Posts Tagged "Cloud"

Imagine how an orchestra combines a multitude of instruments to create a symphony. In the same way, a hybrid cloud orchestrates, skillfully combining public and private cloud, to create a seamless cloud infrastructure.  As multiple applications on a public–private hybrid infrastructure could add to complexities, with the help of orchestration, a centralized structure can be created to allow management of multiple applications using a single interface. Differences in bandwidths, workloads, and access controls can all be managed by this orchestration software.

Integration of different technologies in a hybrid infrastructure determines how effective the orchestration is. For seamless integration, the compatibility between different systems and applications must be ensured, so that orchestration of workloads between public and private clouds is seamless, providing the needed high-performance compute. In the absence of orchestration, enterprises using a hybrid cloud would be forced to manage the public and private clouds in silos, which can put pressure on their resources and demand additional overheads. In addition, orchestration provides the benefit of streamlining resources for coordination, making it easier to manage multiple workloads.

Orchestration on the Private Cloud

A private cloud may not be cheap, but it brings its advantages. It gives greater control over assets and provides enhanced cloud security, resiliency, and flexibility to the system. With private cloud orchestration, automation of the infrastructure could be managed, by establishing workflows that work without human intervention. While private cloud automation would initiate processes automatically, orchestration results in a unified structure of workflows. In this arrangement, resources can be provisioned as needed to optimize the workloads on a private cloud. Thus, an organization can realize savings in engineering time, and IT costs.

What does orchestration involve?

Orchestration enables a coordinated deployment of automation services on the cloud. Cloud orchestration happens at three levels: resource, workload, and service. At the resource level, IT resources are allocated, and at workload level, they are shared. At the service level, services are deployed so that shared resources are optimally utilized. While individual automation only takes care of a single task, orchestration automates end-to-end processes. It is similar to creating a process flow that automates the sequence of automation. The workflows created in the process enable technologies to manage themselves. There are many orchestration tools available in the market that can be used by organizations based on their individual requirements. Some popular tools are Chef, Puppet, Heat, Juju and Docker. Chef is used at OS level while Puppet is more popular at middleware level. Heat is an orchestration method developed from OpenStack, and it can orchestrate everything in OpenStack. Juju is used at the service level while Docker serves both as a tool for orchestration and technology for virtualization.

Workload placement considerations

In a hybrid cloud, both public and private applications generate different workloads. To manage these workloads, and handle their seamless switch between public and private cloud infrastructure, an appropriate cloud strategy is needed. Distributing the workload between different IT assets is a   business decision in which regulatory compliance requirements, trade-offs, business risks, cost, and growth priorities are taken into consideration. For instance, certain countries like China may have certain federal restrictions on the use of the internet for which a private WAN can be deployed. The cost could be a concern for an organization looking to provide last-mile connectivity if private cloud is deployed, but with public infrastructure used for addressing service needs of remote locations, cost savings can be realized. A private or hybrid cloud may require establishing an in-house team for IT support while public cloud can work without any, and with limited, cloud expertise in-house.

Technical parameters such as data volume, performance, security, and integration are considered when orchestrating workloads between different cloud deployments. Based on the level of importance each of these attributes carries, workloads can be shifted between the public and private cloud. Public clouds could be deployed for workloads that require a higher level of security but a lower level of integration and performance, such as CRM and information systems. When a continuous demand for a higher level of integration arises, an organization may have to add a private cloud to the IT infrastructure. Workloads like file printing, networking, and systems management may work with either nature of the cloud. However, if data volumes grow, the public cloud would not suffice, and the organization should orchestrate to a private cloud. Applications like enterprise resource planning, data marts, and Big Data analytics make use of high volumes of data that need a private cloud to manage.

A true hybrid cloud allows for easy migration of workloads between public and private clouds. It is always wise to develop a hybrid cloud strategy depending upon workloads, as portability of workloads becomes possible and traditional applications can be bridged with modern applications across the cloud infrastructure. When cloud deployments are planned based on the changing needs of the workloads using orchestration, the enterprise can make their IT infrastructure more optimized, flexible, and adaptive.

Sify’s many enterprise-class cloud services deliver massive scale and geographic reach with minimum investment. We help design the right solution to fit your needs and budget, with ready-to-use compute, storage and network resources to host your applications on a public, private or hybrid multi-tenant cloud infrastructure.

Cloud computing has been dominating the business discussions across the world as it is consumed by the whole business ecosystem and serves both small and large enterprises. Companies are faced with a choice between three predominant models of cloud deployment when adopting the technology for their business. A company may select from SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models based on their needs and the capabilities of cloud service models. Each model has inherent advantages and characteristics.

SaaS (Software as A Service)

SaaS service models have captured the largest share in the cloud world. In SaaS, third-party service providers deliver applications while the access to them is granted to a client through a Web interface. The cloud service provider manages everything including hardware, data, networking, runtime, data, middleware, operating systems, and applications. Some SaaS services that are popular in the business world are Salesforce, GoToMeeting, Dropbox, Google Apps, and Cisco WebEx.

