Exclusive Interview - Jesintha Louis, Director, G7 CR Technologies India Pvt Ltd.

G7 CR Technologies is a cloud solutions provider based in Bengaluru, founded in 2012. The company provides various enterprise-grade cloud solutions for various industry verticals. As such, since the telcos are looking to deploy their networks on the cloud, companies like G7 CR Technologies come into play.

At the helm of G7 CR Technologies is Jesintha Louis, the Director. She has had rich experience in the cloud segment, helping companies take their operations and businesses to the cloud. With Voice&Data, she talks about how cloud will play a vital role in the telecom sector of the future.

Q1. The telecom sector has shifted its focus from closed to open cloud-based network architecture. What are some of the benefits that you can see of this development?

Maximizing existing investments, minimizing operating expenses and faster service deliver are the key benefit of adopting Cloud based network architecture. Telcos have the opportunity to derive newer service revenue with existing investments, optimize their operation spend, leverage highly scalable AI and ML functionalities that Cloud offers.

Some of the top Cloud providers have made huge investments in building Edge network technologies and software based networking solutions that telcos can readily cash on for net new requirements and gradually move to full Cloud deployment as the existing devices reach end of life. The Cloud providers today also offer single manageability layer for all deployments be it telco’s own private deployments or other Multi Cloud deployments making it ever so easy to adopt Cloud.

Q2. With 5G around the corner, telcos have been working hard to ensure that they deploy the RAN as close to the edge as possible, to capture the data generated at the edge. How can telcos use that data?

RAN nodes deployed at the edge connects user to the internet, other users and core network of the telco service provider without having to travel all the way to telco’s core data center. The closer to the user the core, the faster the connectivity. Benefits including lower latencies, improved user experiences, optimized network efficiency, reduced network congestion, and local compute power for devices. These benefits open up or improve use cases including autonomous vehicles, mobile gaming, and support for the Internet of Things (IoT).

5G is expected to bring about digitization 4.0 and edge networks will play a big part in making it happen with IoT deployment in cases of Smart city projects, in fact edge networks can propel Smart village projects, facilitate advanced technologies like self-driven cars etc.

Q3. What are some of the key aspects of cloud infrastructure that telcos need to keep in mind while deploying their networks on the cloud?

The two critical factors for telcos will be choosing the right Cloud partner to meet the business requirements and offering from the Cloud Partner. Critical components of the Cloud partner checklist must be Edge Computing, Service offering Security, and Flexibility in pricing model.

Q4. With data volumes already soaring, how are cloud service providers preparing for 5G and the consequent surge in data demand?

Given the growth potential of the Cloud industry, Cloud providers are consistently adding capacity to support the data growth. Coming to the preparation for 5G, two of the top Cloud Services providers have extensively invested in building world class networks to support digital transformation and have partnered with telco companies to bring in the functional experience. With continues investments in increasing edge locations, the Cloud providers are ready to onboard telcos and support them at a much faster rate in the 5G launch compared to Telcos building the capacity.

Q5. India has recently introduced stringent IT laws that mandate Indian data be stored on Indian soil. What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of this move?

While each nation derive their Data sovereignty rule based on various factors. The thumb rule for technology has always been storage and process data as close to the user as possible to avoid latency, delivering fast response & great user experience. Based on our experience most business that have adopted Cloud have always preferred storing & processing of data for Indian Customers in India, the only exception has been non-availability of certain Cloud services in India or if their Cloud providers don’t have a geographically separated date centers, then they setup their Disaster recovery setup in Singapore or other Datacenters in Asia region.

Q6. Given India’s position as one of the highest consumers of OTT content, how do you believe cloud can cater to the ever-rising needs of the Indian diaspora?

Continuing to expand edge locations is the way to go. In fact, with our existing Customer base, we have seen a serge of over 200% in the CDN (Content Delivery Network) usage. Businesses that serve content heavily relay on CDN for optimal delivery of content to their end users. Back in 2018-19, we had anticipated that each area of a Metropolitan city having a Datacenter (edge) by 2035 to serve the content needs of users and we still believe that is where we will get.

Q7. G7 CR Technologies recently announced their strategic partnership with Microsoft Azure, the cloud platform from the makers of Windows OS. What were the motivations behind this partnership?

We have been partnered with Microsoft for Cloud products & services since 2017. The intent of the partnership and what we have been doing is helping businesses take their Cloud journey and assist them through the journey of Cloud adoption, transformation and modernization.

Q8. Do you believe that Microsoft Azure can support telecom grade network architectures on its cloud infrastructure?

Microsoft Azure is definitely one of the early investors in driving telecom grade network architecture with early partnership with AT&T. Microsoft offers a full suit of offering for Telcos called “Azure for Operators”. It currently also has the world’s largest network backbone and has established newer partnerships to be one of the early starts in supporting the complex technology requirements of telcos.

Q9. What are some of the key industries of focus for G7 CR Technologies?

We have a very good mix of Customer base spanning across all industry verticals. Including but limited to Entertainment & Media, e-Commerce, Edu tech, Fintech, IT- ITes and Retail. However, telcos and healthcare are two industry verticals that are slower in Cloud adoption given their dependency on integrations with on-prem hardware devices and need for rapid processing.