As enterprises enter 2026, cloud computing is evolving from a foundational IT layer into a strategic platform driving innovation, resilience, and competitive differentiation. The growing integration of artificial intelligence is enabling predictive scaling, intelligent resource management, and real-time decision-making, helping organisations enhance performance while optimising costs. At the same time, security has taken centre stage, with zero-trust frameworks becoming essential to protect increasingly distributed and complex digital environments through continuous verification and identity-led controls.
Industry leaders also highlight a decisive shift towards hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, where enterprises balance agility with control by operating across public clouds, private infrastructure, and on-premises systems. This evolution, while enabling flexibility and scalability, has intensified the need for unified orchestration, observability, and governance. Experts across cloud, OEM, and solution provider ecosystems emphasise that the focus is now on simplifying complexity, embedding AI into core operations, and ensuring data sovereignty in line with emerging regulatory requirements.
Against this backdrop, VARINDIA spoke to a cross-section of Cloud & Data Center companies, OEM players, and solution providers/ partners to understand how they are aligning strategies, investments, and platforms to power the next phase of enterprise digital transformation in an AI-driven world.
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Building a unified connectivity cloud to enable AI, edge, and secure innovation
GORAN RISTICEVIC
VP & MD, ASIA PACIFIC, CLOUDFLARE
“At Cloudflare, we are seeing cloud evolve from a collection of services into a more unified, intelligent layer that connects users, applications and data seamlessly. Our focus has been on building a connectivity cloud that integrates networking, security, and compute into a single platform, reducing fragmentation and enabling organizations to operate more efficiently. As AI adoption accelerates, particularly in markets like India, there is a growing need for infrastructure that supports real-time processing and low- latency experiences. We are investing in edge capabilities that allow businesses to run applications and AI inference closer to users, improving performance and responsiveness, while supporting context aware workloads.
Our strategy is rooted in simplifying the cloud experience while expanding what organizations can build on it. Many businesses today navigate complex multi-cloud and hybrid environments, dealing with multiple vendors across networking, security, and compute. We address this by converging these capabilities into a unified platform that is easier to deploy, manage, and scale. We continue to expand our global and regional network footprint, including across India, where we are present in 14 cities, to ensure low-latency access and consistent performance.
Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud removes barriers that slow down innovation. By combining high-performance networking, integrated security, and edge computing, we enable faster deployment while maintaining reliability. With always-on security and strong DDoS mitigation, organizations can scale confidently and focus on building digital experiences rather than managing infrastructure.”
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AI-smart, governed cloud platforms are driving secure enterprise transformation in India
HARSH VAISHNAV
SR DIRECTOR AND HEAD – CHANNELS, INDIA, ASEAN AND HONG KONG, NUTANIX
“Organizations today are navigating three converging shifts: the rise of AI, the risks of ungoverned ‘shadow AI,’ and increasing demand for data sovereignty. In India, the stakes are high. Our Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index shows 96% of IT leaders see AI used outside official oversight as risky, and 73% report AI adoption emerging from non-IT functions. This drives a focus on centralized governance and cross-functional alignment. At Nutanix, we are evolving from providing infrastructure to delivering a governance framework. Container adoption is accelerating, ensuring cloud-native applications are secure, portable, and manageable across any environment. Our aim is to turn AI from a risk into a competitive advantage.
Our growth strategy focuses on helping enterprises become AI-Smart rather than AI-First. We are expanding hybrid multi-cloud capabilities that combine public cloud agility with on-premises control and support AI workloads and automated data services. Investments in R&D centers in Bengaluru and Pune ensure our roadmap meets the scale and complexity of the Indian market, enabling secure, efficient use of next-generation AI.
Nutanix accelerates digital transformation by reducing technical debt and complexity. Our unified platform runs traditional systems alongside modern AI workloads without costly re-platforming. Automation, security, and policy controls enable confident experimentation with GenAI and edge computing. This foundation gives organizations freedom of choice, accelerates innovation, maintains control, and prepares them for edge AI, quantum-ready infrastructure, and stricter data localization requirements.”
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Cloud is becoming the core operating model for innovation in 2026
MANGESH SURVE
SR. DIRECTOR – SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE AND TECH SALES, RED HAT INDIA
“Cloud has moved well beyond infrastructure economics. What we are seeing in 2026 is the cloud becoming the core operating model for innovation, the platform on which enterprises are building their next competitive positions. Companies are not debating whether to transform; they are asking how to do it without losing control of their data, infrastructure, or vendor relationships.
That is where Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud model becomes relevant. India’s enterprise reality is not uniform—whether it is a large public sector bank, a telecom operator building AI-driven self-healing networks, or a manufacturing company running edge workloads at disconnected sites, all have different infrastructure realities. This is where Red Hat OpenShift comes into play, enabling customers to build, modernize, and deploy applications at scale on their choice of hybrid cloud infrastructure.