Service Delivery: A SaaS application is made available over the Web and can be installed on-premise or can be executed right from the browser, depending upon the application. As opposed to traditional software, SaaS-based software is delivered predominantly in subscription-based pricing. While popular end-user applications such as Dropbox and MS Office Apps offer a free trial for a limited period, their extended usage, integrations, and customer support could come at a nominal subscription cost.

How to identify if it is SaaS? If everything is being managed from a centralized location on a cloud platform by your service provider, and your application is hosted on a remote server to which you are given the access through Web-based connectivity, then it is likely to be SaaS.

Benefits: The cost of licensing is less in this model, and it also provides a mobility advantage to the workforce as the applications can be accessed from anywhere using the Web². In this model, everything at the back-end is taken care of by the service provider while the client can use the features of specific applications. If there are any technical issues faced in infrastructure, the client can depend on the service provider to remove them.

When to Choose? You can choose this model if you do not want to take the burden of managing your IT infrastructure as well as the platform, and only want to focus on the respective application and services. You can pass on the laborious work of installation, upgrading, and management to the third-party companies that have expertise in public cloud management.

PaaS (Platform as A Service)

In the PaaS service model, the third-party service provider delivers software components and the framework to build applications while clients can take care of the development of the application. Such a framework allows companies to develop custom applications over the platform that is served. In this model, the service provider can manage servers, virtualization, storage, software, and networking while developers are allowed to develop customized applications. PaaS model can work with both private cloud and public cloud.

Service Delivery: A middleware is built into the model which can be used by developers. The developer does not need to do hard coding from scratch as the platform provides the libraries. This reduces the development time and enhances the productivity of an application developer enabling companies to reduce time-to-market.

How to identify if it is PaaS? If you are using integrated databases, have resources made available that can quickly scale, and you have access to many different cloud services to help you in developing, testing, and deploying applications, it is PaaS.

Benefits: The processes of development and testing are both cost-effective and fast. PaaS model delivers an operating environment and some on-demand services such as CRM, ERP, and Web conferencing. With PaaS, you can also enjoy additional microservices to enhance your run-time quality. Additional services can also be availed such as directory, workflow, security, and scheduling. Other benefits of using this service model include cross-platform development, built-in components, no licensing cost, and efficient application Lifecycle management.

When to Choose? PaaS is most suited if you want to create your application but need others to maintain the platform for you. When your developers need creative freedom to build highly customized applications and require you to provide tools for development, this would be the model to select.

IaaS (Infrastructure as A Service)

In this cloud service model, Data Center infrastructure components are provided including servers, virtualization, storage, software, and networking. This is a pay-as-you-go model which provides access to all services that can be utilized as per your needs. IaaS is like renting space and infrastructure components from a cloud service provider using a subscription model.

Service Delivery: The infrastructure can be managed remotely by a client. On this infrastructure, companies can install their own platforms and do the development. Some popular examples of IaaS service models are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Compute Engine (GCE).

How to identify if it is IaaS? If you have all the resources available as a service, your cost of operation is relative to your consumption, and you have complete control over your infrastructure, it is IaaS.

Benefits: A company need not invest heavily in infrastructure deployment but can use virtual Data Centers. A major advantage of this service model is that with it, a single API (Application Programming Interface) can be used to access services from multiple cloud providers. A virtualized interface can be used over pre-configured hardware, and platforms can be installed by a client. IaaS service providers also give you security features for the management of your infrastructure through licensing agreements.

When to Choose? IaaS service model is most useful when you are starting a company and need hardware and software setups for your company. You may not commit to specific hardware or software but can enjoy the freedom of scaling up anytime you need with this deployment.

You can choose between the three models depending on your business needs and availability of resources to manage things. Irrespective of the model you choose, cloud Data Center does provide you a great cost advantage and flexibility with experts to back you in difficult times. Your choice of the cloud service model would affect the level of control you have over your infrastructure and applications. Depending on the needs of your business, you can select a model after a careful evaluation of the benefits of each of the cloud service models.

Sify’s many enterprise-class cloud services deliver massive scale and geographic reach with minimum investment. We help design the right solution to fit your needs and budget, with ready-to-use compute, storage and network resources to host your applications on a public, private or hybrid multi-tenant cloud infrastructure.

Organizations around the globe are inclining towards the cloud technology and cloud platforms for enhanced data management and security, cost-efficient services, and of course, the ability to access distributed computing and storage facilities from anywhere, anytime.

In a recent study it was found that nearly 41% of the surveyed respondents showed interest in investing in and increasing the spending on cloud technologies, with over 51% large and medium companies planning to expand their budgets for cloud tech. As a result of this rapidly increasing interest and demand for cloud-based services, cloud computing service providers and cloud computing companies are on the rise.

