How SMEs are Leveraging Cloud to Scale Up

Most businesses initially adopted the cloud for its IaaS and SaaS functions and features. Using this technology did help them to scale operations smoothly. They are now ready to leverage the platform for access to digital reality, blockchain, and cognitive technologies to further improve their process security and customer experiences.

India is racing towards its goal of becoming a digital-first economy, and one of the technologies helping it to accelerate the pace in this direction is cloud computing. In addition to big businesses, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly moving their operations to the cloud, and the platform has proved to be a game-changer for them.

The technology has changed the way IT processes are executed, and it has the potential to create measurable impacts on business.

Indeed, a recent survey by Microsoft India¹ and the Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI) shows that SMEs can improve cash flows by up to 308% with the flexibility offered by cloud solutions. Moreover, 96% of these organisations record positive impacts on their OpEx within two years of cloud adoption.

About a decade back, most companies had to run their custom software and applications by installing them on individual desktops or a central server in the office. Today, they can allow employees to access the same directly through the Internet on any device and from anywhere in the world. The cloud platform enables them to manage their workloads more efficiently and save the resources spent on installing applications on each device.

Some of the thriving Indian startups that were ‘born in the cloud’ and successfully scaled up their operations with this business model include:

Why did they choose the cloud?

While any business would want to reduce costs, the key factors promoting cloud as a choice for serving clients are ease of administration, disaster recovery and archival abilities.

The cloud has also matured over the years. It is no longer an untested or risky product, and small businesses need not worry about proactively adopting the technology. They also have successful examples of more prominent players such as Amazon, Cisco, Adobe and Microsoft that are thriving with their cloud computing models and data centres.

Yes, money is a significant reason for promoting this choice:

• The deployment costs are minimal, and it is easier to forecast the ROI.
• Data storage and application management become easy and inexpensive.
• The cloud is scalable and affords both online and geographic growth of business without affecting the budget. It allows enterprises to do more with reduced infrastructure overheads and minimises or eliminates downtime.

Furthermore, the cloud is reliable. It is a highly available solution that gives the workforce at any location instant access to their company data and the ability to work online.

Nasscom calculated² the cloud spending in India for 2018 at USD 2.5 billion, of which the IT/ITES sector had the highest share at 24%. It has been estimated to reach between USD 4.4 and 4.5 billion in 2020 and between 7.1 and 7.2 billion by 2022. The agency also predicted that the share of SaaS is expected to grow more strongly than IaaS and other cloud-based services.

At present, only China supersedes India as the fastest-growing cloud solutions market in the Asia Pacific region.

Getting ready for tomorrow: Technologies emerging with the cloud

Through the last decade, no single technology trend has so strongly dominated the zone of enterprise IT as the cloud. From a low-level technology cost arbitrage tool, it upgraded to a mechanism for delivery model enhancement and further to a lever for business transformation. It has become the foundation for building innovation and is likely to remain a key differentiator for years to come.

However, over the next five years, associated technologies, particularly digital reality, blockchain, and artificial intelligence will become as important as the cloud, analytics and digital experiences are today. Each of these is attracting more investment and is being adopted across industries:

• Digital reality – an umbrella term for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and the Internet of Things (IoT) – is redefining how humans interact with data, devices and each other. The projected market growth³ for AR and VR is estimated to reach USD 5968 million and USD 555 million respectively by 2022, according to Nasscom.
• Blockchain is gaining deeper traction due to its potential in transforming and securing businesses across industries. Today, blockchain is to trust what the email was to communication when the Internet became public. Banks and FinTech companies have realised its value. Some have even implemented the technology for their KYC and trade finance procedures.
• Cognitive technologies like AI help to make sense of the proliferating data by managing volume and complexity in ways that human minds and conventional analysis techniques cannot comprehend.

Organisations that delay the adoption of the cloud may miss some significant innovation opportunities offered by these new technologies.

The Government of India has also initiated an ambitious project – "GI Cloud", which has been named as "MeghRaj" – to capitalise upon the strengths of cloud computing. It focuses on accelerating the delivery of digital services in the country while optimising the government’s ICT spends. The program will ensure optimal utilisation of the infrastructure and expedite the development and deployment of eGov applications. IDC predicts that the adoption of public cloud technology will also help to create 1 million new jobs in India by 2022.

As mobility becomes important, access from anywhere will be a crucial factor in the growth of SMEs and startups. Cloud computing is projected to be an essential enabler here, helping organisations stay focused on their business and customers while learning, innovating and scaling with the latest technology.

Sources

• https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/smbs-improve-chances-of-better-market-access-profitability-by-three-times-with-high-cloud-usage-microsoft-tari/
• https://nasscom.in/knowledge-center/publications/nasscom-cloud-next-wave-growth-india-2019
• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/indian-firms-plan-to-leverage-on-ar-vr-experiences/articleshow/70067081.cms?from=mdr