There’s a method to this madness. A person can light a single candle, but a team of them can light up an entire city. A king lays the foundation and governs the throne, his trusted commanders build the entire kingdom.
The above sentences might read colloquial, but this has always been a burning enigma. How does a business, starting off with a single person in a garage, for instance, go on to transform into a timeless, boundless multinational enterprise disrupting the very fabric of common reality? Thousands of management courses and long story short, it is the people. The true responsibility of the initiator is not to lay the foundation or light the first candle, but bring together a group of equally genius people to pursue a shared vision. That’s why the initiators are ‘Founders’, and the best Founders recognize the most powerful leaders who really architect the fundamentals of the grand vision and execute them to reality.
Cloud4C: A Story of Incredible Leaders with Relentless Ambitions
Cloud4C has witnessed a meteoric rise since its inception a decade back. Starting off as a cloud-based DR-on-demand solution provider, today Cloud4C is the world’s largest application-focused multi-cloud managed services provider specialized in handling cloud transformations for mission-critical environments. Cloud4C has bagged multiple accolades across continents and recognized twice in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud IT Transformation Services. Keeping that grace and limelight aside, Cloud4C is essentially a story of incredible leaders who refused to submit to traditional boundaries and deliver fool-proof, advanced outcomes for even the most complex cloud evolutions. They subscribed to best industry standards only to sculpt a level of their own that would be cherished and celebrated by 4000+ enterprises today including 60 of Fortune 500 companies across 26 nations.
Sudhakar Das Bora, the stalwart behind Cloud4C’s entire database technology and Oracle Cloud practice, is one such enigmatic leader. A recipient of the coveted Indian Achievers’ Award 2022, Sudhakar Das Bora, for ten long years, has been part of the initial team that shaped and built Cloud4C to what it is today. Our editorial team managed to get a sliver out of his busy but ‘inspirationally well planned’ schedule to engage in a heartful conversation on his journey with Cloud4C. He speaks at length on the transformations that have happened over the years, and how modern professionals can step up to become impactful leaders for their organizations.
The Journey So Far: Every Step is a Learning
Sudhakar Das Bora, over his career, has gone through multiple levels of transformations. While many would view them as sporadic or step-backs and step forwards, in essentiality those were critical lessons to unlock long-term success. That’s what makes the man so diversely capable and yet remain vigilant on the most minute of daily milestones.
The story dates back to the first decade of the 21st century. Starting off as an independent consultant for CtrlS (Cloud4C’s parent company) and then founder of a vendor partner company, Sudhakar Das Bora rapidly gained trust within the company’s top leadership with successful management of mission-critical databases and workloads. Few years and multiple wins later, the man took a leadership role within the company and started bolstering the SAP and Oracle Database Management practices. At that time, the firm focused on helping enterprises architect their Disaster Recovery strategies including deployments, DR Drills, and management of secondary DR sites and all database workloads connected to the same. As years rolled on, industries gradually started viewing Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning as key milestones in their digital transformation strategies rather than just a compliance check. It was at this point that Sudhakar Das Bora shifted from CtrlS to the fast-growing sister firm, Cloud4C.
Within no time, the prolific leader built an extensive team that handled the entire database management and service practice end-to-end; solutions, workloads, related tools, middleware platforms etc. The newly knit practice was a necessary boon for Cloud4C’s reputed BFSI clients as the latter started viewing Cloud4C as a managed service partner for primary environments and data landscapes rather than a traditional provider managing secondary DR ecosystems. The newfound identity bolstered growth within India and across borders, duly complemented by Cloud4C’s accelerating hyperscaler cloud managed service (MSP) expertise. Being the one-stop DB facilitator, Sudhakar Das Bora played a significant role in strengthening the Cloud MSP practice in crucial regions like the Middle East. Gradually but steadily, the latter would go on to become Cloud4C’s global identity, extending deep alliances with the world’s top hyperscalers: Azure, AWS, GCP, Oracle Cloud. Within a handful of years, in a poetic turn of events, Sudhakar Das Bora would be chosen to lead Cloud4C’s entire Oracle Cloud services vertical along with the already exhaustive Database & Middleware practice.
