Where your data resides is a fundamental question

Hans Dekkers, general manager, IBM Asia Pacific, was recently in India to announce collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra on quantum technologies and the opening of IBM's India Client Experience Centre in Mumbai. In a conversation with Shivani Shinde at IBM's new office in Mumbai, he spoke about why data control is becoming a critical demand in a volatile geopolitical climate. Edited excerpts:

- Hans Dekkers, general manager, IBM Asia Pacific

We met exactly a year ago, and the global macro and geopolitical climate has worsened. What trends have you seen among your client base?

The last one year has seen a huge disruption. What we see now is a much stronger need for technology and data sovereignty. This was not a big topic five years ago—it's a huge topic today—not only for nations but also for enterprises, individuals, and states. This requirement of "my data is mine" is the biggest shift in the last one year, and it's a deep change. Enterprises, governments, and people want to be in control and have the flexibility to move their data and understand it in ways that maybe we didn't need a year ago.

The second shift is that AI is no longer a talking point. People who are doing it well are scaling up on AI now. The third trend is the journey to cloud. Today in hybrid cloud clients want to be in control. There is a big realization from chief information officers on how they spend their dollar most efficiently.

Is India also going through a similar shift?

What I like about India is this focus on "Viksit Bharat." With this vision that is being laid out, the destination is becoming clearer. What India has, more than any other country, is scale.