“We have built a comprehensive Cloud platform that our customers rely on, consisting of Cloud infrastructure, well-architected solutions aimed at reducing cost and providing safety, flexibility, scalability, and reliability to enterprises compared with the traditional on-premises IT models.”
Piyush Somani- Managing Director and Chairman ESDS Software Solution Ltd.
What is the state of DC capacity requirement in India?
While 25 projects are operational, 20 are under development, 20 construction projects have been announced and 5 projects are being planned, the construction activity in building data centers is important to augment capacity. Few of state governments including Maharashtra are allotting dedicated land to build data centers in the region. It is estimated that investments in data center industry would reach USD 5 billion by 2025, up from USD 3.4 billion in 2019.
Briefly tell us about ESDS as a DC company from its genesis to growth?
As a company, ESDS is engaged in the business of providing managed Cloud and Data Center services; continuous and uninterrupted supply of our services is a critical component of our business. ESDS’ customers require continuous access to their data and round-the-clock service assistance. ESDS caters its services through three Data Centers in India, one each in Navi Mumbai, Nashik and Bengaluru have maintained an uptime of at least 99.995% during the last three fiscal years. ESDS Data Centers are placed in connected on a 10 Gbps backbone network. This Data Center backbone network is backed up with state-of-the-art disaster recovery services. ESDS also serves its customers with Cloud-based data backup and recovery solutions.
What are the competitive advantages of ESDS vis-à-vis the competition?
Today, ESDS is amongst India’s leading Managed Cloud Service & end-to-end multi-Cloud requirements providers. We have built a comprehensive Cloud platform that our customers rely on, consisting of Cloud infrastructure, well-architected solutions aimed at reducing cost and providing safety, flexibility, scalability, and reliability to enterprises compared with the traditional on-premises IT models.
ESDS’ Competitive Strength lies with the following-
- ESDS offers a comprehensive and integrated range of offerings that provide a “one stop shop” for managed Cloud solutions to a diversified and marquee clientele.
ESDS’ business offerings provide a comprehensive range of solutions, which we believe provides a “one-stop-shop” for its customer’s Cloud adoption, and is an important factor in customer acquisition, retention and set us apart from its competitors.
- A robust and scalable business model with multiple levers of growth.
ESDS is characterized by multiple levers of growth, such as Government initiatives for promoting Cloud services, technology, and other partnerships. We believe we are well-positioned to leverage on such opportunities due to our robust and scalable business model due to patented Vertical Auto-Scalable Cloud Technology, which plays an important role in achieving optimal capacity utilization, thereby allowing us to service larger load demands. ESDS operates its business on an asset-light model, which comprises ownership of computing hardware assets only.
- We offer innovative billing solutions that derive value to customers.
As part of our business model, ESDS has introduced several billing solutions such as Pay-Per-Consumption, Pay-Per-Branch & Pay-Per-Transaction. ESDS derives significant value to its customers. We believe that such innovative billing models have assisted in customer retention, scaling of operations, and cross-sell and upsell services.
- Our “pay-per-consumption” billing model is in contrast to the “pay-per-use” billing model adopted by major competitors, pursuant to which the customer is charged for the virtual machines allocated to them.
- The “pay-per-branch” billing model is used specifically by ESDS cooperative banking customers. Under this billing model, a bank pays a fixed amount per month per branch, and we provide core banking on the SaaS model to these banks bundled with the required managed services.
- The “pay-per-transaction” billing model seeks to bill customers per successful transaction.
- Leadership position in the industry with a proven track record
ESDS is amongst India’s leading Managed Cloud Service and end-to-end multi-Cloud requirements providers. Today, ESDS has the largest number of banking customers in India, including more than 400 cooperative banks, district cooperative central banks, and small banks. ESDS is also a market leader in hosting in Government Cloud applications.
What are the top 10 compelling reasons for the CIOs to go to ESDS for their DC requirements?
ESDS presently hosts more than 1300 customers across industries on its Data Centers situated at Nashik, Navi Mumbai, and Bengaluru, aggregating a floor space of over 50,000 square feet.
As a CIO, one gets the following benefits with ESDS for their DC-related requirements-
- “Tier 3” Status Data Centers by QSA International Limited connected by a 10 Gbps backbone network
- Data Centers situated within Indian geographic boundaries, ensuring maximum data security & availability
- Uptime of 99.995% across all Data Centers (during the last three fiscal years)
- Cloud-based Disaster Recovery as a Service
- eNlight is built on multiple layers of security and is, therefore, able to deliver enterprise-grade security
As Cloud is becoming more relevant for the organizations owing to their digital journey, what is the play of ESDS in this situation?
During the ongoing pandemic, the shift of work culture from office set-ups to virtual work generated the urgent need of secure, reliable, scalable, and cost-effective technology services across the country. The hybrid Cloud witnessed the majority investment as compared to public and private Cloud model during the pandemic. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Indian organizations have become more data driven in terms of their decision making; thereby leading to the growing use of Cloud technology to make optimal utilization of insights from data. The demand for adoption of Cloud computing for application by the educational institutions has also gained momentum during the pandemic period. ESDS is the first Cloud Service Provider in India to offer Community Cloud services on a multi-tenant model to organizations with a similar business model and requirements. By hosting their critical data and applications with ESDS, businesses get the high levels of security backed with uptime of 99.995% during the last three fiscal years.
As you are going for a public offering, what is your objective behind it? Which are the areas that you want to invest?
We are considering all funding alternatives, including transactions in the capital markets
How is your participation in Edge Data Centers?
Any Data Center provider deploys edge Data Centers so that facilities remain close to the end-users so that they can deliver resources and cached content to their end-users. These facilities remain connected to a central Data Center or multiple Data Centers. Today, organizations across industries use edge Data Centers as high-performance & cost-effective techniques for their end-customers with core Data Center functionalities.
Apart from India which other countries you want to expand and why?
ESDS intends to capitalize on the growth of the Cloud market and demand for Data Centers in India as well as in the international markets. The key reason is the increase in demand for Cloud services and Data Center with the rising amount of data generated by the customers of business Further, Cloud industry in India is witnessing a surge in adoption by various industry verticals such as government sector, manufacturing industry, IT industry and others. The Government of India is embracing Cloud computing technology for expanding its e-governance initiatives throughout the country. With increasing number of IT companies and internet service providers (ISPs) in India, Cloud IaaS model is helping SMEs to have access to latest infrastructure thus reducing their in-house infrastructure costs Hence, ESDS believes that it is is well-poised to offer enterprises with a future-ready scalable potential of large volumes.
ESDS Software Solution Limited is proposing, subject to receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, an initial public offering of its equity shares (the “Equity Shares”) and has filed a draft red herring prospectus dated September 2, 2021 (the “DRHP”) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”), BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. The DRHP is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in, the website of the BSE Limited at www.bseindia.com and the website of the National Stock Exchange of India Limited at www.nseindia.com and the website of the Lead Managers, Axis Capital Limited and IIFL Securities Limited, at www.axiscapital.co.in and www.iiflcap.com, respectively. Any potential investor should note that investment in Equity Shares involves a high degree of risk. For details, potential investors should refer to the red herring prospectus of the Company, including the section titled “Risk Factors”.
