'Indian IT cos fail to tap intellectual capital'

The international conference on Management of Data at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) saw participation of eminent personalities from across the globe, both from multi-crore business houses as well as premier educational centers. Chief Technology Officer of the leading player in the field of data storage technologies Stephen Brobst, who was also a part of Barack Obama`s Presidential Council of Advisors (PCAST) on Science and Technology, was the keynote speaker on the occasion. He shared his views over the Indian IT industry, data storage in organisations and his experience as a part of PCAST.


Q. What factors are of utmost importance for development?

A. Development is subject to variations in geography and industry. In the Indian context, there is a phenomenal growth in telecommunications but the story is completely different in the retail industry. At times, more competition means more development. Perhaps that is why the public sector globally is not as developed as the private sector.


Q. How do you picture the services of the Indian IT industries to the country?

A. The case of the Indian IT sector is akin to the shoemaker`s son not having shoes. While India sells advanced IT skills and technology to the world, not many organisations from the country make use of these. India has a rich capital in terms of skill sets and intellect to contribute to the IT industry. Yet companies from the country are not investing at the same rate as some of the foreign ones. This makes for an interesting competition.


Q. What is the one big change that storage technologies are set to see?

A. The storage technology is all set to undergo some drastic changes. We, at Teradata are working on a mix of solid state disks like flash drives and memory cards and the traditional hard drives. This kind of storage of data would be much more reliable as compared to the current practices.


Q. Various debates have arisen about companies sharing data related to their consumers. Who do you think is at fault?

A. The amount of privacy that consumers should get is the theme of an ongoing battle. Most people who sniff into databases are not hackers or unauthorised users but employees of the companies managing the database.


Q. What should companies do to avoid such instances?

A. To prevent such instances, it would be wise for companies to have centralized storage with relevant data access. For example, a finance guy need not have access to administrative information. But, some organisations are lazy about formulating such policies. It is much easier to give everybody within the network an access to all information of the organisation. More sensitive data can even be encrypted.


Q. How was the experience of being a part of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology?

A. The committee comprises of people from the industries as well as the academic world. There is many a stimulating discussions among this think tank. The whole process of working out feasible and practical ways of improving people`s life through the use of science and technology was a bit overwhelming. Our conclusive report will be out in a couple of weeks to be scrutinized by the Council.