The Role of Hybrid Cloud in ERP Integration By Swapnil Jugade, CIO, Revent Group

The Role of Hybrid Cloud in ERP Integration

Swapnil Jugade, CIO, Revent Group | Saturday, 02 December 2023, 06:48 IST

A qualified Electrical Engineer with an MBA in General Management, Swapnil boasts of an extensive 26 years of experience in managing IT supply chain, manufacturing, and IT operations areas. He joined Revent in January earlier this year, prior to which he has successfully handled key roles across companies such as Yokohama Off-Highway Tires, C&S Electric, Cummins India, and Schneider Electric, Godrej&Boyce, etc.

In an interaction with CIOTechoutlook magaziue, Swapnil emphasizes the need for clear reasons behind cloud adoption, aligning strategies with business goals for hybrid cloud, and prioritizing stringent data security and compliance measures in cloud implementation.

Currently, cloud computing is seen as one of the most profitable businesses in India. As a result, we are witnessing the emergence of a large number of companies in this segment lately, each offering a variety of cloud models to all industries. However, what is challenging here for business wanting to obtain cloud services is to determine the exact reason why they are opting for cloud. In my experience interacting with my fellow industry peers, I have seen that most of the organizations fail to have a clear idea of why they need cloud and the kind of cloud that suits their line of business, thus resulting in unnecessary costs and inefficiency of processes. Also, businesses must ensure to have stringent data access and security policies in place irrespective of the kind of infrastructure that they are using. Thus, I always suggest business owners to take the help of a subject matter expert in order to have a clear picture about various aspects prior to implementing cloud services.

Prerequisites while Implementing a Hybrid Cloud Strategy

While implementing a hybrid cloud strategy, every organization must look at its future objectives and have a well-defined action plan for the coming 3-5 years to achieve the same. Companies need to carefully analyze their existing on-premise infrastructure and applications, and accordingly formulate strategies in line with their overall business goals. Also, as business move all their assets at an enterprise level to cloud, it is necessary for them to classify their applications in terms of enterprise applications, global applications, regional applications and local applications. Based on the quadrant that your application belongs to, you need to decide whether to stay on-premise or migrate to cloud, and then select the kind of cloud that suits your business requirements. I personally feel that hybrid cloud will be the best choice for all big organizations due to the diverse variety of function that each organization comprises of.

Importance of Data Security & Compliance

Data security is one of the most critical aspects that every organization must consider while implementing any kind of ERP systems into their existing processes. With the new data security act that has been passed, it is now mandatory for every organization to maintain stringent data security measure irrespective of the industry they are operating in. For this, it is crucial for organizations to understand the kind of data that is being collected and store across each application. However, companies should not panic in this regard, and ensure to take extra care only if the data is deemed too sensitive and confidential in nature. Only after this should the organization decide on where that particular data will be stored. Encrypting the data and having regular data back-up practices in place is also another simple, yet very effective measure that every organization must do in order to safeguard their data. Most importantly, if the data or application is on public cloud, the organization must conduct a though analysis on whether all the necessary security standards and regulatory policies are being met or not.