Cloud computing services stands 4th place in the IT sector after mainframe, PC and internet. Cloud IaaS model is revolutionizing IT by providing new dimensions on how IT resources and technology can be leveraged to exploit potential business opportunities. Industry experts view cloud IaaS model as the most dynamic utility computing service presently available. For instance, the promise of pay-as-you-go pricing model and infinite scalability are some of the key drivers for cloud adoption across different industry verticals.
In India the need for inexpensive and effective IT services is driving cloud services across all types of organizations. In a summit titled ‘Gartner IT infrastructure operations & data center’ held in May 2015, Gartner report explains that IaaS spending in India is $104.8 million which is an increase of 38% in revenue compared to previous year and analysts predict IaaS adoption is expected to grow through 2018 to reach $1.9 billion.
In India, cloud IaaS adoption alone is expected to grow over 40% in 2015, according to a survey on IaaS adoption in India done by Knowledgefaber, an independent research and consulting firm. In India three main sectors namely BFSI (Banking Financial Services and Insurance), Health care and E-commerce sectors are found to be high adopters of cloud IaaS. These three sectors are explored for cloud IaaS deployment benefits in their area of operations.
- BFSI: BFSI sector require vast IT infrastructures to efficiently handle huge volumes of data on a day-to-day basis. Cloud IaaS offers certain specific benefits to banks for facilitating and servicing customers with latest technologies while reducing overhead cost in their physical branch. In cloud IaaS customers are allowed to access their personal details and perform online transactions using any type of device from anywhere.
Cloud IaaS service enables efficient mobile banking capabilities and customer relationship management with automatic scaling or descaling based on network or server workloads. BFSI organizations leverage cloud IaaS to enable online transactions for customers and serve customers through ATMs, thus optimizing resources in their branch offices. Further financial institutions, mainly banks and insurance companies are also able to widen their customer base into rural areas due to the availability of internet and mobile services. - Healthcare: According to Forbes magazine, over 83% healthcare organizations are using cloud based services and porting a variety of healthcare apps on the cloud. The need for healthcare IT is due to the fact that more and more information (patient conditions, research data, drug information, data gathered from various computer controlled devices in therapy) is immediately available in digital form. To handle this huge volume of data across multiple locations requires robust and reliable IT infrastructure.
Healthcare organizations continuously face challenges in terms of mining clinical data and historical records, compliance to healthcare regulations, potentially damaging drug recalls and effectively respond to unexpected negative events such as sudden epidemic outbreak, viral infections, etc.
A cloud IaaS service from a data center allows pooling of IT resources and is easily made available through the internet to hospitals, clinics, laboratories, research centers. This brings experts together with collaboration tools to provide effective healthcare to patients and facilitates health information exchange for effective treatment. - E-Commerce: E-commerce is another area of picking up momentum particularly with SMBs and retail business companies. E-commerce applications primarily have functionalities such as automated workflows, online transactions and customer support which require speed and quality of service for customer satisfaction and retention.
Cloud IaaS enables cost cutting with speed and provides specific benefits such as reliability in transactions and efficiency in handling large number of customer requests. The multiple layers of security in the cloud to ensure transactions and private information are protected. The usage based pricing model and on-demand self-service along with scalability are some attractive propositions for e-commerce businesses.
IaaS offers the infrastructure to implement and run web based applications thus eliminating the need for costs in building an IT infrastructure. Further data generated in e-commerce software is stored in a centralized servers making it secure from theft or leakage. In summary, e-commerce companies’ benefit from IaaS in overcoming issues related to security, data integrity, scalability and above all allowing customers to access information from different devices.
Cloud IaaS services play a facilitating role for business enterprises by providing hardware and IT infrastructure to manage any type of business functions with agility. IaaS services are available from data centers at a fraction of cost compared to capital expenditure likely to be incurred in building an in-house infrastructure network.