Cloud Computing Knowledge Circle Vol 1 Issue 2
Dabur’s Spoonful of the Cloud
Contents Dabur’s Spoonful of the Cloud.................... 2 Private vs Public............. 4 The Economics of the Cloud….......................... 5
Anil Garg, CIO, Dabur India
Cloud computing for Rural India....................... 7 Supported by
CIO
Insights
As an FMCG major, Dabur’s Cloud computing story has been rather interesting. The organization has been a strong user of IT systems for a long time and is a firm believer in IT being an important business enabler. The IT department at Dabur has been instrumental in facilitating the planning, testing, and deployment of new ideas for the business. Continuing this trend, Dabur has recently ventured into Cloud computing in a unique way.
Anil Garg, CIO, Dabur India, tells us more. “It was a timely introduction to the space,” says Garg candidly. Dabur was in the process of consolidating the email and Microsoft Exchange applications for its entire geographical footprint, which would bring the organization and its wide-spread subsidiaries under the common domain of Dabur.com. This would necessitate auxiliary
Dabur’s Spoonful of the Cloud As sweet as its honey!
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Anil Garg takes pride in the organization’s current IT landscape that serves the manufacturing, sales, finance, and procurement functions well with SAP R/3 as the ERP. The company also uses applications for secondary sales tracking, claims management, master data management, media tracking, and employee management. Cloud computing was not on Garg’s roadmap for Dabur. But one introductory session to the benefits of the technology, changed that for him and his organization.
servers at each location, relevant infrastructure and admin support, backup facilities, leased lines, and firewalls, in a phased operation across the globe. An introduction to Cloud computing threw up possibilities of leveraging the technology to meet this immediate need. Garg commissioned a Proof of Concept (POC) immediately. “The POC was completed in 15 days and within one and half months, we had 8 locations of Dabur connected on a common platform, at 5% of the cost we would otherwise have incurred,” adds Anil. “And, the conventional solution would have taken us at least a year.”
Customized for optimum leverage Dabur’s example is unique because the company has a customized design and approach to deploying Exchange on the Cloud. Dabur still retains its main Exchange server in its own Data Center. The international subsidiaries access an auxiliary mail server on the Cloud. This server synchronizes with Dabur’s main Exchange server at the Data Center. “The advantages to us are clear – no third-party providers, access through just an internet connection, and all locations have email IDs @Dabur.com and share the same address book.” Garg adds further, “With Microsoft Unified Communications, we also have audio and video conferencing – all on a single network. Even the sever
on the Cloud is managed by my Data Center administrator, all in one place.” With 350 users on this network, Dabur’s IT has India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Dubai, Egypt, Nigeria, and soon-to-be-integrated Turkey and the US, on the Cloud. Although his adoption was totally de-risked with no investments, Garg’s different approach stemmed from his apprehensions about unchartered waters. Today however, he describes his Cloud stint as “timely, exciting, and an experience” and says it’s only a matter of time before the organizations realize the futility of running Data Centers. He has plans to move Exchange completely to the Cloud, followed by intranet applications and other Microsoft technologies. “The future belongs to the Cloud and hosted Data Centers. Ideally there will be a mix.”, he says.
The magic lies in the mindset The biggest bottleneck to the adoption of the Cloud, he feels, is the existing CIO mindset, which has to be slowly chiseled away. “People tend to feel that their might is in controlling the Data Center. It’s as simple as the trends in personal computing. The PC is giving way to a tablet today, with storage on the
Cloud. If you do this for yourself, taking it to the corporate level is easy.” Garg’s simple example elucidates the sea change in computing. Are organizations however, still apprehensive about taking their databases online? “Culturally Dabur as an organization is open to change as long as there is a strong business case. It is a matter of proving the same. The time will come for others too.”
The road ahead Very satisfied with his initiation of the Cloud, he acknowledges the speed with which subject matter expertise in the domain is growing. Over the last six months, he has found in-depth knowledge in the vendors he works with and praises their ability to provide service support through multiple other trained vendors as well. Confident and ecstatic, he closes with an apt message to his peers, “Most of our fraternity works as CTOs not CIOs. If we free ourselves from infrastructure hassles by using outsourcing and moving to the Cloud, we can truly become business enablers and move from being a CTO to a CIO. This is the opportunity. Go ahead without
inhibitions, it works!”
