The India cloud market will witness greater adoption of the public cloud, which will drive IT infra-related investments.
By Rishu Sharma
According to IDC’s ‘COVID-19 Impact on IT Spending Survey, May 2020’, as a result of the spread of the pandemic, 64 per cent of Indian organisations are expected to increase their cloud computing spends.
The need to work remotely is bolstering the demand for SaaS based collaborative apps, to ensure both an on- and offsite presence at all times and zero-disruption to business. This will also increase the need for remote support services – both human professional services and cloud software – especially related to security/identity. VPNs, collaboration suites, end-point encryption, and cloud tools will witness increased adoption. Digitally-determined organisations are likely to sustain their plans, being better positioned to address the situation by leveraging technologies like collaboration and the cloud, for maintaining continuity. Industries like media, education, and IT/ITeS are likely to see increased use of the cloud, primarily because of online entertainment, virtual classrooms, and the increased need for collaboration as a result of remote working.
An accelerated adoption of the cloud is expected as organisations explore and test many new initiatives natively on the cloud. As industries move away from owning infrastructure, pay-per-use models are likely to see greater demand. Public cloud services will be among the few technologies that are positively impacted by COVID-19.
IDC’s latest report, ‘COVID-19 Impact on India Cloud Services’, focuses on COVID-19’s potential impact on the India cloud market and how enterprises are planning to leverage the cloud as they grapple with these uncertain times. The study covers the change in cloud budgets and the demand for technologies that will ensure business continuity. The report also covers some of the initiatives from Indian vendors to support their customers, in this hour of need.
“While the impact of COVID-19 will be clearer in the coming quarters, the cloud has been a saviour during the crisis. Cloud-based VDI and collaboration tools helped enterprises to stay in touch with their employees, clients and partners. Cloud based solutions continued to run and enable seamless business operations during the crisis, and this has increased the confidence of enterprises in embracing the cloud,” says Sharath Srinivasamurthy, research director, enterprise solutions and ICT practices, IDC India.
The author is principal analyst, cloud and AI, IDC India.