On the AI front, about 70 to 80 percent of enterprises have already run pilots, and the decisive shift from experimentation to production will define 2026 and 2027. With Red Hat AI Enterprise, our metal-to-agent platform, enterprises can develop and scale AI across any hybrid environment. Through enterprise open source and Kubernetes, we help organisations standardise operations and orchestrate workloads, while open source ensures a transparent security posture. India is not just another cloud market; it is one of the most consequential digital transformation stories, and we aim to be the platform enabling it.”
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India must own its digital future through AI- first, sovereign cloud infrastructure
NARENDRA SEN
FOUNDER & CEO, RACKBANK AND NEEVCLOUD
At NeevCloud, we believe India must own its digital future. The cloud industry is shifting toward a phase that demands sovereignty, speed, and AI-native infrastructure, and we have re-architected our approach. Our offerings are AI-first by design, as traditional cloud architectures were not built for high- intensity, continuous AI workloads. We have redesigned facilities with advanced cooling, accelerated compute fabrics, and AI-optimized data center designs, enabling us to go from groundbreaking to operational in 6–8 months, compared to the industry standard of 24 months.
We are championing the “Sovereign AI SuperCloud” movement. Data centers are the new sovereign territory, and AI is the new electricity. As India’s first AI Supercloud, NeevCloud enables enterprises to train and scale Large Language Models (LLMs) with full data locality, security, and compliance. Our
strategy focuses on making world-class AI infrastructure accessible, affordable, and sovereign through vertical integration, Giga-Scale AI Campus and AI SEZs, and the AI SuperCloud platform, helping Indian enterprises innovate without relying on foreign providers.
Innovation requires high-performance compute and ease of access. Enterprises can deploy LLMs, generative AI, analytics, and HPC workloads at hyperscaler speeds within India, enabling faster AI deployment, reduced timelines, cost efficiencies, and data sovereignty. We integrate AI at the orchestration layer for self-optimizing operations while embedding zero-trust security and full tenant isolation. With BYO- GPU, low-latency interconnects, and Kubernetes-native interoperability, enterprises can operate seamlessly across public, private, or sovereign environments without disruption.
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AI must be native to cloud to deliver intelligent, cost-effective infrastructure
NEELAKANTAN VENKATARAMAN
VP & GLOBAL HEAD – CLOUD, AI AND EDGE COMPUTING BUSINESS, TATA COMMUNICATIONS
“As enterprises advance in 2026, cloud platforms must operate with intelligence, autonomy, and built- in optimisation, helping organisations extract sustained business value rather than manage infrastructure complexity. At Tata Communications, AI is native to our cloud, integrated across infrastructure and processes via Vayu Cloud. Combining FinOps, AIOps, and automated workflows, it continuously optimises resources, right-sizes workloads, and prevents incidents proactively. Together with IZO+ Multi Cloud Network, Edge Distribution Platform, and ThreadSpan, our AI-ready digital fabric unifies networks, cloud, and security, enabling enterprises to scale AI workloads efficiently. Using general- purpose and NVIDIA GPU-accelerated compute across bare metal, virtual machines, and Kubernetes, and through AI Studio, we help customers move from proof-of-concept to production in days with governance, explainability, and security built in.
Security is integral. Zero-trust starts with full-stack, sovereign architecture. Vayu Cloud ensures customer data stays within India using layered controls, WAF, key management, and continuous monitoring. ThreadSpan enables role-based provisioning and micro-segmentation across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, supported by 24x7 NOC, SOC, and DevSecOps, allowing enterprises to adopt zero-trust progressively without disrupting operations or compliance. Our hybrid-by-design approach modernises enterprises at their own pace. Vayu Cloud orchestrates multi-tenant public clouds, private clouds, and edge infrastructure through a single interface, allowing workloads to shift, scale, or burst seamlessly between on-premises, Tata services, and hyperscalers. Cloud enables continuity and incremental innovation, while unified control and workload mobility define the next phase of enterprise cloud strategy.”
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AI-native, high-performance cloud is key to accelerating digital transformation in India
PIYUSH GUPTA
VP – INDIA, APAC & MIDDLE EAST, VULTR
“At Vultr, we are proactively adapting our cloud offerings to the evolving AI-native and distributed computing landscape. As enterprises move from centralized models, our 32 global data centers—including Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi NCR—are built to handle high-performance AI workloads. With India’s IT spending projected at $176.3 billion in 2026 (Gartner), driven by cloud and data center investments, businesses are increasingly focused on AI. Local latency and data residency are now critical. We are expanding VM and bare-metal CPU and GPU compute capacity, investing in Kubernetes and managed container offerings, and ensuring data sovereignty is integral to our infrastructure strategy.
Our growth strategy rests on three pillars. First, product depth: customers can scale from their first VM to multi-region deployments without switching providers. Second, building the developer community through education, engagement, and accessible onboarding. Third, strengthening our partner ecosystem with system integrators and managed service providers who understand Indian enterprises’ legacy infrastructure and compliance requirements.
Transparent pricing underpins all three pillars, addressing one of the biggest confidence concerns for businesses.