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Back to
Basics
Private
Private vs Public
Buy, build and manage Initial capital costs Security and privacy
An important decision for most CIOs who are evaluating the Cloud computing space is the choice between the Public Cloud – shared by multiple organizations or a Private Cloud – offerred and managed by select vendors to organizations. The distinction is primarily based on whether the IT resources are shared among many organizations (Public Cloud) or dedicated to a single organization (Private Cloud).
Public Very simply, Public Cloud (or External Cloud) is where resources are shared over the Internet and used/provisioned as per need, dynamically. This typically comprises applications and services on the web, available on pay-per-use models.
Private Private Cloud (or Internal/ Corporate Cloud), on the
other hand refers to offerings that attempt to emulate Cloud computing on dedicated networks. The idea is to harness the benefits of Cloud computing with higher data security and reliability. In this model a vendor offers a proprietary computing network, which offers hosted services to a few organizations.
Hybrid A Hybrid Cloud may refer to a blend of the Public and Private Clouds (Combined Cloud), or the use of physical hardware and a virtualized Cloud server for a common service/application. It may further refer to a model of web hosting where both Cloud hosting and managed dedicated servers are leveraged. A hybrid storage Cloud typically uses a combination of Public and Private storage Clouds, fairly common for backup functions.
Regulatory compliance
Public Economic benefits Lower labor spends on management Flexible, proven hardware Scalablity and virtualization
Cloud Computing Types Hybrid
Private/Internal
On Premises/Internal
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The Cloud Public/External
Off Premises/External
Analyst
Speak
The Economics of the Cloud… ‘Cloud 9’ for the CFO? (Compiled by CFO Institute in association with Microsoft)
Given existing budgets, Cloud computing has/will enable your organization to experiment with new business initiatives and process improvements owing to reduced capital outlays and shortened timelines 1= Strongly disagree and 7 = Strongly agree
7 6
0.0 7.6
5 4 3 2 1
5.1 6.4 7.6
0.0 1.3
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
The majority of companies have placed a high priority on reducing their capital expenditure to operating expenditure ratio, which is all the more reason to consider Cloud computing as an effective means to reduce capital expenditure and increase IT infrastructure flexibility. INSIGHT: Cloud computing and traditional computing (ERP, etc.) are not necessarily rivals. If you collaborate with the CIO and business unit heads, you can have the best of both worlds. You can have the Cloud give agility, nimbleness, and responsiveness to business process and business units, and have the existing infrastructure provide centralized support, Michael says.
The majority of CFOs have placed a high priority on reducing their capex to opex ratio...
Focus placed on reducing Capital Expenditure to Operating Expenditure ratio in the coming months? 1= No Focus and 7 = Strong Focus
7 6
2.3 7.0
5 4 3 2 1
5.8 9.3 1.2 1.2 1.2
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
5
Who should take the lead in implementing a functional and cost effective Cloud computing solution? 0%
18%
The majority of CFOs feel that it is the CIO that should take the lead in implementing a Cloud computing solution...
Many CFOs are not yet aware that Cloud computing is a green technology...
27%
CFO CIO CEO
55%
One third of CFOs consider themselves responsible for taking the lead in implementing a functional and cost effective cloud computing solution. The majority feel, however, that it is the CIO who should be held responsible for taking the lead, and changing IT’s internal charging model to a pay-as-you-go type framework. Over ten percent felt that the CEO should take the lead. Many CFOs are not yet aware that Cloud computing is a green technology... Cloud computing can save energy and money. When an organisation requires additional computing power, a Cloud computing set up can draw on its additional computing power and resources, just when it’s needed. Energy and other associated costs for running servers the rest of the time can be avoided. Cloud resources provide a reserve that can be allocated without the need to pay for the resource sitting idle in one fixed location. Therefore, Cloud computing enables an organisation’s IT infrastructure to be far greener than it is currently.
