2017 – Year Of The Cloud For Startups And Enterprises In India

The cloud market is set to take off on a high trajectory, pushed by global cues as well as domestic government initiatives. As businesses turn away from legacy services to cloud-based IT services, the biggest beneficiary of this shift could be the cloud domain and it should grow exponentially, building on the strong foundation laid in 2016.

This comes against the backdrop of an increasingly greater number of organisations that continue to pursue digital business strategies and is the direct consequence of enterprises in India wanting to improve performance and productivity over the long term.

The development is also fuelled by the desire of businesses to shape applications suitable for platforms such as public cloud.  

Numbers Don’t Lie

Let’s look at a few figures to see how the shift is disrupting the way the IT industry has functioned thus far and could prove to be the biggest disruptive force ever. Going by various studies and reports pouring in, they all point in one direction: unprecedented growth in store for cloud service providers. According to research firm Gartner, the public cloud services market in India is on course to grow by 35.9% in 2016 to a total of $1.3 Bn.

“The overall global public cloud market will mature, and its growth rate will slightly slow down from 17.2% in 2016 to a 15.2% increase in 2020,” said Sid Nag, research director at Gartner.

“While Brexit and other growth challenges exist, some segments such as financial SaaS applications and the PaaS user markets will still see strong growth through 2020. As buyers intensify and increase IaaS activity, they will be getting more for their investment: ongoing enhancement of performance, more memory, more storage for the same money (which will drive increases in consumptions) and increased automation in traditional IT outsourcing (ITO) delivery,” he added.

Cloud Providers Would Only Be Carrying On The Momentum Gained In 2016

Buoyed with infrastructure development, a massive expansion in Internet reach and policy initiatives such as Digital India, the cloud IT segment is riding a wave of upsurge, particularly the boom in the Indian startup scene. In fact, the sector is only carrying forward the momentum gained in 2016 and is expected to continue on the high-trajectory path. The developments are in tune with most other predictions too.

According to another study conducted by Deskera, a global cloud-based business software provider, the Indian public cloud market could hit $1.75 Bn by 2017.

The development is a step in the right direction for the IT industry on the whole as startups and enterprises explore ways and means to cut costs, improve bottom lines, and make data a non-negotiable as far as security issues are concerned. The development would also augur well for software application developers since the cloud provides a lot of room for innovation, while cutting the cost of doing business.

As the state-of-the-art software matures and the competitive nature of business consolidates, many experts are predicting greater expansion and adoption than predicted, particularly as greater numbers of startups and enterprises consider expanding their digital platform strategy as an important part of cloud adoption. As startups, SMEs and the industry, in general, get increasingly tech-savvy and as the Internet spreads its wings through smartphones, cloud services would receive a further fillip.

Top Firms Such As Microsoft, IBM Eye The Indian Market

Global tech companies are taking a keen interest in the quickly expanding Indian market as they have been reaping handsome dividends from their investments in the past. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have already consolidated their presence in the Indian market and have established data centres throughout the country, which is one more testament to the sector’s growing reach.

According to recent reports, Alibaba too is planning to provide meat to its cloud business by opening data centres in India. Microsoft’s cloud-based business has seen growth of 120%.

As the number of customers increase and Indian infrastructure comes at par with global standards, the only way forward for enterprises is to adopt a cloud strategy.