But, why is the business world rapidly shifting to the cloud computing?

Cloud computing can bring about major positive transitions for businesses as it offers grounds for innovation coupled with organizational efficiency. Let’s look at the five ways in which cloud computing is transforming the business world.

1. Enhanced Operations

One of the best features of cloud computing solutions is that they can scale as a company grows. Cloud computing service providers allow companies (big or small) to move a part or all of their operations from a local network to the cloud platform, thereby making it easier for them to access a host of facilities such as data storage, data processing, and much more. Usually, cloud computing service providers have a strong and dedicated support team that can assist users through real-time communication.

Another major benefit of using a third-party service is that the responsibility of data and system management and the associated risks falls under the purview of the service provider. So, one can take advantage of the cloud services without having to worry about the risks.

2. Cost Reduction

Cloud computing services are highly cost-effective. Companies and businesses using the services of third-party cloud computing providers need not bear extra expenses in setting up the required infrastructure or hire additional in-house IT professionals for installing, managing, and upgrading the systems. As mentioned above, all these needs are taken care of by the cloud computing providers. Also, small companies can take advantage of the same tools and resources that are used by large corporations, without having to incur additional IT overhead. This means cloud computing services can reduce IT costs and increase the operating capital which can be steered towards improving other core areas of the business. With increased productivity, efficiency, flexibility and reduced costs, businesses can become more innovative and agile in their operations.

3. Fortified Security And Storage

Unlike the past, cloud computing service providers are now extremely cautious about the security and safety of their users. All the sensitive user data, files, and other important documents are stored across a distributed network. Since the data is never stored in one single physical device and the enforcement of encrypted passwords and restricted user access, the safety and security of the user data are enhanced. Steps are taken to further protect the data by incorporating firewall and anti-malware software within the cloud infrastructure.

Furthermore, cloud computing service providers allow businesses to leverage the best quality hardware for faster data access and exchange. This further boosts the operational efficiency, speed, and productivity.

4. Improved Flexibility

With cloud services, employees can access the same resources while working remotely that they could access while working from the office. Thanks to cloud technology, employees can now work within the comfort zone of their homes and get work done seamlessly. Mobile devices make this even more convenient by allowing employees to enjoy the flexibility of working at their own pace while also facilitating real-time communication between them and the users. Cloud companies can, thus, deliver better and more efficient services by investing in a band of dedicated remote employees instead of maintaining a full-house of on-site employees. This fast increasing mobile workforce delivering quality cloud solutions is a big reason why businesses today are making the transition to cloud computing providers.

5. Better Customer Support

Today, cloud computing providers have upgraded their game by offering an array of support options for businesses to choose from. Apart from the conventional telephone service, businesses can now opt for AI-powered chatbots that can interact with customers like a real human being. As most cloud computing providers offer impressive bandwidth, it facilitates improved communications which allow a firm’s customer support team to handle customers requests swiftly. The speedy and prompt delivery of support services will ensure that the customers don’t have to wait for hours for their queries/requests to be addressed. All this together leads to a richer customer support experience.

The end result? Happy customers who endorse the brand to a larger network.

Cloud computing is a versatile platform that offers an extensive variety of solutions to the common challenges and hurdles that businesses face in their day-to-day functioning. And that is precisely why cloud computing solutions and services are increasingly penetrating the business world by the minute and transforming it for the better.

Opt for dedicated private cloud infrastructure services for your mission-critical workloads.

To learn more about SIFY’S GOINFINIT PRIVATE – an enterprise-grade, fully integrated private cloud IT platform with specific controls, compliance and IT architecture available in a flexible consumption model.

Cloud computing is one of the hottest trends. Most technological solutions are now on cloud and the ones remaining are vying to be on cloud. Due to its exceptional benefits, it has magnetized the IT leaders and entrepreneurs at all levels.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is when many computers are linked through a real-time communication network. It basically refers to a network of remote servers that are hosted in Data Center, which further can be accessed via internet from any browser. Hence, it becomes easy to store, manage, and process data as compared to a local server or personal computer.

What is Cloud Networking?

The access to the networking resources from a centralized third-party provider using Wide Area Network (WAN) is termed as Cloud Networking. It refers to a concept where the unified cloud resources are accessible for customers and clients. In this concept, not only the cloud resources but also the network can be shared. With Cloud Networking, several management functions ensure that there are lesser devices required to manage the network.

When data began to move to cloud, security became a major debate, but cloud networking and cloud computing security has come a long way with better IAM and other data protection procedures.

Cloud networking and cloud computing security revolves around three things-

1. Safeguarding user accounts in the cloud
2. Protecting the data in the cloud
3. And, then the third aspect is application security.

