Ep011: Sonal Puri of Webscale on actively managing your global cloud infrastructure

CEO Sonal Puri of Webscale shares how her company helps B2C and B2B sellers of all sizes manage their cloud infrastructure globally, helping them take advantage of the cloud’s almost infinite scalability while optimizing costs, security, and performance.

In this episode, we discuss:

• As a startup, how Webscale is disrupting the digital infrastructure space as “the digital cloud company” for more than 1000 online stores globally
• Webscale’s ability to manage applications in the public cloud on behalf of customers across all the “hyperscale” cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba Cloud, and others
  • The company’s experience with online commerce is key to helping clients manage their infrastructure for maximum benefit with minimal cost
• Large hyperscale providers are providing very reliable, scalable cloud infrastructure/hosting on demand, while Webscale runs its own services on top:  security, predictive autoscaling, performance, caching, content optimization, bot management, etc.
  • Webscale provides an easy-to-use interface/portal for customers
  • It also ensures cloud computing consumption is always right-sized so customers don’t pay for more than they use
• Infrastructure as a commodity or utility, like electricity, allowing retailers/brands to pay only for what they need, when they need it
• How today’s technology and cloud offerings allow smaller retailers to access the same tools as leading global brands, leveling the playing field
• Why it makes sense to use a vendor like Webscale to manage your cloud infrastructure
  • Migrating applications to the cloud from traditional hosting models can be confusing and challenging
  • Costs start to add up quickly if you don’t manage your infrastructure actively
  • Security concerns are only escalating and require constant monitoring
  • 24x7 global support includes expertise across multiple clouds
• Why even the data layer no longer presents scalability issues if the infrastructure is set up correctly, even for retailers who see 20x or 30x traffic spikes during peak seasons
• Migrating infrastructure to the cloud typically takes anywhere from 1-2 weeks up to 2 months, depending on complexity and the amount of testing required
  • With good business requirements, Webscale quickly figures out the right solution using available providers
• Why Sonal believes the infrastructure market will undergo further commoditization and look more and more like a utility, with probably three hyperscale providers and perhaps a small group of very targeted cloud providers (e.g. a health cloud or database cloud)