Pandemic led spike in adoption of cloud services has propelled our vision for an Atmanirbhar Bharat
By A.S. Rajgopal, CEO, NxtGen Infinite Datacenter
This ancient but timeless proverb is a reminder that transformations are essential for progression and survival. Growth relies on modern innovations and 2020 challenged that path in ways unimaginable to mankind. Amongst the many factors that contribute to the sustenance of a larger ecosystem, technology and particularly cloud adoption has been an instrumental component. Global lockdowns and remote working further pushed consumers, industries and organisations to adopt technologies in a bid to sustain livelihoods. However, digitisation is a transformational ‘journey’ and not a sprint into the future. Its adoption can speed-up results but the process itself is an expedition.
In a paradigm shift, digitisation in India, in the backdrop of the pandemic has enabled continuity for businesses activities and economic environment. In fact, migration of assets to clouds globally became amongst the top business priorities during Covid-19, as per a report by McKinsey and Company. Amidst the accelerated demand, the latest BCG research also pointed towards the potential of Indian SMEs in being the growth engines for jobs and economic growth. With technological advancement and adoption of latest IT tools at cost-effective price points, millions of SMEs can join the tech bandwagon like many large enterprises and greatly contribute to the Indian economy.
In a pre-pandemic world, cloud computing was understood as infrastructure modernisation for quicker innovation and turnaround time for market delivery and cost optimisation. Today, business operations have pivoted to cater to consumer needs like online shopping, increased demand for video streaming, doorstep healthcare facilities, online education and more, a need for robust and cost-efficient cloud computing has become relevant to the overall digital matrix.
The Aarogya Setu application also leveraged cloud computing capabilities, and was launched during the pandemic, in a near record time by the National Informatics Centre, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Similar cloud adoption has been witnessed across large enterprises of India Inc., seeking ways to fast track innovations that help in product and service deliveries to consumer homes even in today’s challenging environment. Furthermore, innovations in the cloud space by indigenous players are leveraging OpenSource to deliver Cloud as a service through subscription and pay per use model, and have emerged as a cost effective option to a sizable number of enterprises to align and run their business operations. The transformation can also be seen in the labour intensive, Manufacturing industry, where video analytics as a service can be a game changer in making them future ready. Deployed through cloud and powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning, this function can empower enterprises that are required to work on premise while adhering to all necessary Covid safety protocols.
Healthcare, food manufacturers, online grocery delivery service platforms, mobile payments and commerce platforms, pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and OTT platforms are industries that have witnessed unprecedented surge in demand last year. Backed by cloud computing capabilities, these industries have been able to withstand and deliver to Indian consumer requirements, in their own capabilities and capacities. From improving their supply chain, simplifying internal and on the floor processes to managing data on cloud, be it public or private cloud, each industry is being differently equipped to improve customer experience. Examples as such will be plenty, but a closer look at this transformation paints a futuristic positive canvas of how technology has and will continue to be a catalyst in realising the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. The idea of self-reliant India was woven into the tapestry of India’s freedom struggle right from the Swarajya movement.
Today, everyone from legacy enterprises, industry giants to small and medium enterprises and government bodies are adopting cloud as a part of their digital infrastructure. What is heartening to see is that these steps are leading to building a robust digital infrastructure that certainly serves their individual purpose. But as the saying goes ‘Every drop counts’, every step in the journey towards having a self-reliant IT Infrastructure, invariably contributes to various aspects of nation building and has served as a booster shot to making of a self-reliant India.
