Cloud.in: India’s Cloud Shift and GenAI Disruption

From its early days during the dot-com boom to becoming a trusted cloud partner for businesses of all sizes, Cloud.in has quietly built a strong foundation in the cloud services space. Now, the company is gearing up to the next wave of transformation—Generative AI.

Launched as the flagship brand of Hostin Services in 2016, Cloud.in draws on more than two decades of experience in cloud consulting, migration, and managed services. Its founder, Rahul S. Kurkure, a first-generation entrepreneur, has guided the company through multiple shifts in the tech landscape, including a strategic partnership with AWS in 2015 that helped shape its current trajectory.

Today, Cloud. in works with startups, enterprises, and everything in between, offering a broad portfolio that spans cloud advisory, cost optimization, managed services, and a growing lineup of GenAI-powered tools designed to make IT operations more intelligent and efficient.

In this conversation with CiOL, Rahul reflects on Cloud.in’s evolution, the real-world promise of GenAI, and where the cloud industry is headed next.Excerpts.

You’ve spent years in the cloud space—what inspired the creation of the Cloud.in, and how has the journey evolved?

During the first dot-com boom in 1999, our parent company, Hostin Services, was launched in Pune, after which we underwent several transformations. In the year 2008, we started to offer data center services and continued to grow further in the space. Cloud.in as a brand was launched in 2016 following Hostin becoming an AWS Partner in India in 2015. We empower large enterprises, digital-native businesses, and start-ups across all sectors, working with AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and JioCloud. We have a strong presence across India and specialize in delivering tailored cloud strategies that drive innovation and business success. 

Cloud adoption in India has changed a lot over the years. What are the biggest evolutions you’ve noticed in terms of how businesses plan their cloud strategies today versus, say, five years ago?

Over the past few years, cloud computing has transformed businesses, evolving alongside new trends and technologies. Five years ago, organizations focused on accelerating their migration to the cloud and opted for a single cloud vendor to simplify operations. Cloud Security was an afterthought, and the security team worked on securing data and applications only at a later stage.  Edge computing was not on the horizon, and the cloud as a solution was known to offer infrastructure and storage benefits.

Today, organizations are becoming more cloud-native, where creating, deploying, and managing modern applications are done in the cloud computing environments to leverage cloud-based services and delivery models. Organizations today leverage both on-prem and multiple cloud providers and are succeeding in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment while balancing the workloads across them.

Cloud security has become a critical aspect of modern computing, with organizations going for a shared responsibility model for cloud security.  Edge computing is more popular, where the computing resources are shifted to the edge of the network closer to where the data is generated or consumed. The cloud is no longer only an infrastructure and storage solution, with organizations considering it to train models and implement GenAI tools on a large scale, with the cloud transforming into a data and AI platform.

Security remains a top concern in cloud adoption. What misconceptions persist?

One of the most common cloud security myths is that the cloud provider is completely responsible for the security of the cloud. This is not true. Cloud security is a shared responsibility where the provider offers security of the cloud infrastructure and the customer is responsible for securing the data, applications, and configurations within the infrastructure. 

It is believed that the cloud is inherently less secure than an on-premise solution, which is another common myth. In reality, cloud providers employ security experts to protect their infrastructure against the latest threats. It is important to note that misconfigurations by users are among the leading causes of security breaches in the cloud and not the cloud infrastructure. 

Many organizations assume that just by deploying a firewall, the cloud workloads get protected, which is again false. Cloud security requires a multi-layered approach where monitoring, threat detection, patching, Identity and Access Management (IAM), and the deploying of Zero-trust models contribute significantly to secure the cloud.

With so many cloud providers competing these days, what’s Cloud.in’s secret sauce? What do you offer that makes clients choose you over others?

We are committed to excellence in delivering personalized service to all our customers across large enterprises, digital native businesses, and start-ups. With more than 25 years of experience in deploying and managing mission-critical workloads across diverse industry verticals, we fully understand the pain points our customers experience and configure tailor-made solutions to address them while working within budget constraints. It is the customer satisfaction and innovation aspects that set us apart in today’s highly competitive market. We ensure high productivity for customers. Backed by a 100% cloud-certified team, we operate with SLA-driven processes, ensuring rapid resolution and seamless cloud operations.

Looking ahead, what trends will shape cloud computing in the next five years—and what should mid-market enterprises do to stay ahead?

In the next 5 years, we foresee a rise in the integration of AI and machine learning technologies in Cloud services. Edge Computing, which enables organizations to reduce downtime, eliminate issues related to the cloud, and enhance data security will gain more traction. 

In the future, cloud computing will be further transformed with the integration of blockchain technology, where the storage and processing of data becomes transparent, ensuring optimum security of public data. Cloud-native technologies like serverless computing, microservices, and containers will enable organizations to scale up and down as required. Green initiatives will help reduce the environmental footprint and enable organizations to meet their sustainability goals.

Mid-market enterprises need to be strategic and agile in their cloud adoption to leverage these evolving trends effectively. Here's some advice:

• Define clear goals before moving to the cloud.
• Adopt hybrid and multi-cloud strategies to avoid lock-in and optimize workloads.
•  Build strong security and compliance foundations by implementing robust security measures in the cloud.
• Experiment with AI/ML services through small, focused projects.
• Stay curious and flexible, as the cloud landscape is evolving fast.