Vultr propels customers from AI experimentation to production-scale digital transformation. Gaming, healthtech, and fintech firms benefit from lower latency, cost efficiency, and high availability. Predictable infrastructure frees teams to focus on building. Our goal is to shorten the distance between ideas and deployment, expand capabilities for Indian businesses, and make infrastructure a solved problem—the only question that remains is what to build next.”
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Sovereign, AI-native cloud platforms enable secure and scalable digital transformation
PIYUSH PRAKASHCHANDRA SOMANI
PROMOTER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN, ESDS
"The global cloud computing market is undergoing structural expansion, driven by AI workload demand, sovereign compliance pressures, and real-time data proliferation. At ESDS, our response is architectural reinvention through our flagship platform, the world’s first Autonomous Hyperscaler Cloud Platform, delivering 8-layer, 189-module AI orchestration and patented vertical auto-scaling. Our GPU subsidiary, SPOCHub, has contracted 8,208 NVIDIA B300 GPUs for delivery by September 2026, making ESDS the first sovereign operator of Blackwell-class compute in India. Our data centers strategically span six locations: Nashik, Airoli, Bengaluru, Mohali, Noida, and Kolkata.
ESDS executes a three-pillar growth strategy anchored on GPU infrastructure, community cloud specialisation, and geographic expansion. SPOCHub provides 17.83 PB VAST storage with competitive GPU billing versus hyperscalers. Our Banking Community Cloud serves 450+ clients, Smart City Cloud hosts 80% of India’s operational smart cities, and our data center network scales to 125 MW across 11 facilities. This sovereign, AI-native infrastructure will power India’s USD 1 trillion digital economy by 2030.
Our cloud solutions deliver measurable AI outcomes: banking sees 65% improved fraud detection and 40% lower opex; Smart Cities report 55% faster incident response; manufacturing achieves 48% reduced downtime and 70% faster ERP performance; healthcare enjoys 60% faster diagnostics; retail gains 22% more revenue per visitor. With India’s DPDPA, RBI Cloud Framework, and MeitY policy mandating data residency and explainable AI, sovereign-cloud native providers like ESDS offer enterprises optimized resources, stronger security posture, and uninterrupted service delivery."
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AI-ready, intelligent data infrastructure is driving enterprise cloud transformation in India
PREMALAKSHMI RAMAKRISHNAN
MD & AREA VP, INDIA AND SAARC, NETAPP
“At NetApp, we are aligning our cloud strategy with enterprises increasingly operating in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. In India, nearly 70–75% of organisations are in such setups, creating challenges around data fragmentation, cost, and complexity. Our focus is on delivering intelligent data infrastructure that enables seamless management of data across on-premises, private, and public clouds. Through deep integrations with hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, we ensure consistent performance, security, and accessibility across environments. Beyond traditional storage, we help enterprises make data AI-ready, actionable, and strategically valuable.
Our growth strategy is centred on ecosystem-led innovation and platform enhancements. Collaborations with hyperscalers, including Google Cloud, enhance NetApp Volumes to support enterprise-grade workloads with greater flexibility and simplicity. Unified data platforms eliminate silos, enable seamless data mobility, optimise costs, and scale efficiently. Partnerships with IT services firms such as TCS further strengthen our ability to deliver these capabilities reliably at scale.
NetApp accelerates digital transformation by simplifying data access and management across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Solutions like Cloud Volumes ONTAP enable seamless integration, reduce latency, and support AI workloads effectively. Built-in data protection, ransomware resilience, and automated tiering ensure security, efficiency, and cost optimisation. By combining performance, security, and intelligent automation, we empower enterprises to focus on insights, drive innovation confidently, and maintain uninterrupted business operations across environments.”
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AI-ready, high-performance cloud is driving enterprise digital transformation in India
RANJIT METRANI
PRESIDENT, MANAGED SERVICES, CTRLS DATACENTERS
“CtrlS is aligning its cloud ecosystem with AI-led workloads, hybrid/multi-cloud adoption, and edge computing by building AI-ready, high-density hyperscale infrastructure and strengthening the connectivity layer. Our GPU Private Cloud is designed for AI and ML workloads, with GPU clusters, full-stack management, 24/7 support, and data sovereignty from Rated-4 data centers. We enable multi- cloud adoption through CtrlS Cloud Connect, providing private, secure connections to major cloud providers. Cloud Optimize ensures enterprises manage GPU-intensive workloads efficiently while maintaining cost, performance, and AI-readiness.
Our growth strategy follows a multi-pronged approach: investments in AI and cloud-ready hyperscale capacity, enhancing cloud interconnects, forming strategic technology partnerships, and verified peering. We are also investing in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure, and developing an edge-to-core architecture integrating hyperscale campuses with distributed edge infrastructure for low-latency access and seamless workload distribution. These initiatives help enterprises adopt flexible, high-performance multi-cloud architectures and support large-scale AI-driven digital transformation. CtrlS accelerates innovation by providing secure, high-performance, always-on-demand cloud and managed services that reduce time, cost, and complexity. Our IaaS, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Disaster Recovery, Backup, Security Operations, and Remote Infrastructure Management solutions improve productivity, resilience, and continuity. By supporting mission-critical environments such as the Bombay Stock Exchange, handling 700 crore transactions daily, CtrlS ensures high-volume digital systems operate reliably. Quick provisioning, operational support, and business continuity allow customers to focus on new digital services, enhance user experience, and respond faster to market needs.”
