Cloud Talk - India's first TV quality webcast

I happened to watch this show "Cloud Talk" on NDTV webcast. The panel included Mr. Sanket Akerkar, MD Microsoft India, Mr. Sachin Pilot, Minister for IT and Mr. Ravinder Jain, CIO Aircel cellular.

So what's so different about this show? Well, this is the first of its kind in India, TV quality webcast. I had presumed Sanket, the Microsoft MD was going to capture the limelight and maybe a little contribution from Aircel CIO, totally overlooked the presence of the politician in Sachin Pilot, our IT minister.

Show started off late with some hurdles in getting hold of the live stream as it was playing the promos over and over again even after the 12 O Clock schedule. I thought the first TV quality webcast is going to be an absolutely dud show. But then after some 5 min of trying and torturing my laptop the web stream went online with the NDTV anchor Vikram Chanda already on with the show.

Sanket Akerkar looked impressive with his knowledge on the topic but then he slowly drifted towards a technical discussion where he started talking about data sets and XML! The baton was then passed on to our IT minister. Surprise surprise! My presupposition was put to rest soon by our IT leader. Sachin Pilot was more authentic and detailed in the way he presented his thoughts, better than Sanket. It seemed like he has a clear vision for India and it's growth through technology for the coming 5 years.

Well the point of discussion was about Cloud and what the future holds for us. Microsoft is there in the cloud market, their Azure product, for the last 15 years. Still there are lots of concerns when it comes to how secure our data will be when it is placed in the cloud. Sanket was not able to answer the query candidly like how they are actually providing a security cover. Rather he chose to give an example of GlaxoSmithkline pharma whom they were able to convince to be in the cloud. Agreed that they do have a lot of intellectual property to be secured but not sure whether they are relying on cloud as a secured environment! Many a times i have

faced this same question? Is cloud secure? When the experts are not convincing enough then how can a lesser being like me answer!!!

Sachin Pilot continued to impress (ignore the third guy from aircel) with his knowledge and insight on the topic pertinent to the discussion. He insisted that greater internet speed and bandwidth is required to penetrate more into the market and sell cloud. Also wireless (with 3G coming in) is going to greatly improve the possibility and reach of cloud as more and more people will have access to technology. He also stressed that the technology should be available at an affordable price so that IT is not limited to the so called elite crowd, it needs to be moved into the interiors of the country, the les miserables. This brought in the point of e-governance and Universal ID, but not sure how cloud is going to play a part over there. Solutions as available in countries like China where they have their applications developed in their native language (vernacular applications) which is going to be the norm for e-governance. But the major challenge faced will be to support our country's diversity in these applications.

To conclude, impressive webcast still available on demand at www.ndtv.com/cloud. Lot's of possibilities and opportunities discussed but implementation remains to be seen which mostly happens only on paper.