NxtGen - India Electoral Case Study

Summary

In this Showcase interview, Guy Bartram, Director of Partner Marketing for cloud services, engages with Raj, CEO of NextGen, discussing the company's journey from a data center player to a cloud provider with a focus on vertical solutions. Raj highlights NextGen's tailored cloud offerings for government, healthcare, and financial services, emphasizing the importance of data sovereignty and compliance. The conversation delves into NextGen's role in the recent Indian elections, showcasing their scalable, secure infrastructure built on VMware's Sovereign Cloud, which handled massive digital traffic without outages, underlining the company's commitment to innovation and regulatory compliance.

Takeaways

• 😀 Raj, the founder and CEO of NextGen, started the company in 2012 and has received investment from notable entities like Intel Capital and Iron Mountain.
• 🌟 NextGen began as a data center player but evolved into a cloud provider, leveraging Raj's experience from companies like Microsoft and Dell.
• 📈 The company has transitioned from a general infrastructure service to building specific solutions for verticals such as government, healthcare, and financial services.
• 🏢 NextGen is focusing on creating a unified control framework to simplify compliance requirements for its clients across various regulated industries.
• 🔒 Data sovereignty and compliance are central to NextGen's offerings, especially in regulated verticals, as they help navigate the complex landscape of data protection laws.
• 🌍 NextGen's government cloud offering adheres to the principles of data jurisdiction, security, and compliance, which are crucial in a polarized global environment.
• 🗳️ NextGen played a significant role in the recent Indian elections by providing a scalable, secure, and stable platform for the Election Commission, handling a massive increase in load.
• 🚀 The success of NextGen's platform was evident in its ability to manage over 100 million searches and support the workflow for 30 million election workers during the elections.
• 💻 The company's use of VMware's Sovereign Cloud and Tanzu platform was instrumental in delivering the performance and security required for the election operations.
• 🔗 NextGen's strategy includes integrating VCF (VMware Cloud Foundation) to enable compliance and automation, which is crucial for regulated industries.
• 🔑 The company aims to make the cloud more accessible for mid-sized and small enterprises that may lack the resources to manage complex compliance requirements, offering them a cost-effective solution.

Q & A

Who is the founder and CEO of NextGen, as mentioned in the script?

Raj is the founder and CEO of NextGen.

What year did NextGen start its operations?

NextGen started its operations in 2012.

What was NextGen's initial business focus before transitioning to cloud services?

NextGen initially started as a data center player before transitioning to cloud services in 2013.

Which companies has Raj worked for prior to founding NextGen?

Raj has previously worked for companies like Microsoft and was also very early in Dell in India.

What are the three verticals that NextGen is currently focusing on for its cloud solutions?

NextGen is currently focusing on Government, Healthcare, and Financial Services for its cloud solutions.

What does NextGen aim to achieve with its 'unified control framework'?

The 'unified control framework' aims to simplify compliance requirements for its customers by building a responsibility matrix that clarifies what is expected and what needs to be done.

What is the significance of Sovereign Cloud in NextGen's offerings?

Sovereign Cloud is significant in NextGen's offerings as it focuses on data classification, data jurisdiction, compliance, and security, which are crucial for regulated industries.

How did NextGen participate in the recent elections in India?

NextGen participated in the recent elections in India by working with the Election Commission to modernize their applications and provide a scalable, secure, and stable platform for handling the election process.

What was the peak transaction load that NextGen handled during the election period?

During the election period, NextGen handled a peak transaction load that was 21 times more than the regular traffic.

How did NextGen ensure the security and performance of the election platform?

NextGen ensured the security and performance of the election platform by using a full stack VCF solution, which included load balancing, security measures like firewalls, and high-performance storage and compute capabilities.

What is NextGen's strategy for the future in terms of VCF and other domains?

NextGen's strategy for the future involves building a unified controls framework that incorporates compliance into its technology implementations, focusing on making the cloud services more verticalized and tailored to specific industry regulations.