CEO Insights Magazine

The industry has recently been witnessing the arrival of many young technocrats who have evolved as the anchors to the currently thriving industry. By the virtue of their technological proficiency, they have proved that the age is just a number if you have the zeal to prove yourself. When the ongoing technological advancements arrested the attention of Arif Khan(CEO, Coredge), he was determined to craft some novel innovations that will cater comprehensively to the needs of industry 4.0. Driven by the new age of low latency applications like OTT, self-driving cars, AR/VR, 4K streaming, voice/video over IP, and the fundamental use case for the 5G edge cloud, Arif is building a revolutionary edge computing platform to address the hyperlocal cloud infrastructure requirements through his company Coredge. Being a change agent and problem solver with a passion for technology, Arif has proved his skills in grasping the big picture, conceptualizing, developing, and implementing solutions mostly related to cloud and open source, and partnering closely with business leaders and C-level executives. Balancing his portfolio as an Engineer, Architect, Co-Founder, and then as a CEO, Arif is keeping a keen eye on the evolving technology of cloud and edge computing to work magnanimously for employees, share holders and customers.

Below is an excerpt of Arif's interview with CEO Insights.

Tell us the inception story of Coredge? What are the unique propositions that clients can expect from the company?
From the business market perspective, cloud computing has been thriving significantly and as of now, the public cloud market is worth more than 100 billion. Most of the share of this domain is already controlled by tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft and others. With the arrival of 5G and Industry 5.0, people started talking about edge computing. I envisaged a huge opportunity in front of us which enabled me to come up with the

idea of establishing an edge computing. I envisaged a huge opportunity in front of us which enabled me to come up with the idea of establishing an edge computing platform for everyone to realize their use cases and the idea of Coredge was conceived. I also had some expertise in cloud testing owing to my previous startup venture. I envisaged the pain point experienced by the software companies and government service providers, pertaining to providing cloud as a distribution, as their subscription model is too expensive. Also, the business model was not very customer friendly. So, to address these existing pain points, we came up with an innovative business model to enable contemporary and convenient solutions related to edge computing to a wide range of customers.

Describe the challenges faced by you during the COVID and your role in tackling those challenges?
We started the company when COVID was at its peak. Many people told us that this is not the right time but then I thought there will never be a right time and I should go ahead with my decision. We had to face a lot of obstacles due to COVID like the work from home concept which was quite new to us.

Describe the challenges faced by you during the COVID and your role in tackling those challenges?
We started the company when COVID was at its peak. Many people told us that this is not the right time but then I thought there will never be a right time and I should go ahead with my decision. We had to face a lot of obstacles due to COVID like the work from home concept which was quite new to us.

We embraced the challenges thrown at us and started following an agile methodology along with a lot of tweaks here and there to overcome the hurdles imposed by the pandemic. Most of our employees are presently working from home and thank fully, this turned out to be quite beneficial for us.

In your journey so far, share some of your major milestones, both at

a personal and professional level.
I have worked as an engineer and chief architect, before going ahead with my own startup but those who know me, are aware that I am an entrepreneur by accident. My interest in technology drives me to go throughout this journey. My father tells me that, "whatever you do, you should always give it your best shot and enjoy it".

At a personal level, I got a lot of exposure quite early in my career. Working as the Chief Enterprise Architect within Ericsson was a big milestone for me. My first startup, which I started in 2015, along with a friend of mine, is another milestone for me. These kinds of exposures in the past enabled me to drive Coredge with a much bigger and bolder vision, which I term as another milestone for me.

As the CEO of Coredge, what are your plans for the future?
We are not even one year old yet but managed to learn a great deal from our journey so far. Going ahead, we will focus on three major things and one of them is to continue building world class products in this area. Secondly, our priority is to build a stellar team, which is a complex target but we are contributing pragmatically towards it. We will continue giving a maximum return to our share holders who have believed in us. So, from the chorus perspective, that's the main path on which I'm going to continue to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

Arif Khan, CEO, Coredge
An engineer turned entrepreneur, Arif commenced his professional career by working as a Radio Jockey in Hyderabad and also worked for BBC London Radio for a brief period of time. Emerging as a creative and result driven technology leader, Arif excels in developing and motivating highly focused core teams that successfully meet and exceed his company's objective.

Hobbies: Playing Keyboard and Reading Books.
Favorite Cuisine: South Indian Dishes.
Favourite Travel Destination: Maldives, Switzerland, and Australia.

Awards & Recognition:
•Linux Foundation Ambassador Award.
•Top 30 Thought Leadership in Edge Computing by Data Economy Magazine