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Full-stack AI and cloud platforms are simplifying enterprise digital transformation in India
RENU RAMAN
FOUNDER & CEO, PROXIMAL CLOUD
“Our approach is rooted in building infrastructure that evolves alongside the workloads it supports. As a company developing platforms for AI and data-intensive applications, we design our solutions based on the operational challenges our customers face. We follow a three-part approach: adopt Open Source wherever possible, partner with leading infrastructure providers such as TrueFoundry and Divyam.ai for non-core components, and develop our own components using modern AI tools and methods, including code generators, observability tools, validation tools for A/B testing, and red-teaming.
We actively use our platform during development and deployment to ensure our architecture meets real enterprise requirements, particularly around predictive scaling, efficient resource utilisation, and low-latency responses to complex queries. Our offerings come in both appliance (physical) and virtual forms on multiple cloud partners, with reference designs and validations. The AI delivery model has shifted from traditional ITops to DevOps/SRE to Forward Deployment Engineers (FDEs), closing skill gaps while bringing engineering closer to customer workflows and requirements.
With over 60 million SMEs and a growing mid-market, we provide a full-stack platform spanning language interfaces, data processing, and backend infrastructure. By enabling multi-language support, cost-efficient compute, deeper insights, and low latency, we help enterprises unlock value from data and navigate complexity. Our unified data foundation and modern AI compute for structured and unstructured data, knowledge graphs, and LLMs enable enterprises to adopt AI confidently, improve productivity, and accelerate digital transformation practically, scalably, and measurably.”
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Flexible, AI-ready cloud platforms are enabling faster enterprise digital transformation in India
SASHISHEKAR PANDA
EXECUTIVE VP - CLOUD AND MEDIA SERVICES, YOTTA DATA SERVICES
“To stay aligned with evolving industry trends, we continue to enhance our cloud offerings around four strategic pillars: flexibility, compliance, business continuity, and AI readiness. Our architecture supports public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, giving customers the freedom to adopt the model that suits their requirements while maintaining control and avoiding vendor lock-in. To foster open innovation, we developed a marketplace that brings together a diverse ecosystem of ISV solutions, enabling customers to discover, integrate, and scale applications on our platform.
We provide seamless hybrid cloud integration with leading global platforms through private, low- latency connectivity, while ensuring data residency and compliance standards. This allows organizations to burst workloads on demand, scale efficiently, and maintain performance and availability. Our platforms are designed with integrated lifecycle management, advanced observability, and resilient architecture.
Platform-led services such as Drishticam, Urja, and Sudarshan simplify operations, enhance efficiency, and unlock new monetization
opportunities.
Our multi-pronged strategy focuses on AI-ready infrastructure, GPU-enabled environments, hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, and strengthening the marketplace ecosystem. SLA-driven managed services and FinOps-led cost optimization enable enterprises to focus on core business. Our flexible, scalable, high-performance cloud foundation accelerates digital transformation, enabling customers to integrate new workloads, modernize applications, and innovate confidently while maintaining cost, performance, and compliance.”
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Hybrid AI infrastructure is transforming enterprise cloud and digital strategies in India
SRINIVAS RAO
MANAGING DIRECTOR - INDIA, LENOVO ISG
“Enterprise cloud strategies today are evolving from a ‘cloud-first’ mindset to hybrid AI-driven models, distributing workloads across public cloud, edge, and on-premises environments based on performance, latency, and regulatory requirements. Our Lenovo CIO Playbook 2026 shows 90% of Indian organisations prefer hybrid or multi-environment AI deployments. Lenovo’s Hybrid AI Advantage combines AI- optimised infrastructure, software, and lifecycle services to enable seamless AI deployment and scaling. Partner collaborations reveal a move toward inference-led architectures, running AI continuously across environments, helping enterprises modernise IT while maintaining control, security, and operational efficiency.
Our strategy focuses on AI-optimised infrastructure, flexible consumption models, and ecosystem collaboration. Lenovo TruScale allows organisations to scale compute resources on demand while keeping workloads in preferred environments. Hybrid AI Advantage accelerates AI deployment and real-time inferencing, delivering measurable returns within months. Investments in high-performance AI infrastructure and advanced cooling technologies like Neptune 6th Gen enhance efficiency and sustainability.
With 99% of Indian enterprises increasing AI investments, scalable hybrid AI platforms are critical to support enterprise AI adoption. Lenovo’s hybrid cloud solutions enable enterprises to extract value from data and run AI closer to where data is generated, improving real-time performance. AI-driven automation, hybrid cloud orchestration, and zero-trust security ensure optimal performance, operational resilience, and cost efficiency across edge, on-premises, and multi-cloud environments. Through ThinkSystem servers, ThinkEdge platforms, and integrated services, Lenovo helps enterprises scale AI, analytics, automation, and generative AI adoption while maintaining seamless operations.”
