Talking about how cloud computing for SME’s is catching up, Prateek Pashine, president – SME, Tata Communications, speaks about how the mobile computing trend is set to take off in a big way worldwide in the next 2-3 years
Tata Communications recently announced its results for Q1 FY12. How much contribution did the cloud segment make to the total revenues?
Tata Communications has recorded gross revenues of Rs 3,257 crore ($728 million) for the quarter ended 30 June 2011, out of which Rs 1,264 crore is the revenues from Tata Communications Global Data and Managed Services that includes our cloud solutions. We’re betting Tata Communications on the cloud and the company has aggressive targets for our services like InstaCompute to hit $250 million revenue in three years time.
What percentage of the corporate portfolio does cloud computing for SME’s hold, and why have you concentrated on targeting SME cloud solutions?
We have made a big bet in terms of our investment in infrastructure to deliver cloud, though the investment was huge, but it is worthwhile in the India market. The growth is in smaller enterprises as they do need serious server computing for burst mode requirements, as much as large enterprises with their own datacenters. Today, Indian SME is on the mind of every key player in the market for cloud solutions. It is not the replacement market but the potential market which is very likely to adoption cloud soon. While cost saving is the buzzword across business verticals, and across geographies, cloud computing seems to woo customers largely. IT research firm IDC, stated that the cloud computing market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 40 percent by 2014, from an estimated $66.7 million in 2009. The technology is going to be driven by cost and performance; hence it will be a priority for the Indian SMEs.
What is the latest that Tata Communications is doing towards cloud solutions for SME and other segments?
Tata Communications has planned to achieve a target of US$250m revenue from its cloud computing services in the next three years. Tata Communications offers InstaCompute and InstaOffice that are pay-as-you-use IT application and data center infrastructure services offered over a web browser or smart phone. There applications are available for both SME and other segments of the market.
With these offerings, Tata Communications has helped Indian businesses to harness the power of IT infrastructure and applications without them needing to invest capital, manpower and management resources.
How are your offerings unique from other cloud providers?
Tata Communications offerings are driven by a rapidly evolving economy. Indian businesses desire flexibility and scalability of infrastructure as they pursue growth within India and overseas. Simultaneously, the competitive environment requires them to achieve their goals with low upfront investments.
Tata Communications cloud services have several advantages over other providers, including:
Free trial of its cloud services with full user privileges for all trial customers available at Tata Communications, the ability to offer hybrid solutions mixing cloud services, traditional hosting and co-location services, direct connectivity into Tata Communications’ Tier 1 internet backbone and MPLS network, pre-and-post-paid billing options in Singapore Dollars, US Dollar and Euros, using credit cards or traditional invoicing, web-based service access that allows administrators to quickly set up individual users and utilize project structures to allocate user access and monitor spending
What growth potential do you see in the SME segment for cloud services in India?
Cloud computing is gaining good amount of momentum from the Indian market. SMEs in India are ready to be on cloud at the earliest as it makes perfect commercial sense. Currently, we are seeing both enterprises and SMEs adopting cloud due to its multiple benefits and lower costs per transaction. We at Tata Communication believe that the key factors which will drive growth especially in the SMB sector would be lower costs, innovation and secure network.
Today, many companies have found that hosting their existing applications over an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform can save them money and increase business agility.
What are some of the most popular cloud offerings for SME’s today, which receive huge uptake?
There are two types of cloud services, private and public cloud. The former normally deals with large enterprises at one location and the other is more useful for a small and medium business and with companies with multi-geographic locations. Private clouds are data centers owned, operated, and hosted for one organisation, typically located on the company’s own site. Public cloud Infrastructure is shared by multiple organizations and hosted by third parties. Since private cloud services are relatively expensive, the SME in India choose public cloud offerings.
What do you perceive the role of cloud to be in India’s telecom story in the near future?
It is predicted by many industry expects that, the market for cloud computing will grow and play a fundamental role in re-shaping how telecom service providers offer apps to end users and how their internal systems are implemented. Solution delivered through cloud technology may eliminate operator’s need to invest in its own IT infrastructure, personnel or premises in certain scenarios. Experts also foresee that within 2-3 years, all technologically superior countries will be using mobile cloud computing as their primary method of accessing data through their mobile phones, and in fact India will lead the show due to its having the highest mobile subscribers’ rate than any other country in the world.
By Beryl M
editor@telecomlead.com