Trending Research Areas in Cloud Computing Security

Following are the trending research areas in the Cloud Computing Security:

1. Virtualization: Cloud computing itself is based on the concept of virtualization. In this process, virtual version of a server, network or storage is created, rather than the real one. Hardware virtualization refers to the virtual machines that can act like a computer with an operating system. Hardware virtualization is of two types: Full Virtualization and Para-Virtualization.
2. Encryption: It is the process of protecting data by sending it in some other form. Cloud computing uses advanced encryption algorithms in order to maintain the privacy of your data. Crypto-shedding is another measure in which the keys are deleted when there is no requirement of using the data. There are two types of encryption used in cloud computing security including Fully Homomorphic Encryption and Searchable Encryption.
3. Denial of Service: It is a type of attack in which an intruder can make the resources of the users unavailable by disrupting the services of the internet. The intruder makes sure that the system gets overloaded by sundry requests and also blocks the genuine incoming requests. Application layer attack and Distributed DoS attack are some of its types.
4. DDoS Attacks: It stands for Distribution Denial of Service. It is a type of Denial of Service attack in which hostile traffic comes from various devices. Hence, it becomes difficult to differentiate between the malicious traffic and the genuine one. Application layer DDoS attack is another type of DDoS attack in which the attacker targets the application layer of the OSI model.
5. Cloud Security Dimensions: Software called Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) in between the cloud applications and cloud users, monitors all the policies related to cloud security and also enforces the cloud security policies.
6. Data Security: The Encryption method is used in protecting and maintaining the privacy of the data because security in the cloud-based services has always been the focal point. Due to some vulnerabilities and loopholes, data might get exposed to the public cloud.
7. Data Separation: An important aspect of data separation is the geolocation. Organizations should make sure that the geolocation for data storage must be a trusted one. Geolocation and tenancy are the major factors in data separation.

Cloud is one of the topics with no limit at all. With its help, you can perform any kind of project in order to enhance the performance in speed and magnify the security algorithm so as to prevent the files from being hacked.

Sify allows enterprises to store and process data on a variety of Cloud options, making data-access mechanisms more efficient and reliable.

Are you in search of the best application hosting? Well, choosing the best-dedicated server for your enterprise could be a task in itself. But why dedicated web server? A dedicated web server ensures resilience and resources to host a web application.

Selecting a dedicated server which is fast, secure, properly managed, and has the perfect software tools is very much essential for the growth of your business. A company looking forward to having more control and power will opt for a service provider who offers dedicated server hosting. The server is built and maintained by the provider, thus cutting down the cost of purchasing your own server.

So, let us take a sneak peek into the advantages of choosing a dedicated server hosting provider and some other useful tips in getting started with your new dedicated server.

Advantages:

1. High Performance and SecurityHow can you maximize the uptime for your website or application? It is through a dedicated hosting provider. Dedicated servers provide more reliability and stability than the shared hosting. It makes sure that you are not sharing your space with any other malicious software or a potential spammer. Dedicated server leads to enhanced security, this is the reason it is essential for companies taking transactions over FTP or SSL. Moreover, the best-dedicated server hosting comes with 24×7 support to deal with failures and complaints which further ensures high uptimes.
2. FlexibilityA dedicated server comes up with flexibility, as you can always customize your server as per client’s requirements of RAM, disk space, CPU, and software. If you want a customizable server environment, then a dedicated server might fit your needs.
3. Server Resources are not sharedChoosing a dedicated server fetches you all the resources of a server. With a dedicated server, your server won’t slow down, as there are no other applications sharing your space and clogging up the server’s RAM and CPU. In case of dedicated hosting, your server bandwidth is only yours.
4. No Purchase and MaintenanceIf a company requires a dedicated hosting, and it does not have the time and resources to manage a server, the dedicated hosting is a low-cost way to access the resources of the server. Dedicated server hosting helps in maintaining the server equipment, thus reducing the overhead for a business.
5. Full ControlOne of the most widely held benefits of dedicated hosting is that you have full control on your server. You decide which site management tool and application you wish to deploy, provided your hosting provider can service them.

Factors to Consider while Purchasing Best Dedicated Server Hosting Plan

Developers and business owners try to find the best-dedicated server hosting because they can be configured easily in order to quench the programming requirements, server load support, and top-notch security. So, here are the points which should be kept in mind before purchasing a dedicated server hosting plan:

1. Different types of RAM- Primarily used is DDR3, DDR4, and ECC options in present
2. Focus on CPU Benchmark Performance- Know the difference between Xeon, Atom, and Opteron product lines
3. Choice of Bandwidth and Data Center Concerns- Internet Backbone Network Speeds, Power Supply, and Cooling
4. OS- Windows and LINUX; and choosing between different LINUX distributions
5. Technical Support- the capability to support your clients
6. Disk Drive Storage- HDD vs Solid State Drives (SSDs)

Almost all the users of dedicated servers yearn for the best hardware configurations at the lowest possible price. However, some choose to bargain on the older equipment available at a particular discount. Legions of mobile applications that come with custom code require complex web server that shared hosting plans do not support. However, it is advised that the business owner should consult with their system administrator to discover the development requirements for their productive applications. Novice development in cloud hosting may soon have an upper hand over the dedicated server plans, and cheaper cum better plans are available on VPS plans with more resource allocation. Hence it becomes quintessential, as how to keep your online business up to date in a rapidly innovating web hosting industry.

