"Cloud is not inherently vulnerable"

A seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in international operations, marketing and sales, Siki Giunta leads CloudSMART Business, Industry Cloud and the Google Ecosystem Business at HCL Tech. In an interaction with Shubhendu Parth, she talks about the technologies driving Cloud, challenges of Network Cloudification, security issues, and the impact of Cloud operating models and data engineering on generative Al. Excerpts:

- Shubhendu Parth

How is the industry Cloud evolving and what are the key technologies driving the trend?

Cloud is evolving to become the optimal business platform for companies that are transforming to grow at scale. Each industry, be it life sciences, retail, manufacturing, financial services, or media, has its drivers but the one thing that every industry has in common is the need for speed. Accelerated response to compelling events, whether they are global like a pandemic or unique to a business like a competitive threat, is a requirement for businesses to act quickly.

To succeed, to achieve desirable business outcomes, organisations are prioritising the ability to analyse the volumes of collected data, use analytics to discover insights and then apply these constantly changing insights to innovate and drive profits - we say to supercharge progress by making innovation a habit.

We live in a "5-star culture" - the impact of social media and the ever-present opportunity for customers, patients, and partners to rate a company or a product creates pressure to improve services and products. Success requires innovative technology that is dependent on using the Cloud as a business platform.

What are the top workload requirements that are driving the adoption of the Cloud by businesses beyond the hygiene remote working and integrated communication needs?