Smart move with changing time and technology!

Rahul Swarup,
MD & CEO,
Go IP Global Services Pvt. Ltd.

How would you trace your journey from Go IP to GoCloud?

Go IP has been in the IT services business for more than five years and has a robust IT Infrastructure Management Services. Today, we manage Desktops, Network elements, Firewalls, Servers and Databases for customers in 15 countries. We understand ICT and Data Centre elements from both technology and service viewpoint. The future will be all about using IT infrastructure on an on-demand and pay-per-use model. Transition to Cloud Services was a logical step for us. This is true for the SME sector where a TCO-based pay-per-use model is ideally suited.

How promising is cloud?

Technology is advancing at a very fast rate and the paradigm is changing rapidly day by day. Customers that have capital-intensive technology budgets (typically the Telecom Operators, Banking and Finance Industry, etc.) have long been demanding revenue share and subscription-based model. Virtualization has made infrastructure usage efficient and ushered an on-demand usage model. Consequently, the mindset of both the OEMs and the consumers at large is changing to pay-per-use model for both Infrastructure and Software. Even where IT is core to the business, Private Cloud is gaining ground. For extranet-based applications that cover the ecosystem of customers and partners, these companies are looking at Public Cloud for solutions.

Elaborate your go-to-market strategy and the business module planned for the rollout?

We have tied up with Dell for technology partnership for Cloud. We believe that Dell's portfolio of technology products and its strategic roadmap in integrating its enterprise products like servers and storage is ideal for building a resilient and scalable Public Cloud Infrastructure. It concurs with the business vision of Go IP to establish Thought Leadership in the space and create a Total Cost of Ownership based "IT as a Service" framework for the SMB customers to address their entire ecosystem. So, this is an important element of our go-to-market for Cloud. We believe that Cloud is a collaborative technology, where infrastructure and application providers combine forces to deliver a service to the customer. So, we do not see a reason why the go-to-market strategy is not inclusive. We have an ecosystem of more than 500 partners through whom we deliver products and solutions to the SME customers. So, our Cloud Services will also leverage on the relationship and on-site presence of our partners with their respective customers. We have launched a program called CUSP (Cloud Ubiquitous Service Partner), which is a knowledge partnership with our partners. We would enable our partners to understand their customers' needs and move them to the Cloud, thus reducing the customers' total cost of ownership and enhancing their ability to consume technology as needed without the associated challenges of spending in infrastructure upfront and managing it. The benefit for the partners would be to move to a recurring revenue model and as the customers' business grows, they too will see the benefits in the recurring revenue earned.

Go IP will put together the infrastructure, services, governance and the ecosystem of technology and application partners that will enable seamless and secure delivery of the cloud services. More importantly, the technologies used in the cloud platform (bandwidth optimization, load balancing, etc.) can also be taken to market by our partners with full technical support from us.

Being a distribution company, how would you take care of services business?

In addition to being a Value Added Distribution company, we also have a strong services background. We have been a service provider for more than five years now. We have our own Managed Services Centre at our new premises at Noida. Our Services portfolio includes Desktop Management (Go DESK), Infrastructure Monitoring (Go VIGIL), Infrastructure Management (Go CONTROL) and Managed Security (Go SECURE). So, we have a strong services DNA in the company.

Elaborate on the host of services you are going to offer?

To start with, we will offer mainly PaaS and SaaS services. The PaaS services will be focused on the VAS domain. The SaaS services will be of two types. One is the horizontal SaaS services, around Accounting, ERP, CRM and other applications for in-house use for the SMB/ SME. We will also have verticals focussed on SaaS services around the Healthcare, Education, Retail verticals.

Does cloud mean any impact on the hardware sales?

Yes, there will be an impact on the hardware and software sales. With the availability of computing on demand, more and more consumers of IT will move to the pay-per-use Cloud models, as it is hassle-free to upgrade, maintain and manage. Similarly, virtualization techniques will also mean consolidation and more efficient use of servers. Consequently, hardware will be sold to different end-users and in a different way than at present.

What are the target verticals, with your new Face?

Healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, education and retail are some of the verticals that we will focus on in the beginning.

S. Mohini Ratna
mohini@varindia.com