Focus on your core business and outsource the complexities of Data Center management with Sify

The “Sify: Power Discussion” hosted at the “Healthcare Senate & Healthcare Information Technology Summit 2017” organised by the Indian Express Group and Sify Technologies discussed the various benefits that cloud can bring to the Indian healthcare sector.

The CXOs who participated in the power discussion hosted by Sify shared their challenges in the ICT space and subsequently, various views were shared by the panellists and Sify on how the cloud technology can solve their pain points and finally help in building better patient experience.

Summary of Challenges

• Increasing Data volumes is becoming unmanageable in preserving, optimising and retrieval of data. The Cost associated with that is also an issue.
• Can IT play a role in reducing the time of the patient in “Check-in / Checkout/ Post Checkout Care”?
• Challenges in the Inter-departments users of IT systems at the hospitals. For example, the HIS at times hasn’t been successful in reducing the pain points of the doctors with Care Teams.
• Disparate IT systems do not talk to each other and are not compatible, so there should be a common platform that allows different technologies to work seamlessly.
• Hospitals should prioritise in terms of what they want to achieve and accordingly how IT can play a role. At times, the perception is that IT has a magic wand, and any problem in hospital, IT is made a scapegoat.

The Case for Cloud Computing

Anindya Sen, Transformation – Evangelist, Sify Technologies, spoke extensively on how cloud can solve various challenges faced not only by the IT function but also the functions in the hospitals. He started with a specific example of the cloud implementation for the radiology department at Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI). In each of the twelve CTSI hospitals, which were hitherto running on separate IT systems, were now completely moved on cloud. The data was now directly fed to the radiology departments of these twelve hospitals. It helped radiologists to serve the patients by doing targeted radiation.

One of the panellists asked about how cloud can reduce cost for the organisations. Cloud can significantly slash costs for companies who want to serve multiple locations using the cloud technology, however, the cost advantage might not fructify if it were a single location. Nevertheless, the benefits of cloud beyond cost parameters only were discussed for such scenarios.

A specific discussion happened in terms of healthcare industry where in spite of adopting Cloud, the IT team still has a task at hand in managing end points, their networking, etc. Network-as-a-service, a relevant example in this case was discussed to take the pain away from internal network management. Sify has provided “Network as a service” to many companies having a wide geographical presence using the cloud model.

The panellists were of the consensus that different components of IT like networks, applications, different patient systems etc. on cloud hosted by a single CSP, who partners with different domain experts and partners can unleash the potential that cloud can offer.

Sify explained a case study of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL). Sify has hosted the IT infrastructure, end-to-end on cloud, partnering with the right domain experts and service providers for the various components of the IT infrastructure be it network, security, antivirus etc. The customer pays Sify on “Per Bill generated i.e. Outcome Based Model”.

With this model, the role of the CIO will focus not on “Switch on – Switch off issues” but concentrate on the Innovation, Patient Experience, Improve Inter-Departmental Coordination, Post Checkout Patient Care, etc. Various other models like per bed, per patient were also deliberated.

There is also a lot of potential waiting to be tapped in the on-premise cloud space. On premise cloud fits well with organizations having large IT resources in-house. IT and FMCG companies are a nice fit. Sify provides their infrastructure and services to these companies. This model was suggested by panel members specifically for concentrated IT landscapes.

With global issues like Global warming, floods are becoming more frequent and thus the availability of systems can get affected. One of the panellists spoke about how during the Chennai floods, because the systems were hosted in one place in Chennai, the hospitals in other cities were affected however in one of the similar instances of floods, this was avoided because now the systems were working on cloud. This brings in the case for DR as a service. Cloud can also be helpful in bringing innovation in IT processes.

The Potential of Telemedicine

Telemedicine has not been able to take off in India and the reasons to which were discussed. Various suggestions on how telemedicine can be made more reasonable for the medical community and patients alike.

One of the reasons, as a panellist claimed, that was not allowing telemedicine to take off is there is no certainty on who will bear the cost. It works for the government, who pays for it entirely however for private hospitals, there is no business model.

Notwithstanding, telemedicine can be useful for patient scheduling, touchpoints, delivering care and administration process. There was also a broad consensus that telemedicine can be tremendously beneficial for secondary care i.e. once the patient has visited the doctor personally and his case is well understood by the doctor, the patient need not visit him the next time.

The treatment can happen using telemedicine unless it is necessary for an in-person visit. So the school of thought in the healthcare industry about the necessity to give the touch and feel for the patient is reducing and is a myth. With IoT technologies, the medical devices are also getting connected and this can be a contributing factor for the emergence of telemedicine in India.