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Hybrid AI-ready cloud is powering enterprise innovation and growth in India
SUDHIR GOEL
CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, ACER INDIA
“As organizations increasingly adopt AI, data analytics, and hybrid IT environments, cloud infrastructure must evolve to support complex and performance-intensive workloads. At Altos, we focus on high-performance computing, AI-optimized infrastructure, and scalable cloud-ready platforms that seamlessly support hybrid and multi-cloud environments while ensuring security, operational efficiency, and reliability. Energy-efficient architectures, advanced GPU-enabled systems, and flexible deployment models allow enterprises to scale based on evolving business needs, enabling AI training, data processing, and mission-critical workloads both in the cloud and at the edge. To expand cloud capabilities and drive growth, we invest in high-performance GPU-accelerated systems, advanced data processing solutions, and cloud-ready server architectures designed for AI, analytics, and enterprise workloads. Flexible deployment models enable businesses to operate across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments without compromising performance or control. Collaboration with ecosystem partners and technology providers accelerates AI adoption and digital transformation, combining hardware innovation, optimized AI platforms, and integrated solutions to help enterprises scale, innovate, and grow sustainably. Our cloud solutions accelerate innovation by providing scalable, AI-optimized infrastructure that supports large-scale enterprise applications, hybrid and multi-cloud integration, and GPU-accelerated computing. By enabling faster AI experimentation, efficient resource utilization, and seamless deployment of digital services, we help enterprises shorten development cycles, extract insights from data, and drive meaningful digital transformation. Coupled with AI-driven optimization, zero-trust security, and flexible hybrid cloud adoption, our platforms provide a resilient, future-ready foundation that ensures secure and seamless business operations across industries.”
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AI-ready hybrid cloud infrastructure is powering enterprise scale and innovation in India
VENKAT SITARAM
SR DIRECTOR AND COUNTRY HEAD - INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS GROUP (ISG), DELL TECHNOLOGIES INDIA
“At Dell Technologies, our approach is centred on simplifying complexity while enabling innovation at scale across both cloud and AI. Through our long-rooted collaboration with Microsoft and NVIDIA, we deliver integrated hybrid and multi-cloud solutions—from Dell Private Cloud and PowerStore with Azure Local to the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA—that help organisations seamlessly manage data and workloads across environments. PowerStore continues to evolve beyond storage to serve as a foundational platform for modern, future-ready private cloud environments, enabling enterprises to simplify infrastructure, strengthen resilience, and scale with confidence.
At the same time, with over 4,000 customers adopting the Dell AI Factory, we are enabling businesses to move AI from pilot to production by combining AI-ready data platforms, scalable infrastructure, and end-to-end solutions that accelerate time to value and deliver measurable ROI. By bringing together automation, AI-driven capabilities, and built-in cyber resilience, we empower organisations to optimise performance, strengthen zero-trust security, and ensure seamless operations across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
This ultimately helps enterprises unlock the full value of their data, confidently navigate an increasingly dynamic digital landscape, and accelerate innovation at scale. By supporting AI workloads, robust security, and operational efficiency, Dell Technologies provides a future- ready foundation that enables organisations to scale intelligently, innovate faster, and maintain uninterrupted business continuity.”
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AI-led platformization and zero trust reshape cloud security for the control era
HUZEFA MOTIWALA
SR DIRECTOR, TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS, INDIA AND SAARC, PALO ALTO NETWORKS
“Cloud has reached an inflection point. What was once a question of scale is now a question of control, as the gap between visibility and action has emerged as the defining challenge. At Palo Alto Networks, our response has been to collapse that gap by bringing cloud security, threat intelligence, and operations into a unified platform, enabling near real-time decision-making. AI plays a critical role, not as an overlay but as a core enabler of predictive and preventative security, while aligning with cloud-native models to ensure security is integrated into how applications are built and deployed.
In cloud environments today, complexity has become a silent constraint on growth, reflected in delayed decisions, fragmented visibility, and inconsistent outcomes. Our strategy addresses this through platformization, consolidating capabilities into a cohesive system that allows organizations to move from managing tools to managing risk. With deeper integration across cloud ecosystems and AI applied to reduce noise and prioritize what matters, many environments have seen up to a 75 percent reduction in alert volumes, enabling faster, more precise responses.
Innovation slows due to uncertainty around risk. By embedding security across the lifecycle and ensuring continuous runtime visibility, we provide clarity at every stage. As AI adoption grows, Prisma AIRS delivers end-to-end security across the AI lifecycle. Built on a zero-trust foundation, where trust is never assumed but continuously verified, our approach supports hybrid and multi-cloud environments, where resilience depends on how quickly and consistently you can act.”
