The unexpected long lockdown due to COVID-19 has demanded the need for a more secure and efficient way of managing data and confidential resources. A Multi-Cloud Environment is one where an enterprise uses more than one cloud platform that each delivers a specific application or service. A multi-cloud can be comprised of public, private, and edge clouds to achieve the enterprise’s datacenter end goals. In other words, it combines on-premise operations with services and applications running on multiple cloud providers, which enables organizations to capture the benefits of each platform while mitigating their downsides. Micro Focus , a very big player in multinational software and information technology is a very crucial player in the line of Digital Transformation, security and multi- cloud environment . ELE Times’s Correspondent Mannu Mathew caught up with Saurabh Saxena, Country Director – India, Micro Focus, to know about the current situation and innovations.
Following are the excerpts of the conversation:
ELE Times: The era of Pre- Covid and Post- Covid differ entirely in terms of offering and practicing a more secure method of operations. Please elaborate on the changes from your perspective?
Saurabh: The COVID-19 outbreak has indeed been a watershed moment, especially when it comes to the digital transformation of businesses. It exposed upto 74% of digital readiness in the global business landscape and revealed gaps and bottlenecks in enterprise operations and architectures. Recent industry reports estimate that, by 2025, the global digital transformation market will reach $3,294 billion in size. In India, this business opportunity estimated to reach $710 billion by 2024.
One of the most significant changes has been in the way that organizations are now looking at their digital transformation. Business continuity has become the critical driver of boardroom strategy, both in the short and the long run. If analytics was a priority before, it has now become an undeniable necessity. Cloud has become the place where employees interact, work, and engage with each other, with organizations often opting for multi-cloud services to power a contactless business environment.
The rapid adoption of a cloud-driven, digital-first workplace has also made it essential for enterprises to prioritize end-to-end security of their operations against potential threats and breaches. CIOs and CISOs are adapting cyber resiliency for greater real-time visibility into their network, security vulnerabilities, and demands in the digital economy to continue to drive business growth during uncertainty. Today cybercrime organisations are seizing the opportunity to transform into a resilient enterprise designed to have the agility and structure and growth-centric focus to weather not only adverse conditions but also drive sustained business performance. As a global leader in the digital transformation and enterprise management software space, Micro Focus is well poised to take advantage of the changes now sweeping through the business ecosystem, both globally and in India.
ELE Times: Our country was already en-route in massive transformation from Analog to Digital. How far is the pace after COVID? Reduced or Increased (Please answer in terms of the security and cloud technology)
Saurabh: With the pandemic drastically accelerating digital adoption, we believe that we can see a substantial increase in this number. More and more organizations of all sizes will migrate their enterprise operations to secure multi-cloud environments and benefit from the competitive edge that digitization brings to the table. Digital adoption has accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, with efficiency, productivity, and sustainability becoming the watchwords for business leaders. As a result, security, application performance, hybrid cloud-based workplaces, and analytics will come to dominate the long-term and short-term strategy for enterprises.
The increase in the adoption of cloud and digital adoption also led to the rise in the number of cyberthreats and security issues leading to a massive cyberbreach of data. Businesses, today, are relying more on data, and run on applications to provide services to customers, partners, and they are adopting the security models like Zero trust, Application security, where 90% of the attacks occur in the application layer, having data privacy and security operations. Micro Focus is helping businesses to evolve their security posture at the speed of change. They can leverage the advantage of hybrid deployment options to build on the current heterogeneous foundation, adding SaaS capabilities without capital costs.
ELE Times: How secure is the cloud environment, in terms of data encryption and breach prevention?
Saurabh: Regardless of the environment, the overall effectiveness of enterprise security is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. This applies to the cloud as well as on-premise environments. With enterprises moving to a multi-cloud environment at a rapid pace, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, it becomes more important for CIOs and CISOs to have complete visibility into their IT architecture. They need to know all the relevant information in real-time, including vulnerabilities, risks, threats, and security postures. As a result, there has been a tangible shift towards solutions that can help enterprises automate, analyze, and scale their digital operations while ensuring they remain secure – and the cloud is perfect for this.
Cloud service providers typically implement strong security measures that can better protect enterprise data, applications, and processes from threat actors. Moreover, the applications, data, and processes are hosted over large-scale, robustly built server farms and are protected by robust encryption, built-in firewalls, and data redundancies. Due to the scale of their operations, cloud service providers also leverage AI to automatically identify, update, and patch security issues and vulnerabilities on a real-time basis, apart from regularly conducting third-party security testing. In short, enterprise operations are safer on the cloud.
ELE Times: Please comment on the future of Multi Cloud Environment
Saurabh: Digital transformation is all about using technology to innovate and optimize, with less risk. Adopting a multi-cloud approach provides the opportunity to do that. With a multi cloud environment, enterprises can choose the services and vendors that best suit their needs and financial bandwidth for optimized RoI. The security is better while the service latency is minimal. The main challenge exists in managing the intricacies of operating a multi-cloud environment – which is where players such as Micro Focus step into the picture.
We provide the bridge between existing and emerging technologies so that organizations do not have to tear down their entire setup to build it back up again. We enable in-house IT teams to easily aggregate cloud services, as well as design, deploy, manage, and govern hybrid resources. Doing so allows IT managers to orchestrate processes, workflows, and applications, delivering cost governance and operational benefits. We believe that, as adoption for cloud services grows in India, players in the multi-cloud management space will have a huge growth opportunity for growth
ELE Times: How much time will it take for the country to have a fully adopted cloud space?
Saurabh: When it comes to the technological adoption, especially in a developing economy such as India, it is impossible to accurately predict any timeline. The pace of adoption can boom at any time, depending on any number of factors. Can you remember the time when there was no internet or smart devices? We really have come a long way to become a digitally savvy nation. The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that India will house 1.1 billion internet users by the end of the next decade, with around four-fifths of its user base accessing internet services through their mobile phones.
We can see a similar pattern emerging when it comes to the adoption of cloud-based services. The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation across sectors, for enterprises of all sizes. Per IDC, 80% of enterprises will implement a mechanism to double the acceleration of the shift to cloud-centric infrastructure and applications by the end of next year. We are bullish that cloud will be the backbone of technological advancements in India. As more and more enterprises adopt a multi-cloud environment to meet their business requirements, our fast-digitizing country will corner a significant share of the global market.
By: Mannu Mathew | Sub Editor | ELE Times
