“There is a huge demand for data centers up ahead”

Predicts A S Rajgopal, MD and CEO of NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies. He talks about the infinite data center and other new breakthrough concepts

Things change rapidly in the IT space. So it comes as a bolt from the blue, when A S Rajgopal says, “In the IT infrastructure field, very little has changed for the customer. The customer problem has not really changed—they still need to have the right provisioning of IT, which still needs to be managed on a day-to-day basis.”

Rajgopal should know. He is the Managing Director and CEO of NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies, and knows the ins and outs of running a data center business. And has spent over 22 years in the IT infrastructure domain, working with the likes of Dell, Microsoft and Reliance Communications.

What has also not changed is the customer’s focus on cost. “We talk of availability and elasticity, but it’s all related to cost. The ultimate deliverable is measured with Capex, Opex and cost optimization.”

Surely, things have changed in these decades, haven’t they, we ask. Yes, the complexity of running a business has changed, says Rajgopal.

“Now that all businesses and users are connected in ways unimaginable two decades ago, the threat to security is real. Vulnerability has gone up manifold, you can be attacked really quickly,” he says.

What has also changed is the awareness about de-growth. In 2008, he recounts, there was a rapid expansion in IT infrastructure, primarily driven by banking, financial services, insurance and retail industries. Rampant spending happened, and enterprises bought a little bit more than they needed. “And then the downturn happened. The enterprises immediately realized that their IT assets were either not or underutilized. So from growth, they were staring at de-growth,” says Rajgopal.

“So elasticity is key now,” he says.

Being more aware about power efficiencies
That’s one critical aspect of data center services. What else should data center professionals be more attuned to?

“Power management—that is the central theme of data center operations. Power accounts for 65% of the data center costs. And if there is a power tariff increase, there is a dramatic impact on the costs. But IT departments are not very sensitive to this. And that’s because it’s the facilities team of data centers that pays the power bill. They can save a lot, if they think of TCO on IT Operations, instead of thinking TCO on IT, ” says Rajgopal.

Large companies are well aware of these challenges and have very mature IT practices for this. “But a vast majority of companies do not understand how to better manage power efficiencies, or don’t have the right IT practices to make them happen,” he adds.

He gives the example of a media company that acquired a new building, and wanted to allocate space for their data center. For their current needs, they used a 1000 sq ft space. They based their calculations on the expected business growth translated into an IT growth of 20-25%. So for five years, they decided they would need a 3500-4000 sq ft facility. And this was real estate in one of the most expensive areas of Mumbai. The company would need 7-8 years of Capex just to pay off the investment. “We told them to buy a modular data center facility, so power would not be wasted on unused servers and storage. Their payback period was thus brought down to just 18 months,” he says.

There are other ways to save costs. What looks expensive may have better components that will use greener technologies, saving you costs in the long run, says Rajgopal. So one needs to pay attention to every component.

This kind of thinking is what drives NxtGen too. “We are solving a customer’s problem, not selling our product. We have to address the customer’s real issue,” he says. And that’s how they have come up with the concept of the infinite data center.

“How do you help your customer take advantage of the latest innovative technologies without him having to make an investment that he will be saddled with? The customer can have an on-premise data center, which is connected to ours securely. So when the need arises they can plug into our facility for the period they choose. This is elasticity at its best,” says Rajgopal.

The changing role of in-house IT teams
This means greater dependency on a service provider. Does that change the role of IT teams in an enterprise?

“Yes, it does,” says Rajgopal. “To run a good IT setup, you need many different types of specialists, and expertise is hard to come by. So managed services become the option. IT teams within enterprises will now be more about management capabilities than just IT capabilities. New-age companies like large e-commerce sites are doing this successfully. They just have a handful of IT professionals who are in charge of decision making, deciding what to buy, acting as strategic enablers, than mere IT implementation teams.”

What’s up ahead?
What else is going to change? What is his forecast for the coming years?

“In 2-3 years, virtualization is going to grow dramatically. We will see a large number of enterprises opting for the cloud environment hosted in a data center,” says Rajgopal.

“Indian will need over 3500 racks of servers to be hosted every year. A lot of hosting currently happens outside the country. But to improve customer experience, cut down costs and be compliant, many will move their servers back to India. Also the number of mobile devices is exploding, and computing has to keep pace. There is a huge demand for data center space in the coming years,” says Rajgopal.

“Also modular data center will become a key consideration point for new data center setups. Data center in a single rack, which will be a great option for a small company or the branch of a bank, will see a growing interest.”

On a personal note
That’s a lot of technology changes and business re-engineering up ahead, not just for companies, but also for the data center providers like NxtGen. How does Rajgopal manage to stay on top things?

“I make a list of tasks to be achieved for the day, before I open my email. I do not go back home without achieving these tasks.”

“I handle a great deal of transaction load on a daily basis, since I oversee sales, marketing, finance, projects, operations, etc. I prioritize my transactions and address them one-by-one. Some of them do get missed out.I also try to take the transaction to its logical end, whenever I attend to it. So that we don’t revisit the same thing. I also stay updated about every department by speaking to each one of them every day early in the day, probing about what they plan to do today.”

Rajgopal is a person who really knows the meaning of uptime, and the impact of downtime. But he is also a person who knows when to switch off. From work, that is. “I do not take work home. I would rather work longer at the office and complete what needs to be finished. There is a big need to switch-off—I do it by reading or playing an online game with my kids. In the mornings, I spend an hour with my plants and switch back to office mode.” Spoken like a true data center professional!