BANGALORE, INDIA: Putting simply, cloud computing is all about providing infrastructure, platform and software as a service. When put into use, cloud computing ensures both capital and operational cost efficiency, greener environment, scalability and IT flexibility.

At the moment, both large enterprises and SMBs are embracing cloud computing since this technology is apt for companies that are looking to cut capital costs and automate their business processes. Even in India, cloud computing has witnessed quick adoption by product and service in the banking, finance and healthcare verticals. Other verticals like IT, BPO,manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, government and education are also embracing this model. Cloud computing as a technology is here to stay. This shift will eventually transform the IT industry and affect any industry that makes heavy use of information technology.

Significance

Cloud computing ensures that you pay only for what you use, thereby reducing your expenses to a considerable extent. Besides it imparts automation to businesses since they no longer need to set up teams to take care of tasks such as back-ups and system updates. Thus, you can release the domestic resources occupied in such work to handle other processes.

According to Rob Willis, VP-Asia Pacific, Citrix Systems Inc, "Noteworthy innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as enhanced access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing. The fact that everything is offered as a service, promises to make life easier for businesses, thereby making people adopt this technology."

Cloud computing unlike other emerging technologies is easier to implement as there is no requirement to acquire additional hardware or software. Also, since the implementation takes place remotely, it proves to be cost-effective. According to Pankaj Sinha, program director-Lab Services, India Software Lab, IBM "The big thing to get excited about is that cloud computing acts as a means to connect billions of people, sensors and storage to powerful back-end systems that make sense of it all in seconds. Not to mention track risk in the banking system, store and provide access to online medical records for entire generations and integrate industries in entirely new ways."

Market Overview

According to a Springboard Research (January 2009) report 'Software as a Service in India: An Overview':

Indian SaaS market will register a CAGR of 76 percent between 2007-2011 and reach $260 million in revenues by 2011.

The Indian SaaS market is poised for high growth with 76 percent of survey respondents, who have not adopted SaaS, planning to do so within the next 12 months.  SaaS-based ERP and CRM solutions are likely to see highest demand in the country.

The cloud computing model is especially important to the 35 million small and medium businesses in India who are looking for easy-to-use, reliable and scalable applications to enable good business growth. Cloud computing allows SMBs to embrace enterprise-class business application without buying or maintaining hardware, software or datacenters.

Cloud computing technology will continue to evolve as more and more customers look to replace stagnant legacy technology costs with predictable, scalable subscriptions and constant built-in innovations of cloud computing.

Aman Dokania, VP and GM-Infrastructure Software and Blades Sales, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, shared, "Currently, adoption is limited by uncertainties surrounding risks and rewards. Customers want assurance and a safe path to cloud adoption that will address potential risks of security, performance and availability, while providing clear RoI. However, we see that this will change as customers become more knowledgeable about the technology and more standards are created. Most customers are considering private cloud as part of their IT architecture and strategy."

Opportunities for SPs

IBM is helping the ecosystem learn and participate actively on cloud computing, be it usage, or offering it to their end-customers. The India Software Lab team at IBM India, have set up a dedicated Cloud Centre, where they bring in partners, system integrators, clients and prospects to understand and better utilize the cloud offerings and its benefits.

Indian companies are widely using traditional Web-based services for their businesses today. So, many are comfortable with the basic productivity applications being offered as a service. At the IT-as-a-service end, it is still in its earliest stages. Many companies are using hosted facilities for their datacenters, and IT-as-a-service will be the next step.

Dokania of HP shared, "CIOs of large Indian companies are quite interested in cloud computing. Most of them are exploring how the cloud impacts their IT infrastructure and how they can incorporate it as part of their IT roadmap. Currently large companies are going more for the private cloud. The reality today is that most organizations will manage a hybrid business technology ecosystem comprising services from in-house, traditional hosted service providers, and cloud service providers."