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AI-powered IaC and Zero Trust drive smarter, resilient cloud operations
INDU MALHOTRA
VP, CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES – INDIA, CAPGEMINI
“Cloud platforms are well positioned to leverage AI to optimize infrastructure and enhance operational efficiency. At Capgemini, AI-assisted Infrastructure as Code (IaC) helps reduce the time to provision and manage environments, standardizes implementation patterns, and enables repeatable deployments, while accelerating detection and remediation of configuration drifts. Security is embedded and verified through improved prioritisation, context, and least-privilege enforcement, helping reduce attack surface without slowing delivery. AI also boosts developer and operations productivity through always-on assistants and by catching risky changes earlier in the delivery pipeline, including LLM-driven reviews of infrastructure pull requests within CI/CD.
Another area is AI log summarisation that turns high-volume, low-signal log streams into readable interpretations, highlighting anomalies, change, and capacity shifts, and triggering predictive insights-driven actions such as auto-healing and auto-scaling. Predictive FinOps ensures cost governance and real-time interventions to avoid bill shock. AI makes cloud operations proactive, predictive, and resilient through automated triage and remediation, translating into faster onboarding, more consistent and secure operations, and better change quality.
Zero Trust starts with the assumption that breaches can occur anywhere, so every access request must be continuously verified. This shifts the perimeter to identity, enforced through strong authentication, least-privilege access, IAM hardening, and micro-segmentation. Hybrid and multi-cloud adoption follows an incremental approach with discovery, unified identity, and ‘R’ strategies, supported by landing zones, Kubernetes, Terraform, GitOps, and consolidated monitoring to ensure portability and minimal disruption.”
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AI-driven GPU cloud and Zero Trust enable efficient, secure hybrid operations
KESAVA REDDY
CRO, E2E NETWORKS
“At E2E Networks, AI is deeply embedded into our cloud infrastructure to deliver intelligent, high- performance environments for modern AI workloads. We leverage AI-driven orchestration to optimise utilisation of large-scale GPU clusters, including H100, H200, and B200 deployments, dynamically scheduling workloads based on priority, utilisation patterns, and concurrent users to ensure maximum throughput and minimal idle capacity. Predictive analytics enables auto-scaling of GPU and compute resources during training or inference spikes without manual intervention, while systems continuously monitor infrastructure health, detect anomalies, and proactively resolve performance bottlenecks. Our AI models also help customers right-size infrastructure, reduce wastage, and achieve better price-to- performance.
Security is not an afterthought—it is architected into every layer of our cloud platform. We guide customers toward zero-trust frameworks that treat every access request as untrusted by default. Our approach is built on identity-centric access control, network micro-segmentation, and continuous monitoring with AI-powered threat intelligence that analyses traffic patterns, flags anomalies in real time, and triggers automated responses. We also offer dedicated, isolated infrastructure for sensitive AI workloads, eliminating noisy-neighbour risks while supporting data sovereignty.
For hybrid and multi-cloud adoption, we support seamless transitions without disrupting operations. Our platform integrates with hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, enabling customers to balance performance, cost, and compliance. Through phased migration, unified visibility, and technical enablement, we help organisations manage and scale hybrid environments with confidence.”
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AI-driven unified security and Zero Trust drive hybrid cloud transformation
MANISH ALSHI
SENIOR DIRECTOR, CHANNELS & ALLIANCES, CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES INDIA & SOUTH ASIA
“In India, where organisations face a weekly average of 3,195 cyberattacks—a 2 percent increase in 2025 compared to 2024, according to Check Point Research—at Check Point Software Technologies we are strengthening cloud-native, unified security across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. As enterprises accelerate adoption of AWS, Azure, and private cloud, we secure networks, workloads, applications, and APIs through a single platform with consistent policy enforcement. Our approach embeds Zero Trust, automated threat prevention, and real-time visibility, helping organisations reduce misconfigurations, secure assets at scale, and support digital transformation without increasing complexity.
Our business strategy focuses on platform consolidation, AI-driven security, and partner-led growth.
With adoption accelerating across BFSI, healthcare, and government, we enable partners to deliver managed cloud security services and recurring revenue models. Our Hybrid Mesh Network Security architecture secures data centres, cloud, and edge under a single platform. Combined with AI-driven automation and exposure management, this helps enterprises reduce response times and manage risk at scale, while our 100% channel-driven model continues to drive cloud-led growth.
With India’s digital economy projected to account for about 20% of GDP by 2030, security must keep pace. Our cloud solutions embed AI-driven security directly into environments, with automation handling detection, vulnerability management, and response. Unified security across multi-cloud, SaaS, and on-prem eliminates fragmentation. Through a unified, prevention-first platform with identity-based access and AI-driven optimisation, we enable seamless hybrid and multi-cloud operations via a single control plane.”
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AI moves beyond infrastructure to drive workflow- led cloud efficiency and governance
PRASHANTH SUBRAMANIAN
CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, QUADRASYSTEMS.NET (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
“Most conversations about AI and cloud stop at the infrastructure layer—smarter autoscaling, cost anomaly alerts, and rightsizing recommendations—but those are table stakes. At Quadra, we are seeing real operational impact when AI is embedded into the workflow layer, automating how infrastructure decisions get made, not just flagging them. Our managed services use AI-driven monitoring that moves from reactive to predictive, detecting performance degradation or security drift before it surfaces as an incident. Through our Max-IT platform, customers get continuous FinOps intelligence that not only reports cloud spend but recommends architectural interventions, delivering 30–40% reductions in cloud wastage.
