About 20 years ago, Israel-born Doron Shachar came to Vietnam and immediately saw the country’s potential even during that time when nothing much was established yet. He initially worked with telecommunications companies such as VNPT, Viettel, and Mobifone and witnessed how all those companies grew into giant corporations today. Eventually, Doron moved to the banking sector, and fast forward to today, he’s in the cloud business.
In this episode of Vietnam Innovators, Hao Tran discussed with Doron Shachar, the founder and CEO of Renova Cloud, about the cloud’s relevance in today’s digital age, how they address clients’ needs, and the ideal employees they’re looking for.
Renova Cloud is a tech consulting company specialized in cloud computing. They provide services to transition the legacy workloads to frontline technologies in Cloud, DevOps, and Automation. Renova Cloud consists of a team of highly integrated and skilled engineers, architects, and DevOps with proven capabilities and experience in executing advanced technologies projects.
When Hao asked what made him switch to cloud from telco and banking, Doron said that people had doubts about his idea from the get-go. “They mostly said to me it won’t happen in Vietnam,” he said. “And when I asked why, they said the regulation will not allow that, security issues and so many other things they pointed out.”
But not a single one of those reasons made sense to Doron. He considered and was aware of the country’s security regulations, but that didn’t stop him from getting started. “
In 2018, Doron moved from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City and established Renova Cloud. But what does cloud mean, and why should we be on the cloud? Here’s how Doron defined the term using simpler terms even those without a tech background could understand:
- “Cloud is basically providing others or service providers to control your IT,” he said. “It sounds very scary for a lot of companies and it is scary because on the one hand, you start to think that another company is taking care of your security, take care of your services, to your computing, your storage, and you give it to someone else.”
- But to him, that is the first step toward the cloud journey, “changing your mindset.”
- Doron added cloud is not just a trend that every company should have. It’s a culture. It requires understanding and time. “In terms of is it suitable for us now?” he said, companies should ask themselves: “Are we ready for this kind of journey now? Or should we wait for another two or three years and start from a different angle or reason?”
- Before engaging, companies must have the right team and support from the shareholders. It’s a commitment, and it’s a long way.
With Renova Cloud, Doron and his team are helping companies with cloud computing execution. As the founder and CEO, Doron admitted they’re not Mackenzie or PwC. They maintain a humble stand and don’t come with a strategy. Instead, they tell their potential clients this: “Guys, whatever you have, you have great people here. You have really, really skilled people. But we are the expert on this part to help you build the right foundation. Later on, you can decide which kind of service you would like to launch, how you want to do it, and how you want to connect to your business. This is your decision. But we are here to show you how to make it in the right way. And at the moment that you have the right foundation, you can grow by yourself.”
A reliable and competent team is a must with this kind of service. Cloud computing knowledge is not enough, Doron said there is a huge lack of skills in the market at the moment, so they built a new venture called Renoleap DevOps Bootcamp, where they train potential employees and interested individuals. “So we welcome people who are Engineers, QA, IT support, or any kind of technical background as well as developers,” he shared. “In 13 weeks of really, really, I would say commando course daily, we’re going to bring them to be junior DevOps. Of course, they don’t pay for these 13 weeks, but they are kick-starting their DevOps career with us for two years. We are committed to bringing them toprojects and giving them a real experience.”
When asked what businesses are looking for, Doron mentioned two things:
- DevOps and automation – a partner who knows “how to automate as much as possible your services, whatever industry you are, whatever services you are providing to the market.”
- Data analytics – “People want to know what’s going on in their company.” Per Doron, this is very important today — Yet many are struggling to access the information they need to make critical decisions.
True to its humble stand, Doron openly admits they couldn’t do everything all at once. He’s always, “All right, let’s start with something small. Let’s start on this specific area. We cannot cover all your company at the moment. Let’s start and let’s focus on your warehousing for example, at this stage and see how we can help you leverage cloud technology.”
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