Werner Vogels is the chief technology officer of Amazon , the world's biggest online retailer and also the pioneer in cloud computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS ). Amazon has a major R&D centre in Bangalore , and on a recent visit to the city , Vogels spoke exclusively to TOI.
Have conversations about the cloud in India changed since we met one year ago?
What's changing in India is sort of similar to what's happening in all other parts of the world , where enterprises more and more are no longer discussing whether they should be using cloud, but they are discussing how and what should be using cloud. And it's happening across industries , be it media companies moving their online properties onto AWS , building new web properties , building new businesses on it, or traditional companies like Tata Motors looking to the cloud, on one hand for their digital marketing properties , like for the Nano car , and on the other , for how can they make use of big data to build new analytics techniques to instrument their trucks
How does the Tata trucks solution work?
They call this application Telematics' , where Tata Motors put GPS and sensors in their trucks , along with telecommunication equipment , so that the data flows back into the AWS cloud where it's analysed not only for locations , but also for the health of the trucks ; when to do preventive maintenance , etc.
What other interesting applications have you seen?
The Tata project is similar to another project that we're running with GE (General Electric ). Together with them we started a project called 'Industrial Cloud' that looks at the massive gas turbines that GE builds. They have tens of hundreds of sensors in there , data from that flows into the AWS cloud, they do analytics there , and then give users of those turbines insight into cost efficiency and optimal usage , and things like that . In Seattle and New York , all buses are outfitted with similar kind of technologies such that customers can have mobile apps that tell them exactly how long it will take before the bus will arrive . Given how many people I see standing at the bus stops here in India , there might be a market here .
Hotelogix , based in India , provides property management solutions for small and medium hotelsusing our cloud. Most small hotels never have been able to actually have any kind of proper system to manage their operations . Now, they get access to high-end , enterprise class property management . I think they offer their service in more than 50 countries now .
It's cheaper to do these things on the cloud?
Yes, and it's implemented much faster too as you don't need any hardware infrastructure for it. In the bus instance , it doesn't really matter how many buses are driving there . If you have 500 buses driving at night versus 5,000 during the day , you can bring much more efficiencies to the platform as the cloud-based servers can scale up and down automatically according to the traffic condition . Most bus companies are interested in adding additional services to this, since they know , for instance , which bus you are on at a certain moment .
Is cloud security still an issue in customer minds?
I don't have to spend that much time anymore to convince our customers that cloud is secure . They are convinced that if governments are running on the cloud, if Shell , Unilever , New York Times run on the cloud, probably these guys have done their due diligece before they started moving critical business operations to the cloud. Companies like Shell are moving core IT over to AWS .