Customers rushing to shift workloads for business process continuity: Tata Comm CEO
Tata Communications is working to deliver service upgrades and changes in record speed, as customers implement work from home measures and also shift workloads across borders for their business continuity plans, says MD and CEO AS Lakshminarayanan
PremiumMUMBAI : During the Covid-19 lockdowns telecommunications sector carries the burden of keeping every other business and with many customer events cancelled large telecom service providers are dealing with multiple requests to shift the network loads for their clients working from home, said MD and CEO of global telecommunications service provider Tata Communications, AS Lakshminarayanan.
“The pandemic has impacted some customer industries with cancellations/ postponement of major live sporting events where we host critical IT infrastructure, remote operations and broadcast technology. Our teams are working to deliver service upgrades and changes in record speed, as customers implement work from home measures and also shift workloads across borders for their business continuity plans (BCP)," said Lakshminaraynan during an interaction with Mint.
Tata Communications has seen a rise in traffic across networks together with an increase in voice traffic - with 1 billion minutes recorded in March, largely due to the work from home measures.
With the global lockdown situation evolving daily the company has been in contact with suppliers for clear visibility of any potential impact and ensured that any supply risk is called out with necessary back-up plans in place. “For example, we’ve already ensured that spares are maintained at all the locations in preparation for any cross-border or shipping delays. As countries implement lockdown, interstate borders have posed some challenges with movement of equipment and parts. However, as essential service, we work with our suppliers to ensure customs are cleared on time."
He said the company implemented a clear command and control matrix, covering all functions which is particularly critical to the undersea cable service which supports the internet backbone. “We carry nearly 30% of the world’s internet routes (via subsea cables) which is a great responsibility when large sections of the society are working from home to keep the economy afloat," said Lakshminarayanan. A subsea network can only be powered and monitored from two ends (terminals) and requires high power data centre plants that are highly reliable with back-up redundancy in the event of a component or power failure. Cable landing stations are always managed 24/7 even during the COVID-19 period as these are classified as essential services and operations are fully functional while factoring staff safety.
Further, the company made working from home mandatory some weeks before many countries shifted to lockdown measures and within a short time enabled 90% of global workforce to work from home except those on the front line involved in the delivery of critical network services.
Telecom and internet service providers have largely applauded the government’s move to promptly list telecom services under essentials. The on-field staff need to travel on-site across network operation centres, cable landing stations or the client site to monitor and ensure smooth operation of the infrastructure, networks, backend IT operations, etc. Due to the government’s intervention essential employees have been provided documents to allow them hassle free movement. “The continued support of the government and local authorities will help ensure movement of essential field staff and services remains uninterrupted," said Lakshminarayanan.
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