NEW DELHI, INDIA: IT research firm IDC (India) Limited has predicted that the domestic IT/ITeS market revenue will touch Rs. 1,10,000 crore in 2008 while sustaining the growth of 27 per cent recorded in 2007.

This would result into the market growing at 24 per cent in 2008 over 2007. The year 2008 is set to mark the beginning of Growth Phase 2.0 to be characterised by opportunities arising out of the leveraging of the IT infrastructure built up so far.

IDC India revealed this as part of its annual predictions for the domestic IT market for 2008. "By posting a substantial jump in the domestic IT/ITeS market since 2002, the industry is now onto a new growth trajectory. IDC India expects a significant transition in the Indian IT market as part of the Growth Phase 2.0," said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India.

Growth Phase 2.0

"Growth Phase 2.0 will leverage the IT infrastructure and technical capability built up so far to offer new-age services to the Indian enterprises and consumers," he added.

The India domestic IT market will transform significantly with the existing IT infrastructure evolving both in technology terms and depth of penetration. Higher demand for sophisticated enterprise and consumer services will drive this trend as the India domestic IT market 'comes of age'.

Not only are key market segments growing at a healthy pace, the evolution of the market is visible in the scale and scope of enterprise IT infrastructure deployment across all verticals as well as emerging verticals, including the government.

The consumer IT sector maturity is driven by the launch of new consumer Internet, telecommunication services (Fixed-Mobile Convergence, tele-presence, Web 2.0 and social networking sites, online and mobile gaming, music and video downloads), as well as healthy growth in shipments of mobile handsets, consumer notebook PCs and accessories. The growth in IT retailing also underscores the 'arrival' of the consumer IT phenomenon in India.

Beyond BRIC

Even as vendors reach out to new geographies (beyond BRIC) for growth, India would continue to remain the centre of attraction. IDC India expects India revenues to grow the fastest during 2006-2011 amongst all BRIC nations even if the focus moves beyond the BRIC countries. India, currently contributes to about one fifth of the total BRIC revenues.

Coming of age

Virtualisation will become mainstream in 2008 as it gains wide-scale adoption. Enterprises across segments like IT/ITeS in India have been early adopters of consolidation and virtualization.

IDC India estimated the share of virtualized servers to double from the present 22 per cent to 45 per cent by 2008-end. Riding on the success of server virtualization, storage virtualization is also coming of age in India.

The success stories of virtualization that have gained momentum are expected to have a positive impact on other segments like Manufacturing, BFSI and Aviation during 2008. IDC said uptime, availability and performance management of infrastructure and applications to be at the core of innovation.

Optimisation of uptime

Delivery mechanisms will witness significant change with both Tier I and Tier II managed services providers setting up more Network Operation Centres (NOCs) and Security Operation Centres (SOCs) to adhere to stringent QoS (Quality of Service) and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) with initial response times being as low as five minutes in case of a mission critical environment.

Managed services providers will drive the next level of innovation by providing services delivery based on ITSM (IT Services Management) and ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) frameworks.

These frameworks, coupled with the reduction of onsite staff will help to cut costs and lead to optimisation of uptime, availability and performance of enterprise IT infrastructure and applications. Indian customers have already started living the digital experience.

The New Year will take this experience to the next level. In all markets customers are being offered a variety of choices not seen before in the country. Convergence is playing an important role in bringing different media together to offer multiple services to customers over the same platform.


Telecom market

The Indian telecommunication products market can also be categorized into distinct and rapidly evolving segments. IDC said fixed-line broadband will emerge as a favoured choice in 2008, though mobile Internet will continue to grow as an alternative Internet access medium.

In the first half of 2008, all major operators will be offering broadband up to 8 Mbps to consumers in metros and some other key cities. Bandwidth-hungry applications like IPTV, Online Gaming and VoIP will ensure a healthy uptake of VHSB in 2008 and beyond.

Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) will signal the onset of a new battle in the Indian telecom sector. Integrated service providers will gain edge, the stage will also be set for a significant onset of Unified Communications (UC) services.

Web 2.0

IDC said that the Web 2.0 market in India to take off in 2008. This will lead to increased user awareness and participation, something that will benefit and accelerate the overall Web 2.0 market in India. While smaller players will feel the pressure with big players foray into India market, the overall market will benefit from an increased user awareness and participation.

Security

Heightened business risk perceptions and security concerns will drive increased investments into a range of enterprise-wide and client-centric devices and applications. Increasing competition and changing business needs are forcing enterprises to continuously evolve new business models.

SMBs hold the key

IT Solutions delivery will witness change in 2008 with pockets of success and growing awareness setting the stage for wider market adoption. Fast-maturing Small and Medium Business (SMB) segment will be a key driver. IDC added that 2008 will witness a major expansion of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as a way to accelerate SMB penetration and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) adoption.

IDC predicted that in 2008, worldwide IT market growth will be lower, at a moderate 5.5-6 per cent worldwide, down from 2007's 6.9 per cent. According to IDC's Global Research Operation (GRO) team, the earliest impact from economic downturns is felt, historically, in the hardware sector, with software impact lagging by one or two quarters and services impact more gradual.

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