-time adjustments to ensure optimal performance, low latency, and minimal delay in processing and delivery time.

2. Robust Network Security

   Network Security is of paramount importance for businesses operating in the digital realm. Managed Wi-Fi distributed architecture mitigates risks by keeping critical data close to the source. The Managed Wi-Fi service providers offer advanced security features to safeguard the network from potential breaches and threats.

   Sify implements robust encryption protocols, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems to protect sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access. Additionally, with regular audits and security upgrades, Sify is always one step ahead of potential vulnerabilities.

3. Scalability and Flexibility

   Businesses today need flexible and scalable solutions that can adapt to their dynamic requirements. Managed Wi-Fi services excel in this aspect by offering easy scalability features. Additional edge nodes can be seamlessly integrated wherever needed, expanding the network’s capacity without causing disruptions.

   Additionally, Managed Wi-Fi services are adaptable to different network configurations, enabling enterprises to tailor their networks to meet dynamic needs. Sify designs the best-fit solution based on the enterprise’s current architecture and future needs to accommodate fluctuations in network usage with dynamic seasonal demands or growth spurts.

4. Improved Reliability and Optimized Content Delivery

   Content delivery is critical for digital businesses, especially for media streaming, e-commerce, and cloud-based applications. With Managed Wi-Fi services, businesses can achieve higher network reliability and uptime. Since data is processed and cached at the edge, users can continue accessing content and services even if there are disruptions in the centralized data centers or the internet backbone.

5. Enabling IoT and Industry 4.0

   The rise of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 has brought about a massive influx of connected smart devices and sensors. Managed Wi-Fi services play a pivotal role in handling the vast amounts of data generated by these devices, enabling real-time analysis, seamless communication, and data exchanges at the edge.

6. Guest Wi-Fi Management

   For businesses that welcome guests, providing a seamless and secure Wi-Fi experience is crucial. Managed Wi-Fi services offer guest WiFi management features, allowing businesses to create custom splash pages, set usage limits, and gather valuable data on customer behavior. This data can be leveraged to tailor marketing strategies and enhance customer engagement.

   Sify offers controlled internet access and OTP- based authentication to guests that can be categorized into different user sets. For instance, VIPs, guests, and doctors for an enterprise in the healthcare industry.

7. Cost Effectiveness

   Initially, investing in Managed Wi-Fi services might seem like an added expense to enterprises. However, in the long run, it can prove to be cost-effective. With experts managing the Wi-Fi structure, businesses can save on hiring dedicated IT personnel. Additionally, the near-zero downtime, improved productivity, and enhanced customer experience contribute to the overall cost savings.

   Sify’s service-based model with end-to-end ownership brings the entire platform as a service. A fully managed, secure wireless platform that integrates Integration Technology (IT), Operational Technology (OT), and People.

Applications Across Industries

Managed Wi-Fi Service’s transformative impact extends to a wide range of industries:

1. Healthcare: In telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, where real-time communication is crucial, Managed Wi-Fi ensures low-latency and reliable connections for seamless interactions between patients and healthcare professionals.
2. Retail: For e-commerce platforms, Managed Wi-Fi optimizes content delivery, ensuring faster loading times for product pages and reducing cart abandonment rates.
3. Manufacturing: In smart factories, Managed Wi-Fi supports real-time monitoring of machinery and equipment, enabling predictive maintenance and reducing downtime.
4. Transportation: In the automotive industry, Managed Wi-Fi facilitates vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, enhancing road safety and enabling autonomous driving capabilities.
5. Gaming: For online gaming platforms, Managed Wi-Fi reduces latency, enabling a more immersive and responsive gaming experience for players worldwide.
6. Smart Cities: In the context of smart cities, Managed Wi-Fi supports various applications, such as smart traffic management, public safety monitoring, and efficient waste management.

Wrapping up!

Over the years, Managed Wi-Fi services have emerged as a game-changer in the world of business networking seeking to unlock new possibilities for enhanced performance, reliability, and scalability. As technologies and demand for secure network architecture continue to evolve, Managed Wi-Fi services are poised to shape the future of business networking and drive innovation across industries.

By entrusting Wi-Fi management to specialized providers like Sify, businesses can leverage the flexible and secure network infrastructure that is transforming the ways users interact with the digital world.

Visit us to know more about Sify’s Edge Connect now!