Cloud consideration and security in era of Digital India key to successful digital transformation: Rajesh Pant, GoI

The last two years of the pandemic have reaffirmed the world’s faith on technology and the disruption & transformation it can bring about in our daily lives. One strategic lever enabling this digital transformation has been “Cloud”. Over the years, the world including India has understood the power of cloud and the force multipliers concomitant with it.

To provide a platform for discussing the various aspects and Industry lens for drivers of cloud adoption, identification of challenges around cloud adoption drivers, implementation and enforcement levels, CII Northern Region organised the 2nd edition of Cloud Summit. The summit saw speakers from AWS, Veeam Software, Adani Connex, HP Enterprises, NTT Ltd and others.

The Chief Guest of the event, Lt Gen (Dr) Rajesh Pant, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Prime Minister’s Office, Govt of India shared his ideas on Cloud-Tech in India and said, “Cloud consideration and security in the era of Digital India is key to successful digital transformation. Cloud adoption has witnessed immense growth in last few years, but security and privacy of data on cloud is crucial. Cloud transformation is picking up in India across different sectors and sectors have different kind of challenges in terms of cloud adoption and its security and privacy.”

In the post pandemic world, organizations are moving their key segments such as procurement, supply chain, finance, human capital to the cloud, lock stock and barrel. Specifically, in supply chain, cloud has enabled firms to process huge amounts of data across the entire supply chain—at speeds and volumes never seen before. Cloud has also facilitated speed, scale, and sustainability across supply chains.

Adding to the benefits,  Vishal Awal, Summit Chairman and VP & Managing Partner - Telecom, IBM India & South Asia said, “Hybrid multi-cloud, infused with the prowess of the exponential technologies and intelligent workflows are unleashing digital transformation. Cloud is also fostering open innovation across enterprises of all sizes. Cloud helps companies use emerging technologies to reduce the supply network’s environmental footprint, improve resource efficiency, increase regulatory compliance, and improve risk mitigation.” He further added that it helps companies use emerging technologies to reduce the supply network’s environmental footprint, improve resource efficiency, increase regulatory compliance and improve risk mitigation.

In his inaugural remarks,  Prateek Garg, Chairman, CII Regional Committee (NR) on Digital Transformation & AI and Founder & MD, Progressive Infotech said that Cloud-powered digital transformation allowed businesses of any size to keep pace with the digital age. Cloud adoption is the first step towards any successful digital transformation, added Mr Garg. “As the world evolves and tech moves at breakneck speed, digital transformation is increasingly evolving as a mechanism of survival and the cloud-based solutions are helping accelerate the digital transformation journey”, he said.

Addressing the participants, Manoj Paul, MD, Equinix India mentioned that rise of hybrid multi-cloud adoption, increased data consumption and generation by half a billion digital users in India are driving the need for digital infrastructure exponentially. He said that the number of Indian businesses embracing digital transformation is growing and they are naturally progressing towards increased hybrid multi-cloud transformation journey. “Data centers are the bedrock of cloud services”, said Paul.

In his address, Romal Shetty, President - Consulting, Deloitte India said that for cloud, the pandemic has turned out to be an inflection point which has catapulted this technological phenomenon into an unforeseen growth trajectory. He mentioned that cloud has become the fulcrum of digital transformation of businesses mainly due to its ability to enable innovation at scale, generate speed of doing business, and reduce costs.

As the world evolves and tech moves at breakneck speed, digital transformation is increasingly evolving as a mechanism of survival and the cloud-based solutions are helping accelerate India’s digital transformation journey. Cloud has now become the fulcrum of digital transformation of businesses mainly due to its ability to enable innovation at scale, generate speed of doing business, and reduce costs.