Conclusion

On the whole, it was a good participative discussion where the various points of view from the Business side, IT side and the service provider angle were discussed. Obstacles as well as advantages for adopting an agile cloud based model were deliberated upon and a need for business outcome based model to help IT and business alike was unanimously agreed upon.

New technologies and solutions – such as mobile apps, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and analytics – are available to make healthcare organizations more accessible, simpler, faster, and more cost effective.

Whether you represent a hospital, clinic, or specialist, Sify has a variety of scalable, agile, and secure solutions to help your organization achieve these goals.

Delegate Participants:

• Manoj Kumar (Apollo Health & Lifestyle )
• Santosh Patil (Asian Cancer Institute)
• Dilip Ramdasan (Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital)
• Nallamuthu Sivaraj (Gem Hospital)
• Rajesh Kumar Gupta (Medanta – The Medicity)
• Jai Prakash Dwivedi (Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre)
• Ramesh Desai (Sagar Hospitals – Banashankari)
• Sachin P Marathe (Sapphire Hospitals)
• Niranjan Kumar Ramakrishnan (Sir Ganga Ram Hospital )
• Maneesh Agarwal (Apollo Hospitals)
• T S Mohan Kumar (Brindhavvan Areion Hospitals)
• Kvs Sesha Reddy (Brindhavvan Areion Hospitals )
• Ashim Kumar (CARE Hospital)
• Selwyn Colaco (Cytecare Cancer Hospitals )
• Naveen Nagar (HCG )
• Manisha Pal (Hiranandani Hospital)
• Paritosh Joshi (Kasturba Vaidyakiya Rahat Mandal)
• M. S Guru Prasad (Narayana Health )
• Manoj Chavan (Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Center )

Sify Participants:

• Subramaniam Ramakrishnan
• Anindya Sen
• Sonia Kaul
• Sanjay Gour
• Sagar Pattnaik
• Abhinav Gupta

The business world has always been competitive, but never before has the battle for customer loyalty been fiercer.

Organizations are plowing in more money and effort to step up their customer care strategies and with good reason! Reports and surveys reveal the importance of customer engagement in buying decisions – 86% of the consumers are willing to pay more for better customer service and 54% of Millennials say that they stopped doing business because of poor customer service.

In these competitive times, businesses have turned to technology to get the most out of their contact centers and to provide a pleasant customer experience to buyers.

When it comes to using technology to optimize Contact Center functions – CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) instantly springs to mind. It is the perfect example of using cloud-computing platforms to integrate the latest technology with your contact center while keeping costs low.

Contact Center as a Service – Key Technologies

Inbound & Outbound Call Automation

There is a great deal of technology behind every call that comes into a call center. Some of these are automatic call distributors (ACD) – intelligent routing of calls to agents, IVR (Interactive voice response) – automated phone system providing information to callers, voice biometrics, intelligent call back, universal queuing, call recording and now, of course, integration of multiple communication channels to provide customer engagements across all platforms.

For agents making outbound calls, technologies such as predictive dialer – automatically dial from a contact list, campaign management systems and email response management software helps in increasing productivity.

System Integrations

With services like CCaaS, contact centers can access a wider level of integration across the organization. From integrating existing knowledge database (comprising customer profiles, call histories, buying trends, etc.) to business CRM software – access to a plethora of information allows agents to serve customers better and faster. CCaaS also facilitates secure online payments via integration with bank websites and bank mobile applications.

Quality check and Admin Control

Call monitoring and call quality control has now been enhanced by adding new systems such as an administrative control dashboard with a range of web supervisory features from silent monitoring to whisper coaching. Supervisors can now observe and step into help agents and prevent unpleasant experiences.

Analytics

With the explosion in Internet usage, data analytics tools are becoming more and more refined and for predicting customer behavior, contact centers must also utilize analytical tools to better understand customer feedback and needs. While all contact centers use real-time reports & analytics to evaluate and improve agent performances, there is also a move towards incorporating speech, chat, and text analytics to identify customer needs.

Customer experience is all set to overtake product and price as the most vital component of the business strategy by 2020.

There is no doubt that with the rise of social media and increasing use of Internet, more choices have opened up for buyers and they have become more aware and better informed. Organizations are well aware of this and are investing more and more in gaining and retaining customers – along with enhancing the human interactions by providing the right training, integrating technology is the only way organizations can hope to handle the huge volume of multi-channel customer contacts, smartly while being cost-efficient.

Contact Centers are in a state of constant evolution! With customer engagement rated as one of the most critical factors for the success of a product or service, businesses are striving to perfect the customer care scenario every single day. In this race to keep customer loyalty, companies are turning to technology to deliver exceptional customer service.

In the last couple of years, to keep up with the changing needs and behavior patterns of buyers, Contact Center technology has evolved considerably. We take a closer look at some of the latest trends in the field.

