The India public cloud computing market estimated at $66.7 million (around Rs 300 crore) in 2009, is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40 per cent over the next five years.
As per IDC’s India Cloud Computing Market — Current State and Future Roadmap Study 2010, cloud computing is at a nascent stage and there is a lack of awareness and understanding. According to the study, cloud computing adoption in India is expected to rise to 6.8 per cent of large- and mid-size enterprises by 2012.
“In recent quarters, in the backdrop of the global economic slowdown, the phenomenon of Cloud Computing has gained wide interest among business leaders and CIOs. The most attractive feature of this new technology deployment is the prospect of converting large, upfront capital investments in IT infrastructure into smaller, manageable ‘pay-per-use’ annuity payments. This feature has sparked a high degree of interest and debate among technology vendors, users and channel partners alike,” said Kamal Vohra, lead analyst, software and services research, IDC India.
The study mapped the current adoption levels and preferences of Indian enterprises based on interviews with nearly 700 medium and large enterprises. This included ‘users’ (enterprises with deployments of public and private cloud computing solutions), ‘intenders’ (enterprises that plan to deploy cloud computing solutions within 24 months) and ‘non-intenders’ (enterprises that currently do not have any plan to deploy cloud computing solutions).
“As the market matures and more industry vertical-specific and business function-specific applications become available, we expect more and more Indian enterprises to see the benefit of adopting cloud computing solutions,” said Indranil Dutta, lead analyst, user research, IDC India.
The report further said a significant segment of the market is aware of the concept, but do not really understand what it actually means or how it can benefit them. “The lack of proper awareness and understanding of the concept has limited its appeal and market acceptance in the country. But as the market matures and enterprises begin to understand the real benefits of cloud computing, more people are expected to adopt cloud computing solutions,” said Dutta.