IT in Emerging Markets

Table 1. Cloud-related business activities in India.

Company Infosys Description This cloud system integrator provides cloudbased services for the auto sector and Finacle Lite for rural and semi-urban banks (www.infosys. com/finacle/solutions/pages/lite.aspx). CRL is a lab run by the Tata Group. Yahoo used CRLs EKA supercomputer. Zohos Word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and chat applications are free for personal use. Zoho also offers inexpensive accounting, invoicing, and recruiting tools for business. TCS applications include human resources, finance, inventory, ERP solutions, email, document management, and website services. TCS helped Singapore Management University set up a lab focused on the cloud, committing US$6 million. Its infrastructure-as-a-service offering, InstaCompute (http://instacompute.com), aims to rival Amazon.coms Web services. As of March 2011, 4045 percent of InstaCompute customers were from outside India.7 Cloud-related activities Infosys has partnered with its major clients in cloud research and, in 2010, it dedicated 175 engineers to identify potential cloud-related applications (www.infosys.com/cloud/Pages/index.aspx). In 2008, Yahoo signed a research pact with CRL to support cloud research.5 Zoho operates a popular suite of Web-based productivity, business, and collaboration apps that had over 5 million users in September 2011.6 ICICI banks insurance arm uses Zohos applications to develop personalized insurance for diabetes. TCS started cloud pilot projects in 2009. It launched the iON cloud network (www.tcsion.com) exclusively for SMEs, which had 135 customers by February 2011. Its clients were expected to increase to 1,000 by 2011-end. As of mid-2011, TCS has had a strong R&D backbone consisting of 20 cloud centers. InstaCompute capitalizes on the companys 300,000 square-foot data centers in India and Singapore. The company plans to expand to the UK and the US.

Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) Zoho Corp (formerly AdventNet)

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Communications

in the Indian company Netmagic Solutions, which has cloud computing as a major business.

Cloud-Related Entrepreneurs
Clearly, Indian firms are playing a crucial role in the global cloud industry. Platforms developed by global players also provide developers in India with opportunities to build applications. CRL, Zoho, and Tata Communications are three high-profile Indian cloud providers, 5 7 and other big IT players, such as TCS and Infosys, have also entered the cloud market in India (see Table 1). In the same vein, Pressmart (based out of Hyderabad) provides SaaSbased e-publishing and digitization services to the print industry. Pressmart can help firms deliver content across multiple platforms such as Web, mobile, RSS, podcasts, blogs, social networking sites, articles directories, and search engines. Novatium, which is partly owned by Ericsson, developed cloudbased mobile applications, mainly
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in its Indian R&D centers. In September 2011, Novatium services had over 40,000 users in India. Ericssons principal target groups for the applications are emerging markets, where most consumers cant afford a PC. In developed markets, the company aims to focus on young consumers.

Remote Infrastructure and Offshore Growth

A c c o r d i ng t o Na s s c om a nd Mckinsey, remote infrastructure management will be a $15 billion industry by 2013 in India. Likewise, CyberMedia Researchs May 2011 report, India Cloud Computing Market Review 2011, indicated that the Indian public cloud market would grow with a compound annual growth rate of 53 percent between 2010 and 2014, reaching $543 million. A report published 27 September 2011 by Nasscome and Deloitte Deconstructing the Cloud: The New Growth Frontier for Indian IT-BPO Sectornoted that about

two-thirds of the Indian cloud market would be new businesses and the rest would come from existing services. Cloud computing should also affect Indias offshoring industry. The demand for cloud services is especially high in the offshoring industry and technology hubs such as Bangalore and Delhi. Amazon noted that its Indian customers, especially those serving international markets, were showing increased interest in its cloud services. In Deconstructing the Cloud: The New Growth Frontier for Indian IT BPO Sector, Nasscom and Deloitte noted that cloud computing will have a significant impact on the IT and BPO services industry. The cloud should help Indian firms diversify the services offered and improve the business models and delivery mechanisms.

Cloud Computing Apps in India

Cloud providers in India have developed products, services, and

IT Pro September/October 2012