Exclusive Interview with Karan Kirpalani, Cloud Head, NTT. Ltd in India

Cloud computing requirements change over time and depending on a sole cloud service provider is not an option for those who want a reliable and secure place to store their valuable data resources. Distributed and hybrid cloud system addresses most of the issues which come with centralized cloud platforms. And they fit businesses' varied needs to the tee. NTT is an IT infrastructure and services company helping businesses in managing their operations through their innovative and diverse solutions in cloud computing, networking, security management, collaboration, and smart communications. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Karan Kirpalani, Cloud Head, NTT. Ltd in India.

Kindly brief us about your role at NTT Ltd. in India and your journey in this highly promising sector. 

I've been a part of NTT Ltd in one avatar or another, in a mix of India-centric and global roles for a little over two decades. My journey began at Netmagic way back in 2001 when it was India's first and only private focussed data center and managed service provider, and I've been fortunate to be a part of its remarkable journey for over two decades. Today, I'm privileged run NTT's India cloud business.

Mention some of the awards, achievements, recognitions and clients' feedback that you feel are notable and valuable for the company. 

As one of the world's leading Infrastructure and services companies, NTT has consistently delivered cutting-edge services to a diverse clientele of over 5,000 clients worldwide – over 80% of the global Fortune 100 are our clients. We've been recognized and appreciated by the client community as well as the analyst community in India and this is reflected in the fact that we always receive the most coveted CIO awards year after year. Most recently in 2022, we've been awarded the CIO Choice Award for Hyper-scale data center, Hybrid Cloud, Managed Security Services, Managed Network Services, and Hybrid Workplace Solution. Equally recently, NTT was also honoured by Frost & Sullivan Best Practices with The Indian AI-based Datacenter Operations Technology Award.

How has the adoption of multi-cloud computing in India evolved over the last few years?  

There's the tremendous growth potential for the multi-cloud market in India. Organizations of all stripes have all made some semblance of progress on their cloud transformation journeys, but there's still a long way to go to completely modernize their infrastructure and applications to truly leverage what the cloud has to offer. Research consistently shows that 90% of all organizations prefer a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud approach as compared to putting all their eggs in a single provider's basket, and the engagements we're having with our clients corroborate this.

NTT's cloud strategy supports this approach because we're able to provide our clients with secure, resilient hybrid and multi-cloud transformation services. We're one of the only service providers in the world to offer a secure, managed hybrid and multi-cloud experience to our clients that comprises not just NTT's own cloud platforms, but includes Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure as well as we're a leading partner to all three of those CSPs.

We're able to simplify complexity and unlock the value of multicloud solutions and gain greater cloud efficiencies with our end-to-end cloud lifecycle services including consulting, design, deployment, migration, management, and optimization.

Tell us how NTT. Ltd is contributing to the Cloud Computing industry of the nation and how the company is benefiting the clients.

We have over two decades of experience defining, migrating and managing cloud environments of all sizes, with extensive expertise across enterprise technologies.

Moreover, we're focused on defining a solution that's best for our clients' businesses. We're able to deliver cloud transformation across not NTT's own hybrid cloud platforms but also across AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, and we've got accredited expertise in these different cloud platforms. What our clients appreciate is the NTT agnostic, client-first approach that designs, builds, migrates, and manages the cloud solution that's best for our client's business needs regardless of vertical or segment. Our biggest asset is that we understand that every journey to the cloud is unique and we work to understand our clients' technology landscape, business challenges, and goals so we can tailor our services to their cloud needs, based on proven methodologies.

What is your roadmap for the cloud computing market?

NTT's focus is on building a secure and resilient cloud-to-edge offering for our clients around the world. We're doubling down on the tools, technologies, and services that allow our clients to pursue and execute their infrastructure and application modernization initiatives.

We're developing these services both in-house as well as through strategic technical partnerships. For example, we've collaborated with a leading AI technology provider to develop India's first AI-Ops service – a domain-agnostic AI-powered platform that allows for next-generational operational efficiencies.

We're also significantly enhancing our own hybrid cloud offerings. An example of this is our Managed Containers-as-a-service offering, which allows our clients to modernize their infrastructure and applications quickly, efficiently, and securely.

What role has multi-cloud computing played in the innovations of new technologies?

Two of the biggest challenges faced by organizations with multi-cloud strategies today are deploying and maintaining a consistent and robust security policy across multiple cloud platforms, and mitigating infrastructure sprawl.

To help manage both these challenges, NTT's Cloud Landing Zone Services allow our clients to maintain a consistent security posture across multiple clouds, and NTT's Solution Insight cloud management platform is a single pane of glass that provides visibility, governance, and analytics across multiple NTT and third-party clouds.

How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

We have simplified and integrated end-to-end cloud services as well as related offerings such as data services, cyber security, app management. This kind of seamless and holistic integration gives customers complete visibility and control over their cloud deployments. They are able to scale or downscale as per their needs in an economical and easily manageable manner. Thus, availing of our managed cloud services frees up customers' time and enables them to channel all energies towards the achievement of their business goals.

What is the future of multi-cloud Computing in India?

In the last decade, cloud computing has emerged as a major transformational technology that eliminated challenges such as the need for on-premises storage and processing infrastructure and democratized the development of digital tools by reducing initial investments for digital-first businesses. In the wake of the pandemic, there has been another major shift from the conventional cloud solutions toward multi-cloud platforms. As per Gartner, 81% public cloud users report using the services of two or more providers. This emergence of a multi-cloud environment enables businesses to combine various cloud offerings to suit different objectives. They don't have to rely on a single provider for all their existing and emerging needs. In some cases, a company might want to retain its core technology and apps on one cloud and the research and development activities on another.

There are companies that build an integrated infrastructure comprising an open-source platform that allows for single-window management of on-premises, edge, and multiple public cloud deployments. Despite the diversity of cloud service providers, a good multi-cloud provider like NTT ensures consistently high-quality and holistic security of the infrastructure. Thus, clients are able to operate at scale and pace. In the new normal where all businesses and services are going digital at a great pace, this kind of integrated multi-cloud environment is going to be the backbone of future businesses and governance in India.