“Data Center Consolidation Will Drive DownCosts”

Says IT industry veteran Lalit Sawhney, as he talks of virtualization, risk mitigation and data center
infrastructure management as the key trends to track

Meet Lalit Sawhney, a technocrat who has probably seen it all. He has nearly four decades of experience in IT applications, infrastructure, operations, shared services, governance and capacity building. He has worked for many years in FMCG, telecom, pharmaceuticals and paints domains with leading companies. He has advised companies into software, IT services and retail. He had also set up two entrepreneurial ventures. He led the National Y2K effort in government and industry under the leadership of Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia in 1999-2000. He led the CII’s first core group on e-commerce, was President, Computer Society of India and Vice President at International Federation for Information Processing. Today he is an independent IT consultant.

Like we said, he has probably seen it all.

We ask him to comment about the IT changes he has seen over the decades. “There is a complete change! The scale is different. The dependency of business on IT is growing, the amount of hardware, storage, networking is growing, it’s much more than ever before. With IT being mission critical, people are far more careful about downtime. The requirements from IT have totally changed,” he says.

The Own vs Outsourcing story has undergone a dramatic change, according to Sawhney. Ten years ago when data centers were making an entry, it was near impossible to convince, say a bank, to have its IT assets outside the organization. Today they have far more confidence in putting their servers and storage in a data center. “The next step would be them saying, ‘I don’t need to own my infrastructure’,” says Sawhney. The cloud has emerged as a credible option to organizations though doubts exist around security, costing and reliability.

The Capex Vs Opex story too has seen transformation, he says. The cloud model with more focus on Opex has made it far more compelling for businesses now. Companies can match their investments to the growth they see, instead of making heavy investments and waiting for growth to happen.

The business landscape has changed. “Company heads are not able to visualize the growth they can get in their business, tomorrow, next month or next year!There’s new business coming in, which is in line with their ambition, but out of line with their past experience. They have not experienced this kind of growth before, and have no clear idea about what kind of IT infrastructure is needed to cater to this” he says.

Technology wise too, it’s a totally different environment, says Sawhney. It’s the era of virtualization. “And people specialization is far more. You need specialists for your applications, for your infrastructure, for the various databases you have, and so on. You can’t expect anyone to know everything. Companies realize this and are now looking for specialized skills from data center providers, rather having a complete team in-house.

Cloud’s Still Expensive

What will happen in the near future, we ask. IT is becoming mission critical but there is a pressure to reduce costs. “Earlier you expected to increase the IT expenditure on an annual basis, today you have to decrease it year-on-year,” he says. Also, risk mitigation gains important as IT dependency becomes high.

“The reality is you need more servers, and more power even as power tariffs increase. Hence the focus moves to reducing Capex. And to maximizing utilization. Virtualization is one of the key ways to do this.

Data centers are going to be larger and larger and you will see greater consolidation as companies will opt out of owning their infrastructure. This will drive economies of scale and drive prices down, he says. While the cloud is seeing acceptance currently, it is still considered expensive when considered over a five-year TCO. The consolidation will make the cloud look even more attractive, says Sawhney.

With companies moving their infrastructure out, they will not be able to ‘see’ their equipment, thus pushing the need for software to remotely monitor them. Concepts like Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions, which did not exist a few years ago, are now gaining ground.

Sawhney has worn many hats in the past several years. We ask him about his work style—does it change? What does he focus on? “Over the years my way of working has not changed. It is all about building capabilities within the team, you have to show your team the possibilities by doing, and for that you have to be hands-on” he says.

One has to do a lot of reading to stay abreast of trends and technologies. You may be aware of the best technologies in the world, but you also have to know how you will apply them here, in the Indian scenario, he insists.

What’s his advice to IT professionals? “I would like to repeat what our new Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, said recently. Take responsibility, and the fruits will follow. This way you will also get more learning, and then are able to take on more responsibilities. Don’t look for a better job, look for better responsibility,” says Sawhney.

Before we wind up, we ask him what he does in his leisure time. “I read, not just about IT trends, but also on management issues. I am an avid reader of Harvard Business Review and other management journals. I also like to listen to music,” he smiles.