Gujarat SMEs log on to cloud services to boost data backup

With over 10 per cent of the overall three million-odd small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country present in Gujarat, Hitachi Data Systems is set to launch its cloud services for the segment from the state. The SMEs in Gujarat are said to be looking at data backup and email management services along with data and business analysis by cloud solutions providers.

Earlier this year, at the 9th meeting of the National Board for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Minister Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Virbhadra Singh said that the government would collaborate with service providers to provide latest information technology and software to small units at cheaper rates. "Small entrepreneurs are unable to afford expensive software packages. Keeping in mind, our ministry proposes to launch in collaboration with service providers, cloud computing for the sector," the minister said.

 

Cloud computing is a set of services that provide infrastructure resources using internet media and data storage on a third party server. In the cloud computing environment the SMEs will not have to own the infrastructure so they can abstain from any capital expenditure and instead they can utilise the resources as a service and pay as per their usage of the resources provided by the cloud.

Hitachi plans to begin offering cloud services for SMEs in Gujarat by next financial year, before moving on to other states. Tata Communications too has announced its plan to target about 30 per cent of 3.80 lakh small and medium scale units across Gujarat for adoption of its recently launched cloud services. The company has launched two new products, InstaApps and InstaCompute as part of its cloud services.

"With over 10 per cent of SME representatives in Gujarat, the state is an ideal launch pad for cloud services. As a company, we are looking at catering both large enterprises as well as SMEs. However, since SMEs are not that aware about cloud services, we will start offering the services in Gujarat since we are sure about getting quick penetration here. Once that happens, we will look to offer cloud services to SMEs in other states later," said Sunil Chavan, director, Software Group & Cloud solutions, Asia Pacific, Hitachi Data Systems.

According to industry insiders, cloud computing services are most likely to benefit those SMEs which have higher requirement of storage and processing of data.

"Industry that generates large data on sales, customers etc would benefit most from the cloud services. Also, for the companies having large-scale application usage with concurrent users or multiple users would take advantage of could service," said Rajan Vasa, former president of Gujarat Electronics & Software Industries Association (GESIA).

Vasa maintained that with storage space becoming a concern for companies, it would be better to encourage cloud computing services. "Technology is becoming obsolete quickly, hence keeping up pace with the changing technology with constant up gradation would involve cost and efforts, this might prove costly for SMEs. Also, with cloud services, challenges of maintenance and availability service is taken care of," said Vasa, who is also the chairman and managing director of Contech BPO Services Pvt Ltd.

As part of its cloud services, Chavan said that the company is looking to offer solutions to large enterprises, SMEs and individuals alike. "So far offering cloud solutions to individuals is unheard in India. However, the trend is going to pick up by next year. We will be one of the firsts to offer cloud services for individuals as well. For this, we are in talks with telecom operators to partner with us in offering cloud solutions for consumer needs like data backup," Chavan added.

In India, while currently the cloud solutions industry is around $ 400 million, by 2015 it is set to grow 10 times to $ 4-4.5 billion. Citing an IDC survey, Chavan said that globally the Indian market is the most mature in terms of the adoption of cloud technologies and the highest usage levels of converged systems. As per the survey, despite growing needs for more advanced data centre architectures, the Indian market, especially Gujarat, faces fundamental issues such as managing email growth and back-up.