The trends and technologies shaping the future of Contact Centers

Digital Transformation of Customer Services

The digital way of working has now been fully embedded into the business operations of most companies. As newer technologies such as cloud, web based applications, mobility, and data analytics change the business landscape they also have an impact on how contact centers are operated. Adoption of these technologies, especially the move to cloud platforms, has resulted in altering the entire cycle of customer engagement – from dealing with the first client contact occurring across multiple channels to providing intelligent, data analysis backed the resolution to customer issues.

Omni channel Models

From traditional phone calls to social media messages – Customers are using a variety of communication channels to approach businesses. Needless to say, businesses are also turning to a more holistic customer engagement approach that uses unified Omni-channel communication models – bringing text, phone, chat, email, social, video calls, etc. under one umbrella – to provide a more personal and satisfying experience to the customer.

Analytics and Customer Satisfaction

To consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences, businesses need to consider more than the final resolution of the customer requirement; it is imperative to keep a check on the customer experience during the journey towards resolution and overall quality of the calls. This can be achieved by using analytical tools to improve the Contact Center operations. Customer care centers are using real time reports and monitoring solutions to keep a check on engagement quality and are also incorporating cutting edge analytical tools to study behavioral patterns in speech, text or chats to predict customer behavior.

Remote agents

With reliable web based communication tools and access to real time monitoring Contact Centers are now employing more and more remote agents; thereby efficiently managing different time zone requirements while reducing overhead costs.

Artificial Intelligence

AI, the latest buzzword in the IT landscape, is now being tested and incorporated in Call centers as well. AI algorithms are mainly being used to analyze call data and historical records to foretell customer behavior – producing dependable results in minutes, something that would have taken an analyst days to complete. AI technology is also being explored to place virtual call agents to handle some of the more repetitive and simpler customer interactions.

Going ahead, companies and consumers alike will be putting more and more emphasis on customer care as a brand differentiator rather than as a support function. Although recruiting and training agents form a vital part of call center operations; to stand out companies are exploring technology integrations to make their operations more efficient. And while technologies like Artificial Intelligence are still being developed and implemented, sophisticated cloud based offerings such as CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) are proven models, which bring an added level of productivity with enormous cost benefits to traditional Contact Centers.

 

As India’s leading fully converged ICT Company, Sify is using its decades of experience in network and Data Center services to present the most comprehensive Contact Center as a Service platform in India.

Our extensive expertise has allowed us to craft a service offering, which is highly flexible, scalable and future proof. Sify’s CCaaS provides all Contact Center applications under one umbrella-from branch connectivity and video conferencing to 100 % reliable voice calls. Delivered via the cloud, Sify’s CCaaS is a multi channel platform, which can easily meet the most exacting contact center requirements.

The key to thrive in a “Customer is the King” economy is being extremely responsive to their ever-evolving demands while serving as a pacesetter for the competition. Customers are demanding a wider choice of contact channels, stronger relationships, flexible customer service options and quick-to-respond customer service. All these factors have increased the pressure on Contact Centers; they must deliver the best possible customer experience – consistently!

Organizations are progressively moving towards ‘as a service’ technologies as they look for models that are flexible and enable better responsiveness and service quality in today’s customer centric environment. Contact center service providers’ cloud-based offerings focus on cloud as a deployment option as against the conventional on-premise alternative. By taking the contact center to the cloud, businesses get a robust, flexible, cost-effective and multi-channel solution with unified delivery and professional management.

3 main Benefits of Cloud-based Contact Centers

 Flexibility and Scalability

A traditional contact center is based on the intended contact service agent capacity, the approximated volume of customer interactions and an estimate of the type of channel/feature access required. On the other hand, cloud solutions enable businesses to operate fluid contact center operations, where they could modify the scale of operations, swiftly add functionalities, switch the mix of communication channels, handle unanticipated spikes in the interaction volume or draw on enterprise resources. Flexibility and scalability afford unlimited possibilities almost instantly to the businesses without the prohibitive expense of additional infrastructure/related software and the associated time to implement and operate the revised operations.

Substantial Cost Savings

Cost arguments in favor of cloud solutions versus traditional Data Centers are apparent right from the start – the former helps transfer the financial load from CAPEX (Capital Expense) to OPEX (Operating Expense). Switching to an OPEX model brings with it more simplicity and predictability with a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model. It eliminates the challenge and risk of making large capital expenses towards infrastructure at one given point; making it easier to budget for growth. In comparison, non-cloud contact centers cannot achieve this desired flexibility without investing a sizeable amount in infrastructure and are unable to facilitate businesses to right-size their operations. Cloud solutions are cash flow friendly as recurring costs are coupled only with an associated growth spike, thus eliminating the risk of unutilised investment. It also allows better budgeting, planning and related staffing decisions resulting in increased efficiency and productivity

Streamlined IT

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been an industry norm for core applications like email/ CRM and many other business applications and is increasingly becoming universal. Cloud solutions guarantee that bandwidth, network and other communication services are addressed in order to meet evolving business needs and adapt to rapid changes in the business. The cloud-based contact center solution is hosted in a secure and reliable environment, as a result saving time and allowing businesses to focus their energies on their operations. There is an additional benefit of 100% reliable backup and disaster recovery of data and applications, which is difficult and expensive to implement and execute at a smaller scale. Taking their contact center to the cloud provides the businesses with an assured level of business continuity and the option of long-term retention of the data in their contact center operations. Leaders are becoming progressively more interested in the cloud adoption in this model and the operational agility benefits that it provides.

