Kamal Nath, 47, who recently joined the managed enterprise, network and information technology (IT) services firm Sify Technologies, as chief executive officer, has a challenging assignment ahead of him: To leverage the cloud service model around both infrastructure and applications, in an effort to transform Sify.
Prior to joining Sify Technologies, Nath was with HCL Comnet, the infrastructure services division of HCL Technologies, which grew from the position of a VSAT- based communications service provider in India to a $1-billion global infrastructure management services company. He was a founder member of HCL Comnet and spent 17 years at the company.
Nath spots some interesting similarities between his erstwhile and current employers. “Both the companies started primarily as service providers – Sify as an internet service provider and HCL Comnet as a VSAT service provider,” he says, though HCL Comnet has reinvented and changed its business model over the years by building managed and integration services lines, focusing on a global market.
Sify, on the other hand, has followed a more conservative approach by sticking to its core identity as a service provider. Its growth was primarily led by network bandwidth and data centre hosting services.
However, Sify has developed large capacities around data centre and network infrastructure, which are important in establishing a complete portfolio of services. “This would logically be followed by expansion of Sify’s current footprint outside India,” says Nath.
Nath, who holds a degree in electronics and communications from BIT, Sindri, has domain knowledge in systems integration, IT infrastructure management, technology integration services and strategic outsourcing, in his career spanning 22 years.