Cloud is all about partnering, feels Hewlett-Packard. In a deft move, the iconic Silicon Valley tech company has brought together its top business partners under a single umbrella to tap the Indian SMB market for cloud solutions. This will multiply its sales reach, capture new markets and accelerate delivery of services. Here?s how HP is picking up the pace
Dealing with new technologies, fast-changing business needs, tight budgets?tech marketing can be a difficult proposition in tough economic times. Businesses want IT services that are fast, secure and available anywhere, anytime, on any device. And the weak economy is limiting IT budgets just when chief information officers are pressured to implement new technologies like cloud computing and consumer-driven devices and keep up with the fast-changing demands of the business. Seems like tech marketing guys are in a tight corner, right?
Yet help is in the way and moving to the cloud may be easier than you think. Last week, the $127.2 billion American technology behemoth, Hewlett-Packard created a definite amount of buzz in the marketplace when it announced a new services model for the lucrative cloud computing market in the country. The Palo Alto, California-based company, which derives 80% of its India revenues from its services partners and systems integrators, is the key player behind the establishment of AllTimeIT Solutions, a unique conglomerate of 15 leading India-based IT infrastructure services providers and system integrators with a revenue of over $300 million and reach in 72 cities across the country. The consortium, which IT analysts term as the first-of-its-kind in the country, will promote cloud services tailored to meet small and medium businesses? needs under a pay-per-use cloud model called EFFICLOUD.
SMBs?companies with less than 1,000 employees?in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) will invest $16.5 billion in cloud computing solutions in 2012, according to a recent research conducted by AMI-Partners. These companies will continue to leverage cloud technologies as a major enabler for their future growth and innovation strategy. AMI predicts that the market for cloud solutions will grow more than 1.5 times the rate of traditional information and communications technologies in 2012 in the Asia-Pacific markets. Upto two-thirds of the total cloud investment is estimated to come from SMBs in Korea, China, and India, investing up to $11 billion in cloud-related technologies. As the leader of worldwide growth of the cloud computing markets over the next five years, these markets will provide tech vendors with the strongest growth opportunities.
First, a look at what the new venture is all about and the new opportunities and benefits it offers to HP and its business partners, and the customers in general. We?ll talk about its feasibility later on. The HP initiative will offer enterprises services such as virtual private server, backup as a service, virtual desktop infrastructure, portal as a service and software-as-a-service offerings in areas such as ERP, hospitality, retail and education. AllTimeIT Solutions will also tap HP?s network of channel partners, sales and marketing support to promote its service offerings.
?Our endeavour will be to provide effective solutions across segments to enable organisations to drive business growth in their core competencies,? says Ajay Sawant, managing director, AllTimeIT Solutions. ?Our biggest differentiator today is that we have nationwide reach, enabling SMB and enterprise customers to move in to cloud platform and support them locally. We aim to be amongst the top cloud services providers in India with the most secure and user-friendly business applications on the cloud platform,? he reckons.
Cloud computing market is around $2 billion in India. HP officials see it growing at 30-35% every year, which is nearly two times the IT industry?s growth rate. Going forward, the Indian market for cloud computing is expected to reach $20 billion by 2020, according to a recent study by Nasscom and Deloitte.
More than 2/3rd of the global cloud services companies already have a direct presence in India for their services for Indian enterprises. Sawant informs that the next five years would witness more companies focusing on Indian market and service portfolio extension of the existing companies. ?Cloud computing is expected to see revenues of $5 billion by 2015 in the country. We have a goal to be among the top three cloud service providers in India by 2015,? he informs.
A recent Coleman Parkes survey commissioned by Hewlett-Packard reveals that enterprises in the Asia Pacific region are prioritising cloud investments, with 43% of enterprises expected to invest $500,000 to $1 million annually on cloud computing between now and 2020, and almost 10% planning to spend more than $1 million annually. Currently, only 27% of enterprise delivery models are cloud-based. By 2020, senior business and technology executives expect public and private cloud delivery models to increase by 50%. As per the Coleman Parkes survey, top drivers of cloud adoption are rapid application development (53%), enhanced agility to respond to market changes (29%) and reduced cost of operations (18%).
?We are quite excited about the cloud. More Indian companies are turning to the cloud to increase efficiency and agility. In fact, cloud is growing faster than traditional IT business,? says Santanu Ghose, country head, Converge Infrastructure Solutions, Hewlett-Packard India. Hewlett-Packard generates 80% of its India business from its systems integrators. ?Our business partners are our eyes and ears. Hence, we are the catalyst for this new venture,? says Ghose. ?This will multiply our sales reach, capture new markets and accelerate delivery of services. From day one, the venture will kick-start its operations with 300 sales and 3,000 services resources. Clients will have access to infrastructure and applications across physical and virtual environments in minutes. This will provide them with the flexibility needed to respond to evolving customer needs and market challenges,? he adds.
Hewlett-Packard has always been good in spotting technology trends ahead of time. CyberMedia Research (CMR) head Thomas George feels that the move by Hewlett-Packard is a good go-to-market strategy. ?Hewlett-Packard has been making attempts to become agile and nimble in recent months and AllTimeIT Solutions is a smart move by them. Hewlett-Packard is trying to take advantage of the intimacy that their business partner enjoys with the customer without having to invest in office infrastructure and sales and services manpower. Hewlett-Packard is expected to capture new markets and multiply its sales reach,? he adds.
However, George cautions that cloud computing is not box-selling alone. ?These are niche services and Indian customers will need secure solutions that facilitate the transformation to cloud with minimal risk or disruption to services. Therefore, HP partners will need to be well trained to respond to evolving customer needs.?
Of late, Hewlett-Packard has been looking at every business process, on how to make it simpler and make it easier to go to market. Its latest initiative will add to its marketing muscle in the lucrative Indian IT market, for sure. Will it spark a new trend in tech marketing remains to be seen.
CLOUD COVER
* Cloud computing market is currently around $2 billion in India
* It is growing at 30-35% yoy and is expected to reach $20 billion by 2020
* Enterprises in the Asia Pacific region are expected to invest $500,000 to $1 million annually on cloud computing between now and 2020
* SMBs will invest $16.5 billion in cloud computing solutions in 2012
* Top drivers of cloud adoption are rapid application development, enhanced agility to respond to market changes and reduced cost of operations
* AllTimeIT Solutions is a consortium of 15 leading IT services providers and system integrators with a revenue of $300 million and reach in 72 cities
* The new services model will help HP multiply its sales reach, capture new markets and accelerate delivery of services