Method to the Madness: Effective Planning is True Freedom
Leading two unprecedentedly important verticals in a supremely fast-growing global company could be daunting to anyone, regardless of past expertise and cumulative talent of the team. When pressed whether this burdens Sudhakar Das Bora’s usually creative personality and lifestyle, he smirks and replies that he truly is one of the happiest employees within Cloud4C. He carves out ample time for his family, goes on numerous treks, Solo camping and practices Nature photography unperturbed. It is almost surreal how time folds open for Sudhakar Das Bora for these fulfilment activities.
In reality, the secret is super-effective planning at its peak. In the words of the man himself, if a task is truly significant then it should never move to the urgent bucket. Once it does go on red alert, there’s a fault within the planning itself and not the stars above. Sudhakar Das Bora starts every day with a planning call with his key leaders. He listens to queries, understands the challenges, and notes down key priorities. After that, it is all about prioritizing the right work at the right time and ensuring that it never misses deadlines. The latter is particularly important in the grand scheme of affairs for Cloud4C; it is a specialist and deals with mission-critical IT environments that cannot suffer downtime even for a second. Without meticulous planning and equally diligent execution, Cloud4C’s promise would never see the light of the day. And, remember, Sudhakar Das Bora’s team deals with arguably the most high-alert slice of the IT landscape; Database. He adds that personal life or family & friends is equally mission-critical and when the same principles of stringent planning, task prioritization is applied to normal living as well, suddenly the hours unfold in sync for any activity the person wishes to indulge in.
The Leader’s Mindset: Act with Clarity, Stay in Reality
It is an open secret. Many individuals are wonderful doers, they take any command with conviction, perform with proactiveness, and complete any task at pace. But, not everyone goes on to become a leader in the true sense of the word. In corporate parley, not every professional turns out to be an effective leader, surprisingly faltering during the transition. Sudhakar Das Bora explains how any employee willing to be a leader can transcend from the direction-dependent doer mindset to owning up end results.
The first is having clarity. When someone steps up into the manager role, the first question should be what the managerial role is for? And, this is not from the task angle which the person is already seasoned at, but rather from the goal perspective; what end results are being expected from the team managed and how would the same contribute towards the organization’s projected milestones? Only when such clarity is received and well vetted with superiors, the immediate next task would be to assess the current reality. How well equipped is the team in terms of quality standards, skills, and facilities to achieve the goal? What are the processes and ways by which the goal can be achieved with the current standards? If there’s a way, it needs to be followed with due engagement. However, even after analyzing all possibilities, if there’s no way to be found to achieve the goals at the current situation, the same needs to be immediately conveyed to superiors with the due analysis. Such clarity and a strong assessment of reality would bail any manager out of any situation and also help garner trust from peers. Filtering the noise, it is all about critical assessment, taking up goals and executing effectively with the means possible. A falter in that practice would lead to overcommitment and hence stress, dissent, and so on.
Words of Advice for Beginners: Don’t Just Wait, Be Ready for Opportunities
Young guns always have a high appetite for opportunities. Often, they feel lost out on glory when they are asked to focus on a singular role or project for a long time, because of the lack of diverse opportunities. This is a common scenario across any industry. In reality though, these young talents should focus on upskilling themselves, often beyond the current job roles, in order to be fully prepared when the new opportunity actually knocks. Sudhakar Das Bora opines that for people who are truly capable of taking on new and bigger responsibilities, it is just a matter of time before the doors open. The best part is, at Cloud4C, there’s always freedom of work opportunities for those who ask and have the mettle for it.
With that wonderful message, Sudhakar Das Bora signed off the lovely conversation. We wish him paramount success in the years to come and hope he continues to lead Cloud4C to global glory. One can reach him at: sudhakar.b@cloud4c.com
