Interaction - Prasanna C, GM and Head of Business, Polarin by Lightstorm

Lightstorm is a NaaS platform. Prasanna C, General Manager and Head of Business, Polarin by Lightstorm talks about his work.

What are the new evolving techs in NaaS that are most in demand in India?

Prasanna C - In the post-COVID era, Indian businesses have accelerated the digital transformation and are increasingly using cloud-based applications and services. Unfortunately, the legacy networks are not geared to meet the demand for higher bandwidth, low latency and ultra-high speed required by cloud-based applications and services.

As cloud usage evolves, hybrid and multi-cloud networks are becoming complex. The growing frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks further add to the growing complexity of managing cloud networks.

The Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform, Polarin by Lightstorm, allows enterprises to address these issues while enabling them to maximise the benefits of the cloud. The most significant advantage of NaaS is that it completely does away with the need to invest in expensive physical infrastructure, thus bringing down capital expenditure and making it easier for enterprises to ensure speed, reliability and security.

With Polarin, enterprises needn’t wait for weeks or more to provision networks, they can build one within a few months, thus offering unparalleled agility and flexibility in building networks. The pay-as-you-go model also makes it easier to move to the cloud to grow their business. Further, it allows real-time monitoring of the network, enabling organizations to make well-informed decisions.

How does NaaS differ from other Cloud services in terms of technology?

Prasanna C - A NaaS platform enables enterprises to streamline and better manage their hybrid and multi-cloud networks. It also allows them to use automation to enhance their processes in provisioning, network management, monitoring, analytics and network security, among others. By enhancing network management with minimal effort, NaaS frees up the workforce to focus on its core competencies and other tasks of more strategic importance.

What is the geographical expanse of your services across India in metros and non-metros?

Prasanna C - As of now, Polarin is available to enterprises across India, but we plan to expand to newer geographies and regions. We are working towards creating a global fabric that will allow businesses to connect with their partners, customers, and cloud service providers from anywhere.

We have also launched our partner programme, PACE (Polarin Accelerator Champions’ Ecosystem), which enables our partners to leverage Polarin Platform to gain an edge on the competition while growing their revenue and profit. It has three components: PACE Reseller Program, PACE Sales Agent Program and PACE Referral Program.

Our parent company, Lightstorm, also offers SmartNet, a first-of-its-kind utility-grade fiber network built for enterprises. Apart from India, SmartNet is now available in Indonesia and we are in the midst of expanding it to other countries, including Thailand, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Apart from this, we would also be investing significantly in research and development to add new and relevant capabilities to the platform. Further, we would be growing our partner ecosystem by collaborating with data center operators.

We are committed to creating products and solutions that accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises and make it easier for them to leverage new-age technologies for growth. To this end, software-defined networking and cloud-enabled interconnectivity solutions will help us provide scalable, flexible, reliable and secure networking solutions.

What was your revenue growth in the last 1 year?

Prasanna C - Lightstorm recorded healthy growth last year and we are on the path to maintaining the growth momentum over the next two-to-three years.

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