Oracle, Microsoft say it's time for cloud in India

BANGALORE, INDIA: This is the message one gets, thanks to a couple of events where two major cloud players, Oracle and Microsoft, announced that they are ramping up their cloud activities in the country.

While Oracle introduced several cloud applications around ERP, HCM, talent management, sales and marketing, customer experience, Microsoft on the other hand launched its cloud incubator centre that was announced in May 2012.

Software player Oracle sounded very excited while announcing 100 different applications on the cloud and was even more excited about the rising cloud adoption and the strong momentum  for its cloud applications in the country.

According to IOUG (International Oracle User Group) research, private cloud adoption has increased from 28 per cent in 2010 to 37 per cent in 20111. Moreover, it saw a 50 per cent increase for public cloud adoption over a period of one year, from 2010-2011, noted Atul Tuli, Director, CRM, Oracle India.

Oracle's cloud applications can provide a range of social networking-related features, including the ability for employees to collaborate with one another and reach out to customers on public social sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, personalize end-user engagements etc.

The company is targeting at SMBs as well as large enterprises with its range of private, public, hybrid clouds and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) product portfolio.

On the other hand, Microsoft inaugurated a 8,300 sqft facility for its Accelerator for Windows Azure and announced the names of eleven start-ups, who will be hosted in the centre starting from September 3, 2012, for four months.

Amit Chatterjee, managing director, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd,, said: "The next four months will be dedicated to provide them the best workspace, finest infrastructure, elite mentors and all the tools which we feel they need to create the most successful businesses from India.”

He added that Microsoft will neither make any claims on the IPs produced during this period nor does it plan to take any equity stake on these start-ups.

The 11 companies area mplyfy.me,Caeruz Ventures, CipherGraph, CloudInfra, Gameizon, HireRabbit, Nowfloats, Plustxt, Sparsha Learning, Whitesharkk and WorldWithoutMe.

The programme has more than 60 mentors, including technical leaders from Microsoft, venture capitalist and angel investors.

S Somasegar, corporate vice-president, Developer Division, Microsoft Corporation, said: "We are seeing the dawn of a new way of designing applications powered by cloud, internet and mobile. India has always been one of the earliest adopters of emerging technologies. However, while many start-ups have great ideas that can potentially change the world, they lack some key ingredients that are critical for success--access to technology, strong relevant mentors and networking opportunities with key business leaders and investors. The Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure is designed to bridge these gaps,” Soma said.

The conference rooms are equipped with communication technologies to facilitate discussions with mentors or other start-ups in Microsoft's Accelerators in Beijing and Tel Aviv.