Multinational tech company IBM published its September report on hybrid cloud market in India, revealing that the country’s businesses are ready to embrace hybrid cloud driven growth.
IBM projects that spending on cloud systems in India will increase by 49% in 2023. But currently only 20% of organisations have moved their workloads to the cloud, despite 90% of global companies adopting a form of the technology.
What is hybrid cloud?
Hybrid cloud is essentially a combination of public cloud and private cloud systems, allowing data to be shared between them. Using a hybrid cloud system accelerates key business operations by harnessing data for improved decision making, enhanced process automation and higher cost efficiency.
IBM estimates that the value derived from using a full hybrid and multicloud platform delivers 2.5 times more than a single platform and vendor approach, but only 29% of businesses in India take advantage of a multicloud strategy.
While businesses in India still fall behind in hybrid cloud adoption compared to international standards, the tech giant’s report predicts the size of the Indian market will come to prove in time the importance of turning to cloud management platforms for increased governance and efficiency.
One of the biggest challenges of digitally transforming operations is achieving buy-in from stakeholders and ensuring employees have ample skills to transition to the new technology. But IBM found that 51% of respondents in India understand the business and IT benefits of switching to a multicloud strategy, which might explain why a predicted average of six hybrid cloud platforms will be used by businesses in India by 2023.
Who’s adopting hybrid cloud?
Top companies in India, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Godrej Group and even Century Cement are leading the transformation to hybrid cloud.
Airtel, one of India’s largest telecommunication services, is currently building a new network cloud to maximise capacity and minimise capital expenses by onboarding services faster with seamless integration with current systems.
Vodafone Idea’s new hybrid cloud platform allows the company to deliver core network functions and implement edge computing technologies for its 300 million telecommunication subscribers at a breakthrough speed.
Indian conglomerate, Godrej Group, leveraged hybrid multicloud solutions to build a future-ready IT infrastructure, resulting in a 10% reduction of total cost of ownership and 100% increase in disaster recovery coverage.
Even cement shipping company Century Cement adopted cloud technology to connect their electronic billing processes with government systems, saving 60% more time on paperless processing and management as well as reduced operating costs.
What’s next for hybrid cloud?
The next chapter of the cloud is expected to see a shift of core business operations, optimising everything from supply chains to sales, with more investment in hybrid multicloud platforms on the way.
IBM’s advice to Indian businesses consists of five steps. First, businesses should strategise by understanding how digitally transforming to the cloud aligns with their wider operating models.
Next, the task is to design your transformation journey by understanding and coordinating the different cloud platforms available, including public cloud, private cloud and traditional IT environments.
Third, is the matter of moving to a hybrid cloud platform. IBM recommends using containers and unified open platforms to decouple the rate and pace of transformation from specific deployment models or constraints.
After the much anticipated move, it’s time to build a multicloud orchestration platform used to control costs, address security concerns and skill gaps in an organisation. It is important during the build phase to combine data and applications when building multicloud solutions.
Finally, once you have your solutions, it is important for your business to constantly manage and assess the platform with regard to cost, optimisation and regulations.
To achieve a competitive advantage, businesses have to start prioritising operations that can be moved to cloud, then migrate said skills and optimise continuously.
Aligning businesses activities with cloud platforms is the business model of the near future. Indian firms have the drive to prepare for the transition, and should do so in order to keep up with a global market reshaped by COVID-19.
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