Are you aware that Cloud computing is potentially one of the most effective green technologies? 0% Yes
40%
No 60%
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Cloud Computing
for Rural India
Reality
Check
A whitepaper by L S Subramanian, NISE Rural India The real India lives in its villages and smaller towns and therein lies the future of India. Some key facets of rural India are: l Rural India constitutes 69% of India’s population l 86% of the rural population earns less than $2 per day Here are some more highlights from the IMRB/I-Cube report (as of March 2008) – India’s rural population: 568m; rural literate population: 368m; rural Englishspeaking population: 63m; rural computer literates: 15.1m; rural claimed Internet users: 5.5m; active Internet users: 3.3m. Finally, there are more phones than radio sets in rural India (100 million is the existing subscriber base). Rural India has been ignored for more than 60 years and the Cloud will bring the change that is required to bridge the divide between rural India and urban India; and will improve the Indian rural economy. The Government of India provides broadband connectivity up to the Taluk level today, which makes data connectivity a reality for rural India. This allows rural India to log on to the Cloud.
Cloud is Gandhi Engineering The term “Gandhi Engineering” was used by NY Times in an article on the Tata’s Nano and it defines Gandhi Engineering as “a mantra that combines irreverence towards established ways, with a scarcity mentality that spurns superfluities.” The Cloud computing is a marvel of Gandhi Engineering and encompasses low cost; high operational efficiency; elasticity and scalability.
India lives in its villages” - Mahatma Gandhi. Advantages of Cloud Computing for rural India l Low start-up cost makes Cloud computing especially attractive for rural India. l Ease of management – no concerns about procuring licenses, or for that matter, power and air-conditioning to run the data centers, or purchasing additional hardware. l Scalability makes rapid rural penetration a reality; one can easily expand the number of users and locations at a modest cost. l Device and location independence. The way you access a Cloud, could be your desktop. It could be someone else’s computer. It could be a smart phone. It could be a solar powered touch pad. l Lastly, the BSNL broadband project for rural India provides the data connectivity, which will be the game changer.
What can be done for Rural India using the Cloud The Cloud allows information technology to be infused into the smallest hamlet of India and makes access to information available to the poorest of the poor to give them a better life, by empowering them with knowledge derived through the laptop or mobile phone connected to the Cloud. The Cloud makes the
following services affordable and accessible at a low cost: l Banks l E-learning l Tele-medicine l Commodity/stock exchanges l KYC and credit bureaus l Agricultural information l Citizen interface portals India will benefit by taking the Cloud to Rural India because: l The Cloud has potential to drive down costs of e-Governance, education, medical care and other Government computerization initiatives. l The Cloud bridges the great divide between rich urban India and poor rural India, and gives the same level-playing field to all Indians. l Lastly, the Cloud enables non English speaking literate Indians to join the information revolution and participate in governance and the future of the country by allowing them to transact on the web in the Indian language of their choice. L S Subramanian NISE – Celebrating 10 Years of Nurturing Innovation and Sustaining Excellence subramanianls@niseindia.com
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Enterpise Cloud Assessment Workshop Microsoft now offers CIOs the opportunity to have a deep-dive session with Cloud consulting experts from leading firms such as KPMG, Mindtree, Persistent Systems, and Wipro, among others. You receive an in-depth assessment of applications in your environment, which are best fit for leveraging the Cloud to streamline your IT infrastructure; and a well-defined roadmap for migration to the Cloud. For Enterprise Cloud Assessment Workshop, please email azurepro@microsoft.com or visit http://www.microsoft.com/india/azure
From the Team at CCKC It’s been an exciting start for the Cloud Computing Knowledge Circle (CCKC), with many of you writing in to say that you found the newsletter interesting and informative. In this issue, we have brought you another real-life example of how the Cloud is fast changing IT scenarios today. As we continue on this journey, we’d like to hear from you, with your own articles and interesting story ideas. Keep writing to us about what you’d like us to feature. For further information, feedback and suggestions on the Cloud Computing Knowledge Circle, mail cckc@cioindia.org.
Tapan Garg Founder and CEO CIO Association of India P1, Gem Wellington Old Airport Road Bangalore 560017 E: tapan@cioindia.org W: www.cioindia.org
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