Indian firms realise multi and hybrid Cloud are their best bet

Given the macro-economic environment in the ongoing pandemic times, the Indian enterprises have realised that it is multi-cloud and Hybrid Cloud environments that achieve the best balance between cost, revenue, performance and risk management, a top executive from the enterprise Cloud computing firm Nutanix said.

As enterprises embark on their transformation journey, the Nutanix India business witnessed 42 per cent (year-on-year) growth in the FY20, with a 34 per cent customer growth in the same time period.

According to Balakrishnan Anantharaman, VP and MD-Sales, India and SAARC, Nutanix, the pandemic has accelerated the realisation that cloud and software-defined infrastructure are the new drivers of business outcomes, such as newer revenue streams, better cost efficiencies and lower risk.

"Businesses will need to integrate and utilise the latest technologies and innovation across the entire enterprise in real time: changing resources, focus, verticals, or even industry at a moment's notice to stay up with, and ahead of competitors and the market," Anantharaman told IANS.

Nutanix last week partnered Microsoft to deliver a Hybrid Cloud solution with seamless application, data and license mobility. Both companies will focus on extending Nutanix Hybrid Cloud infrastructure to Azure.

According to Anantharaman, the Indian firms want to invest in architectures which will help build resilience from both an infrastructure and application perspective.

"The current needs of India's enterprises can be classified into two primary requirements — infrastructure modernisation and application modernisation," he said.

The first kind of enterprise is re-looking at their data centre for greater resiliency post the pandemic.

"They are looking to navigate the shift from legacy systems to modern infrastructure, in a way that is efficient and seamless".

The second set of enterprises is looking for application modernisation so their users and customers can run/use their applications anywhere, in a location agnostic manner with just a single/few clicks.

"The need of the hour is a fluid Infrastructure with a feel of infinity in terms of elasticity but with finite costs. For example, banks have had to scale up their applications to help their customers as the number of digital transactions shot up during the pandemic," Anantharaman explained.

In order to successfully reach its customers across the country, Nutanix has also built strong alliances and seen a 51 per cent growth in its partner ecosystem.

Today, multi-cloud and Hybrid Cloud provide the freedom to control and manage data sovereignty combined with the flexibility to leverage extended cloud offerings like Desktop as a Service, Disaster Recovery as a Service or even expand to the public cloud, when required.

According to the company executive, forward-looking businesses have been, in some sense, already using multiple clouds.

"For example, they could be using a private cloud on-premise from a regulatory, performance and economic perspective, using SaaS applications on the public cloud, and Office 365/G Suite as their office productivity solution," Anantharaman said.

Aspects like cloud (workload) mobility, interoperability, scalability, and security, which are essential functionalities required by enterprises, are provided by the multi and Hybrid Cloud.

It is increasingly apparent that "it would take host of solution providers in today's multi-cloud world to provide a complete solution for modern enterprise customers, especially as organisations balance their legacy and SaaS application landscape".

As enterprises still need to provide a differentiated experience to their customers, the need for customization and bespoke requirements will continue and even increase.

"It's a rapidly changing and fluid business environment for India's enterprises, and they want their cloud model to accept and reflect that," Anantharaman said, adding they are now focused on expanding their business in the tier-2 markets, and increasing the presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka..