Certaintly Cloud Computing is one of the core strands of the proposed National IT Policy that is being put in place to increase revenues of the Indian IT and services industries from $100 billion at present to $300 billion by 2020.
But now attention is turning to how the country’s government might itself make use of Cloud technologies A new report - The Indian Cloud Revolution - by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), KPMG and Amarchand Mangaldas & Shroff advocates that Cloud-based services can be leveraged by the government to launch e-governance initiatives quicker at lower overhead costs.
"Globally, the adoption of Cloud has increased over the years, and growing at a rapid pace. Cloud can drive the inclusive growth agenda by providing platform to scale the reach of education, healthcare, financial services, entrepreneurship and governance among other areas," said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.
Change demands change
But all of this is going to require some rethinking of government policies, warns the new report. "In order to reap benefits of the Cloud, the government needs plan its Cloud adoption efforts,” it states. “The Indian government should come up with a policy giving direction to its agencies to adopt Cloud as well as to the Cloud service providers inclined towards providing services to government.
"A common Cloud platform will also enable local governments and other public agencies to adopt e-governance for better citizen services, without requiring the setting up of significant IT infrastructure," it added.
So far, so very G-Cloud. But there are differences between India's ideas and the UK government strategy on Cloud Computing. Most notably while the UK government is all for closing down data centres, the infrastructure implications of current Indian thinking are unlikely to please Green activists already wary of the country's track record on sustainability.
The report notes that infrastructure development will be “a key Government initiative that will provide the land, power, technology and human resource to establish India as a data management hub.”
It goes on to observe that currently, India lags behind developed countries in terms of established data centres operating in the country – which basically means a lot more data centres – and more carbon emissions – are likely to be on the cards. But the report unashamedly argues: “The economic benefits of having data management centres in the country are huge and the Cloud Policy will have to provide a clear vision to enable such an outcome.”
Open government
The Cloud will also provide a great opportunity for the Indian government to move ahead in it open government ambitions, suggests the report. “Cloud presents an opportunity for Government bodies to leapfrog the IT enablement and set up infrastructure for the next wave of eGovernance in India,” it states. “Government fulfil the above promise by migrating and adopting appropriate Cloud infrastructure for widespread implementation of e-Governance services by Government agencies.”
And unlike the UK, the Indian government can save itself billions and use the Cloud to develop a universal health care records system, suggests the report. “India, which is yet to develop a national electronic health record management system, should utilise the Cloud to set up a common Cloud based database for health records for the Healthcare sector to utilise,” it says - a message the UK Department of Health might take on board as it surveys the wreckage of the National IT Programme.
“Cloud can also enable services such as telemedicine to remote areas of the country. Specific segments of the Healthcare industry can be benefited from Cloud. Hospitals, Physicians, Pharmacies, Laboratories, Pharmaceuticals/Drug manufacturers, Application Providers, Device manufacturers and Insurance Companies making healthcare affordable for masses in India.”
All of this is going to need managing of course, so the government needs to establish an agency to define the standards for procurement and usage of Cloud technologies by government agencies. The report warns that existing regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA), and Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will have to be “directed” going forward.
To that end, the Indian government has set-up a committee to recommend framework for Cloud services under the chairmanship of Infosys' Executive Co-Chairman S Gopalakrishnan. The members of the committee include representatives from Department of Information Technology, National Informatics Centres, the NASSCOM outsourcing lobby group and the CII.
A Cloud appetite
So what are India’s prospects for the Cloud? There’s certainly an appetite for Cloud Computing. The public Cloud market in India was between $160-192 million in 2011, but is expected to grow at a 55% growth rate to $685 million by 2014, according to research firm Zinnov Management Consulting.
While the overall Indian market for Cloud – private and public modes – hit $912 million in 2011, it’s the public Cloud space that has yet to hit its inflection point, reckons Praveen Bhadada, Director-Market Expansion, Zinnov Management Consulting. “We will not be surprised if Cloud takes up more than 20% of the total Indian IT spend in the next couple of years,” he states.
This could mean a valuable boost to the economy, he adds. “Global and domestic opportunity that exists in the Cloud space has many Indian start-ups and 20% of the total public Cloud market in the country is currently being addressed by Indian companies,” he observes. “This would also mean that there will be a significant demand in the job market for Cloud Computing-related skills.”
For those who watched the emergence of India to revolutionise offshored service delivery, it’s a familiar scenario. Whether the end result is the same, remains to be seen.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Stuart Lauchlan
Quelle/Source: BusinessCloud9, 09.07.2012
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