I do get to travel a fair amount as part of my role with EMC. The act of traveling itself can be mind-numbing, but you get rewarded with all sorts of fresh experiences and perspectives on the other end.
Such is the case with this trip.
I hadn't been to India in many years, but am now here in support of the annual EMC Forum. The differences between then and now are striking, to say the least.
The EMC Forum itself qualifies as a raging success. There are two parts to the event, an IT leadership focused event today (attended by ~200 CIOs and similar) and a broader-based IT professional event tomorrow.
Customers, prospects, press and our partners are here in full force -- it's a big deal. Sure, there are plenty of technologies here, but these events are really about sharing ideas.
I thought I'd share with you my five key impressions I've gathered so far.
1. India Has A Very Sophisticated IT Culture
I get involved in IT conversations around the world, and the people here are on their game, so to speak.
They know what cloud means to them. They're fascinated with the potential of big data and analytics. They fully appreciate the ascendency of mobile devices, next generation security and so on.
When I'm chatting with anyone -- customer, partner, press, etc. -- we can usually skip the 101 and 201 discussions, and go straight to the advanced material.
That's cool.
2. India Aspires To Be A Global IT Player -- Again
In the last wave of physical IT, India supplied the smart men and women who were behind so many IT projects of the last decade. My message is simple -- IT is changing fast, and entirely new skills and expertise will be demanded by the global economy. That represents a clear opportunity here.
Fortunately, at EMC we have a fairly evolved perspective of what those new skills are, and are investing locally in helping to increase the supply of these critical skills. It's a topic that people are listening to very closely indeed.
3. The Local Economy Is Growing Faster Than You Might Think
There's evidence of massive private-sector investments everywhere -- clearly, there's an entrepreneurial spirit in the air. Many of these projects involve the use of large-scale IT infrastructure, and cloud is the preferred model
As one example, I could identify at least a half-dozen local players who were clearly intent on standing up IT service provider offerings to meet the burgeoning demand for IT in companies both large and small.
I'm guessing that many of the smaller IT shops here end up consuming IT as a service vs. investing in their own IT data centers. And, perhaps, more than a few larger ones as well :)
4. People Here Really Get Big Data Analytics
I don't know whether it's the educational tradition here, or whether it's a result of being in a country with over a billion residents, but -- just about everyone here appreciates the awesome potential of big data analytics.
Big data is seen not only as a source of commercial value creation, but also as a means to help tackle some of the most daunting social problems on the planet. Lots of interest on our insights about how organizations can gain proficiency in this hot new topic.
I think there's a very good chance that India could end up being a net exporter of data science expertise that will be so much in demand before long.
5. I'm Very Proud Of The Local Teams
I had a chance to spend some time with not only the EMC team here, but representatives from VMware, Cisco and Wipro. These are the talented and hard-working people who bring the global expertise and capabilities of our respective companies to the local market -- often under somewhat challenging circumstances.
All of them were up-to-date on what our companies were doing individually, and collectively. All of them were incredibly proud of their customers' and partners' successes. And all were very enthusiastic of what the future could bring.
In one sense, the IT industry is a global industry and essentially a global culture with many shared values and passions. But that's not to say it's homogeneous: every marketplace has its own opportunities and challenges, as well as its own local flavor that's worth taking the time to appreciate.
I hope it won't be as many years before I return.
Things are moving very fast here indeed.
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