Buying decisions are moving outside the realm of IT: Richard J Scurfield

Interview with senior vice-president & general manager, Asia Pacific, NetApp

Functions such as finance, marketing, HR and sales are making decisions about what they want to implement rather than waiting for IT to make the decision, Richard Scurfield tells Ankita Rai

Gartner predicts that by 2015, most mobile apps will sync, collect and analyse data about users and their social graphs, but most IT leaders are failing to consider the impact that mobile apps have on their information infrastructure. How is the data collected from mobile apps managed?

The mobile economy is very interesting in India and different from what we see in other markets. For example, in India, future users of banking services are going to increasingly use mobile devices for transactions, the only alternative to brick-and-mortar banks. Whereas in other markets, if the mobile experience/capability is not what the user wants, then one can access it through the laptop or PC too. In India, people have made the leap directly to the mobile.
 

There is data explosion today and it is going to continue with increasing amounts of rich media being created from various mobile applications, video surveillance, and internet of things etc. However, data creation is just one piece and it is the actual storage and management of that data, which becomes important in order to be able to utilise that information.

The storage layer is responsible for ensuring that data is available, no matter where it resides and it is important that the apps are able to access the data and input into the storage independent of location, such as in a hybrid cloud deployment.

Rising popularity of mobile devices has set the scene for corporations to incorporate these in workplaces. However, it has its own challenges and risks. How strong are cloud computing security solutions in this space?

There are many advantage that a cloud architecture, irrespective of whether it is a public or a private cloud, provides to the mobile environment. Data is centrally stored, served and not replicated across every mobile device. A lot of the data breaches that happen are because the data is stored locally (on the device) outside of a data centre that has robust enterprise capabilities supporting antivirus and access control mechanisms.

With the cloud, you are putting an enterprise technology in a place, which prevents access and makes sure that that information is encrypted and secured. If the mobile device, such as a laptop or a cellphone is stolen and you have all the information accessible via that cell phone, there are technologies available in enterprise mobility to eliminate the risk of data falling in the wrong hands. For example, if a person doesn't login correctly five times, all data in the phone gets deleted. With the cloud you don't have to worry because all information is locked down in an enterprise data centre.

What lessons India can learn from other global markets on deployment of BYOD?

Moving forward we are going to be in a digital/BYOD world and there is always a scope that something is going to happen. From a storage perspective just assume that your data is going to be compromised. The thought that the only way you can protect your information is by not making it accessible to anybody is unrealistic from an enterprise point or commercial aspect. The thinking now, therefore, has shifted to focusing on preventing access and data breach. Organisations need to spend a percentage of their time on defining a better reactive strategy.

Getting technology to work for a particular business has traditionally required significant expenses. Hence, access to 'enterprise-class' has been limited to large businesses. How does cloud enable access to technology for small and medium businesses (SMBs) ?

Applications are available on the public cloud that small and medium businesses (SMBs) can take advantage of without investing in building the entire application, system administrators and back ups. The other advantage is functionality. With the cloud, SMBs now have access to a variety of robust, enterprise-class applications with multiple functionalities, which were previously out of reach.

Another advantage is scale. An SMB may suddenly have a burst of requirement during Diwali sales, for example. At such times, you don't need to go and buy a huge service for yourself, which you will not be using the whole year; you just take extra provisioning from the cloud and you are able to meet the demands. It is a pay-as-you-go model, SMBs are charged according to their usage.

What are the areas in an IT department where cloud computing can be of help?

You can do virtually everything on cloud but you need to decide which kind of cloud - private, hybrid or public. The cloud journey cannot be prescriptive. Each organisation needs to assess its business needs, appetite for risk and security needs. For example, start-ups start with everything on public cloud because for them cost-control is a priority. Then as soon as they get bigger, they pull some of the IT back into the organisation (hybrid cloud).

Do you see a trend where decisions related to IT, cloud, mobile etc is moving from the CIO's office into the CMO's office?

The influence of buying decisions are moving outside the realm of IT. Various functions such as finance, marketing, HR, sales are making decisions about what they want to implement rather than waiting for IT to make the decision. The role of IT is really evolving into how do we make sure all of those independent decisions and choices that people want to make fit into the overall architecture of the company. For example, sales department may want cloud-based CRM solutions and marketing may want to leverage a marketing application that has information storage outside of our environment. In such a case how do we make sure that it fits into an overall IT environment. That's the role of IT - taking care and making sure that it fits together.

These are all different functions, so who do you sell to? Who are the decision makers? Who are the influencers? It goes much more into a business line conversation versus a pure technology conversation.

THE DATA MANAGER

• At NetApp, Scurfield is responsible for leading and growing the business across the Asia Pacific region, including driving the channel strategy and managing strategic partnerships
   
• Scurfield has been with NetApp for over 10 years in sales leadership and management roles. Prior to that, he ran the defense and military Intelligence business in the company's Federal Systems
   
• Before joining NetApp, he spent over 15 years in public sector sales and consulting services with Powersoft, Sybase and PricewaterhouseCoopers