The problem with our country has always been that advances in technology are not supported by enabling policies. In the early years, the software exports sector received a welcome boost with the Software Technology Parks scheme devised by then secretary of the department of electronics N Vittal. Today, as the industry has matured and grown beyond anybody?s wildest expectations at that time and is confidently targeting a $200 billion revenue by 2020, can we expect that one game changing technology will receive the kind of budgetary and policy support it surely deserves? With the rapid move of the cloud to the centre stage of the global technology industry, there needs to be a concerted national effort to support and embrace this technology.
A few data points will underscore the importance of the cloud as the platform for all future IT and IT enabled growth. Sony Corporation has announced that it is introducing a new service that will operate on its own televisions and home-entertainment products called Music Unlimited which uses the networking capabilities of Sony?s televisions, Blu-ray disc players and PlayStation 3 gaming systems to stream digital music from the cloud.
Cloud subscription plans will define the future of the music, with services like Rhapsody, Rdio and MOG letting users listen to whatever tracks they like without having to store them on their own machines. Pandora and Spotify in Europe have attracted tens of millions of loyal users and are now gaining popularity on mobile devices, while Apple and Google are also said to be working on cloud-based music plans. The Indian online music and gaming segment has underperformed its competitors in the Western world and even China and Korea and could do with a boost of adrenalin if tax benefits were given to companies building products and services to enable this segment.
On the corporate side, software as a service (SaaS) and platform BPO solutions will provide a much needed opportunity for small and medium manufacturers to avail of world class software available on hosted platforms on the cloud. Early movers in this segment have been TCS, Ramco and Zensar. Zensar?s AutoZenics introduction for the SMEs in the automobile component industry has shown that it is possible to deliver a solution that not only addresses all the information needs of manufacturing, inventory, supply chain, maintenance and quality management and eliminates all manual inefficiencies in human resource and accounting processes but also provides low cost e-mail and connectivity services.
All this at a price point of less than Rs 20,000 per month may seem like a dream for SMEs but even this price is proving to be a hurdle for cash strapped companies. The large funds available for supporting SMEs and micro SMEs in this country could be effectively deployed if the ministry recognises the power of this access and payment method and provides cash and tax benefits to providers as well as users of solutions in this area. An efficient manufacturing industry will enable India to catch up and cross China?s growth in the near future and energise SMEs in the manufacturing as well as IT sector.
The cloud market continues to be the biggest opportunity area for providers and users with global market size estimated at over $70 billion in 2010 with worldwide cloud services revenues projected to reach nearly $150 billion by 2014. The cloud market today encompasses a range of services from SaaS, platform and infrastructure solutions, customised business applications, computation storage backup and integration services and even cloud based advertising and other business process services. The Indian cloud market will grow at a CAGR of over 40% with industrial solutions customised to industry clusters being the key to the delivery and consumption of IT services. Active encouragement of SMEs and government support will enable proliferation of domestic cloud platforms and increasing standardisation on the lines of the Cloud Security Alliance and Open Cloud Consortium globally.
Lack of knowledge about cloud adoption and mitigation measures for security concerns in cloud transition are issues to be addressed and the industry has its role to play to ensure that customised solutions are available, entirely managed by the providers with support for training, adoption, governance and change management. The industry has the ability and the willingness to do that. Will the eco-system of government, academic institutions and financing agencies join the cloud party which can only lead to more success for all sections of Indian industry?
The writer is vice-chairman & MD of Zensar Technologies and is a Chairman of CII?s National Committee on IT and ITES