One constant for the contact centers is their relentless pursuit of change for the better. They are continually looking for superior technology, more efficient processes, and better-trained resources in order to improve the quality of the customer experience. These are aimed at serving customers more effectively and at the same time more economically. As providing exceptional one-on-one service, regardless of the medium, becomes the norm for businesses; cloud solutions for the contact centers serve the need of the hour by making it affordable to provide customer experiences designed to make buyers loyal to the brand.

As India’s leading fully converged ICT Company, Sify is using its decades of experience in network and Data Center services to present the most comprehensive Contact Center as a Service platform in India.

Our extensive expertise has allowed us to craft a service offering, which is highly flexible, scalable and future proof. Sify’s CCaaS provides all Contact Center applications under one umbrella – from branch connectivity and video conferencing to 100 % reliable voice calls. Delivered via the cloud, Sify’s CCaaS is a multi channel platform, which can easily meet the most exacting contact center requirements.

Contact centers are evolving as the pivotal point of customer interaction across multiple touch points. For businesses, creating a compelling customer experience is about building robust relationships by seamlessly engaging with them through varied channels. Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) helps create such elevated experiences consistently. Additionally, these solutions also increase productivity, improve efficiency and reduce costs.

With the ability to transform businesses’ interactions with their customers and CCaaS’ myriad benefits, it is of utmost importance to choose a solution that is both financial as well as operational ‘right fit’ for the organization. Therefore, to define what constitutes an able CCaaS solution is of great significance.

Key Features of CCaaS Solutions

Through CCaaS, a business can look forward to the following:

• A complete set of multi-channel, dynamic Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and routing capabilities. CCaaS solutions offer an efficient inbound and outbound call center routing. It includes centralized Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) with Skill (Multi) based routing that manages incoming calls and processes them based on the number called and the database of handling instructions. This Intelligent Routing adds to the customer experience as it leads the customer to the most apt agent. It also offers other Automated Features such as the Call Back Manager. Furthermore, in a multi-cultural context, such as India, a CCaaS also offers speech integrations for several regional languages
• Customers want to connect via their preferred channel be it in person, through e-mail, social media or voice, at the same time organizations, want efficient usage of their agent resources. This is made possible through configurable and customizable unified web-accessible agent desktop, which helps reduce the Average Handle Time (AHT) as it helps the agent handle all types of interaction with a single interface, increasing their efficiency
• With its multi-site offering, it presents inherent location independence and lets a business manage and report on agents/ supervisors from anywhere. Additionally, it offers a multi-location multi-channel architecture that provides organizations with branch connectivity solutions
• In the current business context, analytics play a vital role. Centralized Reporting enables reporting analytics of the contact center interactions, which supply data that help organizations take more informed business decisions.
• The flexible platform simplifies integration with CRM and other business applications or platforms for better customer experiences. It promotes increased productivity as it reduces execution time and allows faster roll out of campaigns. In addition, the solution can be tailor made to the organization’s configuration and settings with a powerful administration interface.
• Quality Assurance is ensured through call monitoring/recording through its Voice Logger/Recorder Solutions and Quality Monitoring Solutions, resulting in consistent customer interactions.
• The solution is Cost-Efficient, owing to its ‘pay-as-you-grow’ OPEX (Operational Expense) solution as against the traditional CAPEX (Capital Expense) model. It affords the business flexibility, scalability and the ability to access services such as disaster recovery and data backup, which might otherwise be cost prohibitive.
• By opting for a Managed Solution, businesses can focus their energies on their core operations while the CCaaS platform is managed and maintained by the experts. Organizations are assured Quality of Service (QoS), reliable network and updated technologies without any extra effort or cost.

Customer interactions are complex and fluid. CCaaS is an attempt at equipping businesses with tools that can help them engage, manage and reflect on these exchanges to enhance customer experience to create long-term and loyal brand followers.

 

As India’s leading fully converged ICT Company, Sify is using its decades of experience in network and Data Center services to present the most comprehensive Contact Center as a Service platform in India.

Our extensive expertise has allowed us to craft a service offering, which is highly flexible, scalable and future proof. Sify’s CCaaS provides all Contact Center applications under one umbrella – from branch connectivity and video conferencing to 100 % reliable voice calls. Delivered via the cloud, Sify’s CCaaS is a multi-channel platform, which can easily meet the most exacting contact center requirements.