Zero trust is widely understood but inconsistently implemented, with enterprises often deploying fragmented controls without architectural coherence. Our approach starts with identity as the perimeter, using Microsoft Entra ID as the backbone to enable continuous verification across every access request across hybrid environments. We layer in Privileged Identity Management, Data Loss Prevention, and cloud workload protection to close gaps left by point solutions, positioning zero trust as a business resilience programme.
The challenge with hybrid and multi-cloud isn’t technology—it is orchestration and governance. Our approach establishes a unified control plane before migration, standardising observability, security policy, and cost governance across Azure, AWS, and on-premises. Migration is sequenced by business risk, while our managed services absorb operational complexity, ensuring teams can scale without disruption.”
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Secure, AI-ready cloud adoption accelerates enterprise digital transformation
PRAVIR DAHIYA
CTO, TATA TELESERVICES
“Cloud computing has evolved from a foundational IT layer into a strategic enabler of innovation, scalability, and resilience in today’s digital economy. At Tata Tele Business Services, we focus on simplifying cloud adoption for businesses across sectors by delivering integrated solutions that bring together secure connectivity, cloud platforms, collaboration tools, and cybersecurity within a unified ecosystem. As organisations move toward AI-driven operations and hybrid or multi-cloud environments, managing these ecosystems becomes increasingly complex. Our approach removes this complexity through fully managed services that ensure cloud adoption remains seamless, secure, and outcome driven. We enable data-driven decision-making, automation, and operational agility, helping businesses leverage cloud capabilities without the burden of managing underlying infrastructure.
Our solutions, including Smart Internet and SD-WAN, provide a resilient, high-performance network backbone, while our cloud communication suite, Smartflo, enables businesses to enhance customer experience through intelligent, scalable, and seamless engagement. Together, these offerings empower organisations to operate efficiently while staying agile and customer centric. With security-first architectures and simplified deployment, we ensure businesses are protected against evolving cyber threats while maintaining ease of management.
A ‘cloud smart’ mindset enables organisations to innovate faster, collaborate effectively, and scale with confidence. By combining simplified deployment with end-to-end managed support, Tata Tele Business Services helps enterprises and SMEs unlock the full potential of cloud while accelerating their digital transformation journey in a secure and sustainable manner.”
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AI-driven cloud and Zero Trust power secure hybrid multi-cloud transformation
RAJSEKHAR DATTA ROY
CTO, SONATA SOFTWARE
“Through 2026, enterprises will reposition cloud computing from a foundational infrastructure layer to a strategic engine for innovation and competitive differentiation. This shift is defined by the convergence of AI-driven operations, resilient security architectures, and flexible multi-cloud strategies—enabling organizations to accelerate innovation while sustaining operational discipline. At Sonata Software, we embed AI across the cloud lifecycle through AI-first platforms, including Harmoni.ai, AgentBridge, and our Agentic AI Engineering delivery model, integrating human expertise with AI-driven automation. AI- assisted tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and Kiro help enterprises assess legacy landscapes, modernize applications, and optimize cloud performance.
Security remains foundational as enterprises expand digital footprints. Sonata enables adoption of Zero Trust architectures aligned with leading hyperscaler frameworks, leveraging identity governance, threat intelligence, and continuous compliance monitoring. Secure AI coding practices are embedded into development pipelines, making security integral—not incremental—to DevSecOps workflows. This ensures continuous verification and robust protection across users, devices, and workloads in highly distributed environments.
Hybrid and multi-cloud adoption is a defining enterprise priority. Sonata supports this through standardized landing zones, API-driven integration, and unified governance, enabling phased migrations, workload coexistence, and consistent operations. AI-enabled FinOps continuously monitors usage, optimizes costs, and improves financial transparency, helping organizations integrate AI-driven operations, robust security, and adaptive multi-cloud strategies to scale innovation and lead in the digital economy.”
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AI-driven cloud optimisation and Zero-Trust security define enterprise strategy in 2026
ROHAN GUPTA
VP CLOUD, SECURITY & DEVOPS, R SYSTEMS
“After years of aggressive cloud adoption, the conversation with most clients in 2026 has shifted. It is less about moving to the cloud and more about making it work cost-effectively, securely, and manageable at scale across environments, especially as architectures become more complex. In this context, leveraging AI for cloud optimisation, the challenge is rarely a lack of data, but the absence of structured processes to act on. For most enterprises, AI is not about fully autonomous infrastructure yet, but about enabling disciplined, data-driven decision-making on an ongoing basis.
Alongside efficiency, security has become a parallel priority. From a security standpoint, zero-trust is often misunderstood as a product-led approach. At R Systems, we find that foundational gaps persist, such as unreviewed IAM policies and service accounts with excessive permissions. Our approach begins with a comprehensive access and posture audit, followed by a phased implementation: strengthening identity controls, introducing robust secret management, and progressively enforcing workload-level policies. In sectors like financial services and healthcare, accelerating regulatory timelines are making organizational alignment more straightforward due to clear compliance mandates. Increasing architectural complexity is also shaping cloud strategy. Our priority is to establish operational visibility through a unified observability layer, standardising infrastructure-as-code practices, and defining a cloud operating model that balances central oversight with autonomy. Ultimately, organisations making meaningful progress are those treating cloud as an ongoing operating discipline grounded in consistency and continuous optimisation.”
