BANGALORE, INDIA: Cloud computing can be defined as delivery of infrastructure, platform or software, the services using shared resources.

As we all know, most of the companies claiming to offer products or services for the Cloud categorize them as private and public or hybrid cloud.

So, what actually cloud computing means for organisations, developers, businesses or for government sector?

In an interaction with Abhigna N G from CIOL, Rakesh Aerath, Director - Telecom & Innovation, Logica, discusses the offerings that are available in the Cloud arena for software development and stakeholders who are influencing the growth of cloud computing application.

Excerpts from the interaction:

CIOL: To start with, according to you what is Cloud computing and what does it mean for businesses, governments and organizations of all sizes?

Rakesh Aerath: Cloud computing helps large organisations to reduce costs and improve agility. Using Cloud, organisations can avoid the traditional capex-intensive approach and instead, leverage the economies of scale using the shared infrastructure to reduce costs. At the same time they can avoid long lead-times, thereby being able to react faster in a dynamic market.

For smaller organisations, it also means an opportunity to enter market quickly and easily, an option hitherto not available due to cost and time constraints placed by traditional IT.

For governments cloud provides an opportunity for better citizen services at lower cost especially at times of tough economic outlook.

CIOL: Having said that, what are the offerings from Logica in the cloud space?

RA: Our cloud portfolio includes cloud enablement as well as cloud-based applications. Our cloud enablement offerings include service integration and management of cloud services for our clients. Our approach to cloud is led by our consulting and service integration capabilities, service management, security and our partnership with leading players such as Microsoft.

We have developed a number of innovative mobility applications (such as real-time vehicle emission monitoring, pay-as-you-drive insurance, cargo and fleet tracking etc) that we deliver using cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. This usage based on managed service model hugely benefits the clients as they do not need to invest in capex.