Dell EMC says it is ready with data localisation tech

Indian central bank RBI's directive on data localisation is a sour pill for many multinational payment companies. RBI had set a deadline of October 15, 2018, for all payments companies to start storing data on Indian soil; it wants processing of payments to happen locally for a variety of reasons. Companies such as Visa and MasterCard have been fighting the move, citing many challenges.

One of the reasons often cited is the technology challenge, the fact that it is too difficult to do, and run processes efficiently.

Not all multinational companies agree with that view-certainly not the technology infrastructure players who stand to benefit through the sale of more hardware and software required for such localisation. Dell EMC, for instance, says the technology to do localisation exists and it is only a matter of multinational companies saying "Yes, we got to do this".

Business Today spoke to Amit Midha, President APJ Commercial and EVP, Global Digital Cities at Dell EMC. He said the company is committed to supporting the regulations of every country.

"We believe that this trend of data being the new currency is going to happen in more places. More governments are going to want control and access to their citizen's data. In that context, we will be ready with the technology framework," he said.

What is that framework? Companies protesting localisation moves are arguing they need all the data in one place, at one central location, in a centralised data-processing warehouse. This currently happens to be abroad for some multinationals. If all the data is centralised in a location, it is easier to run analytics and do fraud detection. Nevertheless, Midha said, today, companies can run analytics on the Edge.

"If a transaction is going through and is considered fraudulent, instead of saying that the data has to go to the core (a centralised centre), you can analyse the data at the Edge or in a distributed form. And send a signal saying the transaction has a problem," the executive said.

Edge Computing is an emerging paradigm where data is processed near the edge of the network or closer to where the data is being generated. This could be at the device capturing the data as well, such as cameras.

"Distributed analytics will be the norm of the future. Edge Computing will take off. If you have thousands of cameras in Delhi to analyse who is a good person and who is not, there is not enough bandwidth in the world to feed all these data into one centre, analyse, and then react," he explained.

Similarly, cars with driver assistive technologies will generate a lot of data. Such data needs to be processed at the Edge to be effective. "If someone is saying there is no technology solution, we are saying that is not correct. We have technology solution for edge analytics, distributed analytics."

Large multinational companies, nevertheless, may need more time, Midha said, and added that it is a three to six months process for any large company to implement.