Dr. Ispran Kandasamy, Vice President of Asia-Pacific sales, CommScope, is responsible for leading and growing the Enterprise business within the whole Asia Pacific geography – covering countries as diverse as China, India, Australia/NZ, Japan, South Korea as well as the ASEAN block countries. Over the past 25 years, he has built up a proven track record in research & development, manufacturing and sales & marketing within the IT, Telco and general communication’s industry. In previous roles, he worked for Avaya’s Connectivity Solutions business as managing director for Asia Pacific (based in HK); for Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel Lucent) as Director of Channel Distribution as well as sales manager for pan-European fiber infrastructure (based in London); and for Pirelli Cables & Systems (based in Wales) leading a team that designed and developed passive optical infrastructure. Ish holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D) in materials science and physics relating to optical devices from Brunel University (now University of West London), England. He is also the co-author of a number of patents developed while working for Pirelli Cables & Systems.
CommScope, creates the infrastructure that connects people and technologies through every evolution. The company’s portfolio of end-to-end solutions includes critical infrastructure our customers need to build high-performing wired and wireless networks. As much as technology changes, the goal remains the same: to help customers create, innovate, design, and build faster and better.
Replying to Anil Mascarenhas of IIFL, Dr. Ispran Kandasamy says, “There is little point in having high-performance ‘nodes’ or end-point capability if the connection to these points is relatively low performance because this will result in an unreliable, low quality network.”
What is the main trend in infrastructure solutions for communications networks?
The Indian data center industry has seen a fairly good growth in the recent years. Insulation Displacement Connections (IDCs) have become important to enterprises and the mid market organizations. Virtualization has been the main trend, due to which the network infrastructure is more critical in terms of the management and bandwidth availability. Also the convergence of LAN and SAN onto a single Ethernet interface is changing the DC infrastructure.
You had a presentation interestingly titled - In Asia It’s the Quality of the Connection that Counts. Share insights some with us.
Charles Eames, a very well known designer of furniture (amongst other things) once famously said “Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se” The same applies to communication networks. There is little point in having high-performance ‘nodes’ or end-point capability if the connection to these points is relatively low performance because this will result in an unreliable, low quality network.
In Asia the driving force to connect is strong – millions of people understand the power that is unleashed when connecting and communicating via the internet either through wired or wireless infrastructure. However, supply and demand factors often kick-in, attempting to reduce costs as volumes pick up; for instance, you can witness the very low average revenue per user (ARPU) data for India’s wireless networks. However, with this increasing commoditization comes a trade-off: a lower average performance in return for lower price points. Often the first element of a network to suffer commoditization is the basic physical layer infrastructure. There is a danger that in parts of Asia, as we rush to connect, we will accept lower quality networks than in other parts of the world.
A ‘good-enough, average’ approach to infrastructure may be sufficient for a competitive domestic market, but where there is aspiration for a company or even country to compete on a global scale then average isn’t good enough. High quality connections promote global competitiveness. There is no doubt that many countries within Asia fully intend to compete on the global stage so it is time for us to improve the quality of our network connections.
The cloud has become the buzzword besides the weather. What growth are you seeing in India in the datacenter and cloud space? What do you think will be the game changers?
Cloud is definitely the buzz word in the Data center and in the service provider space. Though we have not seen any tremendous jump in the cloud services, it is definitely there and gaining slow and steady growth. As customers appreciate its power and flexibility more will take to the Cloud. That is when service providers have to come good.
To what extent is India’s basic networking infrastructure in place? Where are the gaps?
Fundamentally, when designing and building network infrastructure, a deep understanding must be had of future bandwidth requirements. For instance in Datacenters, a clear, affordable migration path to 40G/100G capability must be established at the initial DC design stage.
What does India need to keep in mind while building network infrastructure?
India has to build infrastructure for the future, keeping in mind the next 15-20 years. The challenge will be future-proof infrastructure to be competitive in a global scenario. As far as cabling infrastructure is concerned, we need to look at flexibility to grow from 10G to 40 G to 100G.
What are intelligent networks? How will intelligent networks enable India’s enterprises?
Intelligent Networks provide the complete vision and control from Layer 1 to Layer 7. Intelligent networks provide various benefits to the customers including but not limited to tighter security, regulatory compliance, improved process efficiency, increased uptime and productivity and capability to monitor and control the sites globally from a single location.
The role of a network vendor is undergoing a transformation. What is your take?
Customers will gain most when suppliers take a more consultative and advisory role in the relationship with the customer. In other words being only a supplier is no longer good enough. It is important that CommScope becomes a most trusted advisor to our customers.
Give us an overview of iPatch solution.
iPatch is the first Home grown solution that provides the vision, knowledge and control of the Layer 1 in the network. While NMS (Network Management System) provides the complete knowledge of the network to the administrators, starting from Layer 2 to Layer 7, iPatch provides Management of Layer 1. iPatch provides these powerful management features of Layer 1 by the combination of Hardware and Software. Some of the features of iPatch solution are, advanced technician guidance, Device discovery, real time update of the database, Event notifications and Discovery of network connectivity. While an NMS (Network Management System) provides important information of layer 2 and 3 of the network, it leaves out an important element in the network, the physical infrastructure. Intelligent Infrastructure Management (IIM) system fills this void and integrates the physical network elements with the rest of the network elements providing a comprehensive view of the entire end to end network
What is your employee strength?
Across India, CommScope has approximately 1300 employees
What is your message to someone who wishes to join your company?
Join a global leader in the markets we operate with a focus on long term career development.
What is the shareholding pattern of your company? Any plans to sell stake?
CommScope is a privately held company.