Cloud computing significant for India Inc.: VMware

Fast provisioning, zero downtime from networks (80%) and storage (81%) have been identified as key areas for IT to address over next 12 months

Nearly nine of every 10 (89%) respondents in India believe that Cloud Computing, or ‘as-a-service’ approach, is relevant to their organization and nearly eight of every 10 (79%) respondents in India say they currently have a cloud-related initiative in place within the organisation, or are planning to implement cloud, or ‘as-a-service’ approach, in the next 12 months, said a report.

The findings part of the fourth annual VMware Cloud Index, brought out by VMware, one of the leading player in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, was conducted by Forrester Research across 12 Asia Pacific countries.

An interesting trend according to the VMware Cloud Index 2013 is that Indian organizations are turning to IT to help them grow the business in the current economic environment. IT is seen as a change enabler and source of business value for organizations by 85% of the respondents.

In terms of the top business priorities in India over the next 12 months, 87% of IT decision makers said improving the quality and capabilities of their products and 85% said addressing the rising expectations of customers and improving customer satisfaction.

The study also shows that the current perception of IT remains positive in India with 63% of respondents noting that the perceived credibility, influence and power of the CIO in their organization is increasing.
 
“Business priorities are clearly shifting at a time when optimism is slowly returning to the Indian economy. Business leaders recognize and expect IT to deliver much more ROI; they want the agility and flexibility to adapt to the dynamics of the marketplace while continuing to lower operating costs,” said T Srinivasan, managing director, VMware India and SAARC.

In terms of priorities for IT over the next 12 months, improving IT agility & responsiveness to business demands was high at 82% and operational efficiency was noted by 80% of respondents. Additionally, server consolidation via virtualization continues to be a strong priority at 77%.
 
Respondents in India are also aware of and are planning around new and evolutionary priorities. A software-defined approach to implementing and managing datacenter resources (servers, storage, networks) was stated by 71% of respondents. Furthermore, mobility & consumerization of IT was also noted by 71% as expected to create a lasting impact for organizations over the next 2-3 years.

 
Fast provisioning and zero downtime from networks (80%) and storage (81%) have been identified as key areas for IT to address over the next 12 months in the study.

Around 68% believe if their company doesn’t improve the way they deliver or ‘provision’ these services to the business, they risk falling behind competitors. Nearly half of the respondents also view internal resistance to change hindering cloud or ‘as-a-service’ adoption within their organization.