With its unique proposition Stratus Technologies provides edge computing facilities to have faster insight of the evolution

Since 1980, Stratus Technologies has been providing solutions for telecommunication sectors and capital markets. The company has evolved along the way; it is providing fault-tolerance technology and edge computing technology at the same time. The company entered India market in 1994 targeting telcos as well as the capital market.  Stratus Technologies is still expanding its business to payments including public sector, transportations and recently in the industry automation space. The company is disrupting the market while providing infrastructure, delivering non-disruptive technology and vulnerability for their clients.  In a chat with VARINDIA, Lin Hoe Foong, Managing Director- Asia South, Stratus Technologies shares his views on edge computing, India business, Industry 4.0, its distribution network etc.

What are the services or business strategies that Stratus’ Edge Computing supports?

The COVID situation has accelerated the digital transformation. Many companies are following the trend of IT and OT integration, the same trend is happening in the Industry 4.0 Transformation. This is where Stratus comes in, our edge computing technology helps many customers who have started a digital transformation journey. The edge computing technology will come to help different industries.

How can different industries and businesses in India benefit from Stratus’ solutions and technology?

With the Indian government committing investments into productivity to increase the GDP by 2025, industries have become optimistic. With that push from the government we see a lot of companies are going towards digital adoption. Stratus is a good fit for these companies who are adopting digital solutions. The unique proposition of our technology provides quicker computing facilities allowing companies to have faster insights of the evolution that is happening on the ground. We allow them to make faster decisions and collect lots of information.

How will Edge Computing contribute to India’s move towards Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 is all about digitalization, automation, data exchange, bi-directional flow of data. Edge computing falls in line with the direction of Industry 4.0 as it allows real-time events and data generated by physical equipment or sensors to process, analyze in real time through the localized area. Low cost computing resources on the edge of the network are required and replacing traditional computing devices, providing virtualization, reduction in the IT hardware deployment and in general maintenance are also required.

How can customers in India buy from Stratus?

We are currently expanding in India. 90% of our business is done through channel partners. It is through these partners that we hope to make our solutions and technologies more accessible to local companies. Most recently we have partnered with Sarla Advantech, India. This new channel partner allows us to provide our solution to Indian businesses specifically in the pharmaceutical vertical, where Sarla is a leading supplier of smart manufacturing solutions, as well as the F&B, material handling, and automotive industries. While selecting partners we look at new market segments, applications and their expertise which would go in line with our vision. There are partners like Apoorva IT Solutions, iValue InfoSolutions, and SSM Infotech.

What advice would be given to an Indian business looking to improve their industrial operations?

Many companies in India are adopting Industry 4.0 transformation. Stratus is in a good position to help them especially in the environment where they can adopt IoT, analytics or artificial intelligence and so on in the edge environment. Technology is actually allowing them to have faster analytics outcome, allowing them to have all the immediate processing of data to be done.

How have you integrated the distribution network in the country?

Stratus has matured into a global channel partner program. Under this program there are a few categories like reseller, distributor, premium distributor, and master distributor. As per these, every partner has different leads for training and support requirements. We enable our partner with hands-on training, best training certification courses, regular knowledge of day training etc. which would eventually help our partners to provide solutions and support their customers on demand.

Message to the Indian VARs

India is a very exciting market and we see tremendous growth that will be happening in the country with the acceleration of digital transformation that is happening and the adoption of Industrial 4.0 Transformation. It is the best time to actually come and ride the wave and I believe, in Stratus we have the right technology and solutions. For India, the industries we are focusing on are oil and gas, in industry automation space - pharmaceuticals, steel, tyre and the Petro-chemical industry. One of the largest industries we foresee is the transportation sector where a lot of investments are being parted to metro development and rail development in India. We can also add value to the infrastructure sector where the government is pouring a lot of investments.