ThinkStock PhotosPUNE: Indian companies have started moving key customer-facing parts of their business to the Cloud and service providers are witnessing increased preference for hybrid cloud solutions and pay-as-you-go models, as clients try to balance public and private cloud infrastructure at a time of disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
So far, most companies had focused on moving enterprise infrastructure to the Cloud, but that has changed over the last few months.
“Companies have realised that they need software and infrastructure solutions for any scenario, but with the same performance,” said Balakrishnan Anantharaman, VP and MD-Sales, India and SAARC, Nutanix.
Some credit card firms are moving their customer service-related operations to the cloud, while other companies move key supply chain functions.
“There is no doubt that cloud has emerged as an important ally for organizations, across regions and industries, with remote working and flexible IT models being a necessity today,” said Sandeep Dutta, Managing Director and Sales Lead, Accenture in India.
Client focus on the Cloud as part of their overall IT priorities has increased by 50% or more, he said.
Companies are thinking of ways to effectively use the cloud instead of simply migrating their existing infrastructure.
“Beyond systems resilience and cost reduction, it’s also about cloud work environments… Organizations are looking at moving all core business functions which can be cloud enabled and are choosing different cloud models for specific functions,” Dutta said.
Companies are looking at a Software as a Service model for their supply chain for greater efficiency or switching to a Product as a Service model for business outcome-related functions.
There is a greater focus on optimising cost and complexity of the cloud infrastructure.
There is also a shift towards more hybrid cloud solutions.
“People are keeping core applications at a data centre and moving business continuity functions to the cloud at a lower cost,” said Ravi Chhabria, MD, NetApp India.
The shift to an almost entirely remote workforce in the last few months has made companies think of how investments in technology can be made more efficient as they scale up their infrastructure.
A study by Nutanix just before the virus outbreak found that most firms in India were moving back some apps from a public cloud to on-premise, in line with a shift towards hybrid cloud models taking place globally.
At Micro Focus, the initial focus has been to help clients transition to a work from home environment.
“Key business applications have never been built to work over VPNs and varying network conditions, resulting in poor performance. We are helping our clients to test these applications by virtualizing the network constraints and helping them finetune the applications to perform at peak,” said Saurabh Saxena, country director, Micro Focus India.
According to these companies, Indian enterprises are currently in an adjustment phase as their understanding of public cloud matures.
Hybrid cloud is being seen as a middle ground and a viable alternative. As more enterprises start adopting cloud architecture, there will be a shift in IT investments as well, they said.
So far, most companies had focused on moving enterprise infrastructure to the Cloud, but that has changed over the last few months.
Cloud computing firm Nutanix has reported a trend where companies move applications critical to their businesses to the cloud.
“Companies have realised that they need software and infrastructure solutions for any scenario, but with the same performance,” said Balakrishnan Anantharaman, VP and MD-Sales, India and SAARC, Nutanix.
Some credit card firms are moving their customer service-related operations to the cloud, while other companies move key supply chain functions.
“There is no doubt that cloud has emerged as an important ally for organizations, across regions and industries, with remote working and flexible IT models being a necessity today,” said Sandeep Dutta, Managing Director and Sales Lead, Accenture in India.
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Client focus on the Cloud as part of their overall IT priorities has increased by 50% or more, he said.
Companies are thinking of ways to effectively use the cloud instead of simply migrating their existing infrastructure.
“Beyond systems resilience and cost reduction, it’s also about cloud work environments… Organizations are looking at moving all core business functions which can be cloud enabled and are choosing different cloud models for specific functions,” Dutta said.
Companies are looking at a Software as a Service model for their supply chain for greater efficiency or switching to a Product as a Service model for business outcome-related functions.
There is a greater focus on optimising cost and complexity of the cloud infrastructure.
There is also a shift towards more hybrid cloud solutions.
“People are keeping core applications at a data centre and moving business continuity functions to the cloud at a lower cost,” said Ravi Chhabria, MD, NetApp India.
The shift to an almost entirely remote workforce in the last few months has made companies think of how investments in technology can be made more efficient as they scale up their infrastructure.
A study by Nutanix just before the virus outbreak found that most firms in India were moving back some apps from a public cloud to on-premise, in line with a shift towards hybrid cloud models taking place globally.
At Micro Focus, the initial focus has been to help clients transition to a work from home environment.
“Key business applications have never been built to work over VPNs and varying network conditions, resulting in poor performance. We are helping our clients to test these applications by virtualizing the network constraints and helping them finetune the applications to perform at peak,” said Saurabh Saxena, country director, Micro Focus India.
According to these companies, Indian enterprises are currently in an adjustment phase as their understanding of public cloud matures.
Hybrid cloud is being seen as a middle ground and a viable alternative. As more enterprises start adopting cloud architecture, there will be a shift in IT investments as well, they said.
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