Discussing the trends, potential and challenges in data centre racks sector, Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director – Sales & Support at NetRack shares his views with www.digitalworldeconomy.com. Excerpts:
What are some of the big trends that are redefining this space of enabling security infrastructure today?
In order to reduce uncertain risk and make it cost effective, data centre designs are becoming more integrated and are being constructed from prefabricated modules that can be deployed quickly, scaled easily and operated efficiently. Thus, it takes less time to develop than traditional processes. It can be repurposed at another location and can be scaled up and down depending upon the needs.
Green data centre offers solutions like as free cooling, renewable energy sources, and waste recycling are gaining high traction from the customers in various sectors. Also, smartair-cooling ability enables data centre builders to cut up to 40 per cent of the capital cost.
A current trend is convergence or hyper-convergence of servers and storage into a single box, which is being driven by the availability of solid-state drives. The next wave of computing after Cloud is definitely Edge Computing. Edge computing places data acquisition, storage and applications closer to the end user.
Computing capabilities are moving to the edge devices such as driverless cars and drones to all the devices that make up the Internet of Things. The data centre of the future is likely to incorporate more robotics-driven technologies. Robotics will not only help in creating automation around repetitious human tasks but also in mapping temperatures and optimization of the data centre.
Another use of robotic automation technology is to enable teams to configure their local business process automation and rapidly design, build, test and deploy new business process automation.
In the next five years from now, there will be a full-scale revolution in how information is delivered. Growing clouds, robotics and edge computing will change the way modern data centre functions.
What kind of innovations are you driving as an organization in this space?
We are offering a variety of solutions including intelligent racks, power management, asset management, environmental & rack access management & cooling solutions that can meet the demands of today’s data centres. Recently, we have launched new iRack and iRack blocks.
The iRack has been designed and configured as a self-cooled, self-powered and self- contained rack with minimal cold air losses and thermal short circuit to save energy. It is an instigated solution for on-premise data center basically to address both SME & Infra-capsules for Corporate/Enterprise segment. The iRack is specially designed to suit the requirements of SMEs, Banking & warehouses while iRack Blocks is designed for the Corporate/ Enterprise segment.
Apart from this, Acoustic Rack is built with both passive & active noise cancellation in collaboration with M/s Selenium of Israel. This can be proved fruitful for office area/lab area where there is availability for cooling and this rack is having a capability to handle 7 KVA heat load and can reduce the noise level to as low as 30 DB.
What can we expect from your organization in the coming months? Or What kind of growth are you expecting in this space?
NetRack is a leading solutions provider and offers new technology and eco-friendly products for Data centres and end to end IT server racks. Our team has continued to innovate the products as per market trends and our customers’ requirements. We believe that growth is majorly driven by meeting customers’ on-time delivery of products and services and catering to market needs which are driven by global trends.
With the addition of over 200+ new customers in a year, indicates the confidence that customers have articulated in NetRack’s services and solutions. The ability to address customer’s issues while meeting the requirements and quality of products delivered is one of our core strength.
Recently, NetRack has been awarded certification from Environmental Management System and Occupational Health and Safety Management System. And, we always believe in innovation, products and solution which will help and satisfy our customers with no major blocks
What kind of challenges do you see in this space? How can these challenges be resolved?
The industry continues to advance at an unprecedented pace and there is a data explosion of sorts that needs to be managed. With so many apps and personal data increasing day by day, there is no option but to look for new innovations and solutions to tackle the emerging challenges.
How important is the channel ecosystem for your operations? Please share details on your channel engagements?
We are keen on expanding our business and building a strong partner base and channel network in remote cities across the country. Since upcountry markets are also playing a big role in facilitating the growth, we will make sure we reach out to these markets by doing road shows and other marketing activities. Even last year, we had managed to capture a good market share.
We being OEM with strong engineering capabilities, good manufacturing base and world-class products with cost-effective tag, we don’t have a threat of new tech giants, most of them are in India and we are competing already.
