Ola Cloud Migration: Shifting IT Workload From AWS After Exiting Microsoft Azure

Ola is continuing its cloud migration strategy by moving its IT workload from Amazon Web Services (AWS), following its recent departure from Microsoft’s Azure cloud, ET reported.

Ola’s migration from Azure resulted in an estimated daily revenue loss of INR 5-25 Lakh for Microsoft. Similarly, the shift from AWS is projected to cost Amazon INR 30-40 Lakh daily, according to estimates and disclosures made by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal on X.

Despite the significant revenue loss from Ola’s departure, this change is minor for AWS and Azure, which collectively hold 40% of India’s $8.3 Bn public cloud market. Moreover, these hyperscalers are unlikely to lose substantial business due to Ola Krutrim’s free cloud services offering.

Last week, Aggarwal said that Ola Electric and Krutrim have completed the transition to a native cloud computing platform from Microsoft’s Azure.

He claimed that Ola has completed the migration and its spending on Azure has now reduced to zero. He also invited other companies to exit Azure and move to its Indian stack.

The founder further added that it has brought over 2,500 developers on board who will be working to get companies onto its cloud platform over the coming weeks. Earlier, Aggarwal claimed that Krutrim will offer a year of free cloud usage to any developer switching to Krutrim Cloud from Azure.

The migration of Ola’s IT workload from AWS comes amid a dispute between Ola’s founder, Bhavish Aggarwal, and Microsoft-owned LinkedIn over content policy violations. Aggarwal’s post on AI using gender-neutral pronouns was flagged, leading him to announce the shift from Azure to Ola’s own Krutrim cloud. He stated that this move is a step towards building digital public infrastructure for social media with Indian developers, ensuring data ownership remains with the creators.

In an X post on May 11, Aggarwal said, “Since LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft and Ola is a big customer of Azure, we’ve decided to move our entire workload out of Azure to our own Krutrim cloud within the next week. It is a challenge as all developers know, but my team is so charged up about doing this.”

Aggarwal said that Ola and Krutrim will build a digital public infrastructure for social media with Indian developers and abide by Indian law. He further added that this data will be possessed by the creators and not the business.

The Indian public cloud services market is projected to reach $17.8 Bn by 2027, experiencing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9% from 2022 to 2027, according to the International Data Corporation. The top two public cloud service providers continue to hold more than 40% of the market.

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