India is a fast-growing market, and the strength of the Indian economy is SMBs, which have a significant presence in manufacturing, pharmaceutical, chemical and other related industries. Typically, these are very small companies working out of industrial estates with very small workforces of as few as 10 to 20 people, and cannot afford resources to have their own data centers or to manage hardware and software.
However end-user organizations, which include small or midsize businesses (SMBs), public sector units (PSUs) and the government sector, have started looking at cloud offerings and the benefits they can get from adopting cloud-based solutions. Government is also supporting cloud adoption to help/encourage small business get maximum benefit/support and cost saving to strength its business.
Recently, Hitachi announced plans to introduce cloud services offerings for SMEs in Gujarat, which accounts 10% of the three million-odd small and medium enterprises in India. SMEs in Gujarat are looking at data backup and email management services, along with data and business analysis by cloud solution providers. Sunil Chavan, Director, Software Group & Cloud solutions, Asia Pacific, Hitachi Data Systems notes they are sure about getting quick penetration there. Once that happens, they will look to offer cloud services to SMEs in other states later.
Tata Communications, too, has announced plans to target about 30 per cent of the 380,000 small and medium scale units across Gujarat for the adoption of its recently-launched cloud services. The company has launched two new products, InstaApps and InstaCompute, as part of its cloud services, expanding its cloud services portfolio.
According to an IDC survey, cloud solutions industry is around $400 million currently and is expected to grow 10 times to $4-4.5 billion by 2015 in India. With huge demand and need of cloud services to manage the data, email growth and backup, Indian small and midsized business is expected to pick up the pace with the changing technology and constant up gradation.
Companies in India are still not fully aware of or convinced about the benefits of the cloud models available today. Some have heard of the benefits, but want to see real case studies before committing to any investment in this area. Hitachi cloud offering deal would make awareness among other SME’s and encourage adoption. Cloud computing services are most likely to benefit those SMEs which have higher requirement of storage and processing of data.
Also see: Eucalyptus Cloud to Remotely Provision e-Governance Applications In India [Open Source Wins]
Analysis: Cloud Adoption In India–A 101 on Concerns And Facts
Data: Private Cloud Market In India–Total Cloud Spend Expected To Reach 8.2%
