It Is Raining Clouds!!

Cloud computing as a concept has been around for many years, even before Amazon gave it a definitive push in 2006 with the launch of  Amazon Web Services. Since then, it has been making steady progress addressing and removing the concerns of sceptics who are largely within the IT departments of organizations. Over the past few weeks, Cloud computing, has been popping up on my radar almost as much as tablets have been in the news lately. Are they related? Yes, but that is another topic.  This one is about a change, a change that has crept into the interactions between cloud solution providers and customers.

There is a qualitative shift in the dialogue between Cloud solution providers and IT decision makers that heralds the beginning of a new phase of engagement. In the past, TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) reduction was the major attraction for many companies, some of whom became early adopters, while many stayed away because of concerns such as security, reliability and availability. The dialogue revolved around reducing TCO, converting CAPEX to OPEX, while addressing the above concerns. The emphasis was on cutting costs, economics was driving the decision.

But the game changing shift, is that now the emphasis is also on business agility, time-to-market, innovative applications, remote access etc rather than costs alone. What makes this significant is that it allows the IT departments to participate within the mainstream, to play a key role in furthering specific business objectives of the company. That is the key change that will change many sceptics into believers.

Early adopters are now communicating their positive experiences to other IT decision makers who have remained sceptical thus far. Cloud solution providers are squarely addressing the old concerns as well as taking on new ones such as cloud-to-cloud integration, SAAS silos, and access from a variety of mobile devices. This augurs well for adoption trends in the future.

In the Indian context, given that economy and business continue to grow at a brisk rate, the cloud model provides many businesses the ability to rapidly deploy solutions that scale with anticipated growth. Moreover, with data connectivity in Tier 3/4 cities and rural India becoming a reality, the Indian scenario will throw up even more innovative and interesting possibilities around the cloud computing model that can improve the lot of a big section of population. It is important for cloud solution providers to continue to address the standard concerns mentioned earlier as well as newer ones that the Indian scenario will throw up. There is immense potential for innovative solutions that can address segments as diverse as education, agriculture, healthcare, retail etc by leveraging the reach of cloud computing and newer interaction points such as mobile devices and low-cost tablets.

The Monsoon is coming; time to plant the right crop now!