Infrastructure outsourcing gives Indian software companies reboot, global edge

The IO market has been a key segment for the software services industry though the role played by Indian IT firms has largely been on periphery, with global giants holding a dominant status. However, the advent of cloud-based technologies has offered a potentially $30-40 billion market for Indian IT players.

Chandrashekar Kakal, senior vice-president and global head – Business IT Services, Infosys, told FE, “This is a new-found lever as it was earlier largely done in-house, but with today's technology advancements, clients are looking at handing over entire infrastructure outsourcing.”

For top-tier firms such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys and HCL Technologies, the IO segment has been a positive growth driver. Wipro and HCL have over 20% of their overall revenue coming from this segment while firms like TCS and Infosys are investing more resources into this space.

Infrastructure services is one of the primary growth driver for HCL. Infrastructure management services (IMS) businesses, which contributed 26.6% to the company's revenue during the July-September period, recorded a whopping 10.3% sequential revenue growth, of $296 million, during the period, noted Angel Broking.

For TCS, at the end of second quarter of FY13 fiscal, the IO segment recorded a sequential growth of 12.6%, which was much higher than the overall company average of 5.1%.

“It is a new area, which is seeing rapidly growth. Areas

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