Globally, C-suite and senior leadership have prioritized cloud adoption in business. A similar pattern has emerged in Indian businesses. According to NASSCOM, cloud technology will account for around 5%-8% of GDP by 2026 and this shared digital infrastructure space aka cloud has the potential to generate phenomenal growth in employment opportunities.
Government of India is supporting cloud adoption by formulating policies and providing support to MSMEs (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) by creating an appropriate ecosystem. The ‘Digital MSME’ and ‘Digital India Programme’ have led the transformation for Indian businesses and encouraged them to use cloud platforms for communication and information technology applications. These initiatives have helped MSMEs to cut down on CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) and economically move towards state-of-the-art applications and infrastructure.
Different cloud providers like AWS, GCP, and Azure are creating platforms to meet the need of different businesses and provide them support to implement cloud in their businesses without having enough technical knowledge. Creating accounts, connecting to cloud platforms, storing files, or accessing cloud-based SaaS apps has been made a lot easier for businesses and has helped them come to a place where they can grow their business and can achieve business continuity and resilience.
Cloud technologies and platforms have provided innumerable opportunities for Indian businesses with access to high-end computing, state-of-the-art software, pay-per-use model and have helped businesses move from capex model to opex (operating expense) model.
The various benefits of the cloud in terms of infinite storage, data security, data encryption, data protection, and flexibility and reliability have helped businesses focus on core business drivers, business agility, and go-to-market strategies. Cloud features such as fail fast, creating quick proof-of-concepts have driven innovation and multiplied growth, driving innovative products and customized service offerings for our customers, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction.
While there are many benefits to cloud adoption, there are also many challenges that our Indian businesses need to take care of – prioritization of migration, lack of planning, employee training and unrealistic timelines. One of the common myths among businesses is that adopting a cloud platform is going to result in immediate cost savings.
On the contrary, there are costs associated with the various challenges mentioned above but if implemented strategically, the investment will not only yield better returns but also help businesses with productivity and scalability.
Cloud providers are providing newsletters, seminars and organizing various events through which Indian businesses can learn what mature cloud players are doing and build appropriate internal knowledge within their organization.
Businesses and educational organizations have a symbiotic relationship – the more businesses drive cloud adoption, the more educational institutions create cloud ready curriculum and workforce leading to better employment opportunities and in turn helping India’s economy and GDP.
As India looks forward to becoming the world’s third largest economy, it is time for our businesses to propagate cloud adoption across their organization and create a future ready workforce.
Author – Sharad Kumar, Regional PMO Head, Hanu – An Insight Company
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own. They do not reflect the views of India TV)