The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world and economy to a standstill. In such unprecedented situation, enterprises are embracing newer technologies to be ready for inevitable disruptions. In a recent interaction with CXOToday, Vikas Bhonsle, CEO at Crayon Software Experts India, throws light on how technologies such as cloud solutions and technologies are helping businesses stay afloat in these trying times.
CXOToday: Could COVID-19 be that tipping point for businesses to fully embrace truly going digital?
Vikas Bhonsle: With the recent outbreak of COVID-19, many of us at some point asked ourselves, ‘Are we really at the tip of the iceberg? Is the know-how of technology getting its final ultimatum?’ Technology has been beckoned to support the global efforts all across the globe in almost all verticals. While situations like the one we are in can’t always be predicted, embracing newer technologies allow organizations to be ready for inevitable disruptions. For example, technology is already paying dividends to maintain resilient and reliable operation for supply chain players who were early adopters of Blockchain and AI.
Any new crisis which erupts creates challenges and eventually, technology comes up with ways of doing things. Finally, when the dust settles, it brings in changes. A change in behaviors and new working models is going into practice now, which may eventually define the new role. A new normal. A lot of the digital technology changes were already ready, on the runway waiting for takeoff. We are finally reaching that point of embracing that change.
CXOToday: In this daunting time businesses are struggling to ensure business continuity and opting in for remote working options. How cloud services are enabling this massive shift?
Vikas Bhonsle: As governments around the globe continue to implement community quarantine and lockdowns, businesses and people are relying more on technologies to continue with their lives. Thanks to its world of conferencing software, web-based apps, virtual desktops, Virtual Private Networking (VPN), etc, cloud technologies have been helping businesses continue to work remotely from anywhere in the world.
Organizations in verticals like multimedia, healthcare, banking, finance, IT, and many more are effectively utilizing cloud-based services to create resilient and disaster-averse systems that cater to their customers anywhere across the globe. So it is safe to say that cloud has risen to be an essential backbone in this time of crisis.
Throughout this unprecedented situation, organizations are realizing that the cloud services aren’t just a modernization strategy but an essential solution for them during an uncertain situation like the one we are in.
CXOToday: What are some of the challenges CTOs face while implementing Cloud computing?
Vikas Bhonsle: As digital transformation accelerates, more systems and applications are becoming cloud native. Hence implementing cloud solutions and technologies has become common in businesses of all sizes. While the organizations are impressed with its obvious advantages, they are also overwhelmed by its range of challenges. Some of the prominent cloud implementation challenges include:
- Cloud Cost Management – While cloud computing itself is affordable, tuning the platform according to the company’s needs can be an expensive exercise.
- Insufficient Resources and Expertise – The skill gap in employees remains to be a grave concern for companies adopting to the cloud.
- Cloud Security – The cyber risks associated with storing sensitive and business-critical data in the cloud continues to be the biggest factor hindering business’s cloud adoption.
- Cloud Migration – Although releasing systems or applications in the cloud is simple, the migration of the existing application to a cloud computing environment is complex.
- Regulatory Compliance – The increased focus on the protection of information, places larger demands on the way we handle personal data. Businesses still face issue in adhere to legal frameworks.
CTOs need to keep in mind that all-at-once move to the cloud is usually not the best option. To embrace the technological changes must have a trusted technology partner who can provide faster, cost-effective, and reliable solutions to enable success in this swiftly changing market.
CXOToday: In your quest to fulfill customers’ Digital transformation demands, what innovations have you brought in within Crayon’s offerings?
Vikas Bhonsle: Being a software and cloud solution organization, we at Crayon are extending all help possible to our business networks. Equipped with new-age digital tools, our employees are collaborating and helping customers as well as partners to drive the best possible outcomes.
The entire gamut of Crayon’s services around software and cloud are now available at attractive techno commercial value propositions. This includes making sure we have contingencies in place to deal with any potential disruptions throughout the markets.
As the workforces are being disrupted, we are connecting customers’ workforces by providing special access to solutions that maintain productivity and ensure business continuity. We have stepped up our capacity to address customers’ need to reduce costs by optimizing their infrastructure on-premise or on the cloud and come up with better investment planning. As a global leader in IT and Digital Transformation services, we are always tuned to help our customers and partners with their cloud & digital transformation initiatives. Hence, for us, the current situation means the acceleration of our core offerings. We are proud to serve our customers and partners during this time, and together, we will come through this crisis stronger and better.
CXOToday: How does Edge Computing compare to Cloud Computing? Will edge computing replace the cloud?
Vikas Bhonsle: To help eliminate drawbacks like latency, cost, and bandwidth in cloud computing, companies are moving towards Edge Computing – an alternative approach to the cloud environment. Edge computing lowers the dependency on the cloud and improves the speed of data processing. With numerous applications in smart cities, autonomous vehicles, AR & VR, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the future of edge computing looks bright.
Edge can’t replace cloud computing, as there will be a need for centralized processing. In fact, both aren’t necessarily competitors. Edge is just an approach within the large corpus of cloud computing. Businesses who want to store large scale data and use applications which aren’t time-sensitive will continue to use Cloud. The Edge, however, will be opted by those who want reduced latency & increased data processing speed on-site.