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AI-driven observability and Zero-Trust security empower hybrid cloud transformation
ROHIT SHUKLA
SR SALES DIRECTOR, INDIA AND SAARC, SOLARWINDS
“As organizations rapidly adopt hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, SolarWinds is expanding its observability platform to provide integrated visibility across on-premises and leading cloud environments. By embedding artificial intelligence and automation through innovations like the SolarWinds AI Agent and Root Cause Assist, we accelerate troubleshooting and correlate events to highlight probable causes. This helps enterprises shift from reactive monitoring to predictive operations. As cloud environments scale, we allow organizations to adopt capabilities incrementally while maintaining operational simplicity and flexibility across hybrid IT infrastructures.
A key pillar of our growth is sustained investment in R&D, particularly through our expanded footprint in India. Our new Bengaluru office serves as a strategic innovation hub for next-generation observability and AI-driven IT operations. Furthermore, through the SolarWinds Partner Program and 2026 Partner Summit initiatives, we are empowering our global ecosystem with certification tracks and platform modernization. This ensures partners effectively accelerate the adoption of cloud solutions, improving agility and innovation for enterprises undergoing digital transformation.
SolarWinds enables AI-driven cloud optimization and secure operations by following 'AI by Design' and 'Secure by Design' principles. Our platform unifies observability across on-premises systems and major public clouds, ensuring operational consistency and zero-trust security. By correlating telemetry data in real time, IT teams detect anomalies and resolve issues faster, reducing mean time to resolution. Ultimately, providing this comprehensive visibility is foundational for enterprises to optimize resources and scale confidently.”
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AI-driven platforms and Zero-Trust security enable scalable hybrid and multi-cloud transformation
SONIA AHLUWALIA
VP – CLOUD PRACTICE, KYNDRYL INDIA
"Kyndryl is shifting to an AI-driven, platform-based cloud model, leveraging hyperscaler innovation and platform engineering to move from fragmented setups to integrated, business-focused environments. In this model, AI and agentic AI are embedded into operations to modernize and automate IT. Rather than treating cloud as an end in itself, we position it as a foundational layer enabling AI adoption at scale. By adopting site reliability engineering and collaborating with hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, Kyndryl manages increasing multi-cloud complexity while delivering ongoing business value.
Our strategy is built around a structured transformation framework and an end-to-end services portfolio covering the full cloud lifecycle. We prioritize platform-first transformation, aligning cloud initiatives to business outcomes through scalable platforms supported by governance and automation. To support growth, Kyndryl integrates FinOps practices for cost visibility and leverages a global, cloud-certified workforce to deliver complex programs. This approach helps deepen customer relationships and supports long-term revenue growth by enabling consistent, enterprise-scale modernization within a hybrid IT model.
Kyndryl helps organizations achieve faster time-to-market by modernizing legacy systems and enabling cloud-native development. We provide a unified operating model that integrates AI-driven optimization, full-stack observability, and zero-trust security. By embedding centralized governance and consistent policy enforcement across dynamic infrastructures, we ensure secure hybrid and multi-cloud adoption. This allows customers to manage workloads across environments with consistent visibility, ensuring reliable, seamless operations and the ability to innovate continuously without added complexity."
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AI operations and Zero-Trust security drive reliable hybrid cloud
SURESH RAMANI
CEO, TECHGYAN
"In 2026, cloud strategy has matured into a leadership test: can we run technology with predictable uptime, controlled risk, and explainable costs? The conversation is no longer 'where do we host' but 'how do we operate'—with AI-assisted operations, identity-first Zero Trust, and hybrid/multi-cloud as the default reality. On operations, the fastest wins come from better signal quality and repeatable response. We use Azure Monitor alerting with dynamic thresholds and machine learning to flag anomalies, reducing noise. Where fixes are well understood, we implement automation-assisted remediation through runbooks, ensuring response becomes consistent, auditable, and less dependent on individual heroics.
For capacity, we apply predictive autoscale, providing clearer operational KPIs and improved recovery confidence anchored in monitoring and governance through DataCenter 365. On cost control, we focus on governance that finance can trust, using budgets and alerts to create accountability. On security, SecureIT 365 prioritises MFA, Conditional Access, and continuous verification, while the Threat Protection Envisioning format surfaces misconfigurations across email, devices, and identities.
For hybrid and multi-cloud, we reduce disruption by standardising foundations, using Azure Arc to extend management across locations. Finally, responsible AI is a change program; our Copilot Workshops focus on readiness and governance, while the Data Security Immersion Briefing anchors compliance in Microsoft Purview concepts. In 2026, CIOs will be judged by how reliably they run cloud-securely, measurably, and repeatably."
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