Adoption of Cloud Computing is one of the necessities to take ‘Digital India’ and other similar initiatives rolled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the next level. Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) writes how Cloud technology is helping various central and state government departments deliver better and faster
The ‘Digital India’ programme aiming at reforming governance through technology has become a global initiative now. Technology bigwigs, such as Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Apple and Facebook, have joined hands with the Government to realise the dream of ‘India Tomorrow’. What’s more, the Redmond-based tech giant Microsoft India has launched public Cloud services from three local data centres, located at Chennai, Pune and Mumbai, in India to fuel country’s inclusive growth, spur innovation and accelerate digital transformation.
Meanwhile, keeping in mind the benefits of Cloud Computing, the Government of India launched ‘GI Cloud’ initiative, christened as ‘Meghraj’, to accelerate the delivery of e-services covering aspects like jurisdiction, cross-border data flow, data security, data location, etc. The focus of this initiative is to evolve a strategy and implement various components, including governance mechanism, to ensure proliferation of Cloud in the Government.
“The National Cloud has been set up to cater to a variety of ICT requirements of the Government and is available for all the ministries and departments at Central and state level. The various Cloud services being offered by the National Cloud include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Storage as a Service (SaaS), among others,” says Neeta Verma, Deputy Director General & Head-Data Centre and Web Services, National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Some of the major eGovernance projects running on National Cloud include MyGov, Make-in-India, Biometrics Aadhaar attendance system for government employees, Digital Locker, Digital India, major website of the Central and state governments, etc.
Services and Benefits At present, following Cloud services are being offered:Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Meghraj offers on-demand storage and network facilities.Platform as a Service (PaaS): Programming languages and tools have been made available for developing and testing of applications.Software as a Service (SaaS): Core and regular applications, such as payment gateways and messaging platforms, are available in the eGov App Store. Storage as a Service (STaaS): Meghraj is excpected to expand user mobility through shared data and applications stored in the Cloud. |
Cloud Computing holds potential to accelerate eGovernance and push the Make in India, Smart Cities and Digital India programmes. A public Cloud is based on the standard Cloud Computing model, and its services may be free or offered on a pay-perusage model. It is driven by a service provider, who makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet.
Technology experts believe that more than 60 per cent of banks will process majority of transactions on the Cloud by 2018.
Indian Cloud market
Cloud market in India is very fragmented, and is divided into three broad segments – Data Centre services companies, like Netmagic and Tata Communications; Cloud providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft; and the Telecom players getting into the Cloud.
A lot of global tech giants such as Google, Microsoft Azure, IBM and Amazon Web Services are entering the country as Cloud vendors. Microsoft India has become the first public Cloud provider to set up three local data centres in the country. The company has launched three local data centres, located at Chennai, Pune and Mumbai, to offer Cloud services.
Market research firm Gartner claims that the public Cloud market in India is expected to reach USD838 million (roughly `5,527 crore) by the end of 2015, an increase of 33 per cent over 2014, and finally reach USD2 billion (roughly `13,193 crores) by 2018
Creating virtual workspaces
 Ajay Chauhan, Cloud technology has many benefits. It allows people to set up virtual workspaces, thus connecting businesses from anywhere and at anytime. As the demand of web-enabled devices for the smooth access to data keeps growing, there are lots of reasons to shift your business to Cloud Computing. It can reduce maintenance hassles and manage the IT systems efficiently, with reduced operational tasks. SalezShark offers a Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that takes the concept of CRM to a whole new level by introducing an array of new features. The relationship Cloud comes with an intuitive sales mechanism automating every aspect of lead generation and sales process lifecycle. It is available with an integrated Enterprise Social Network that allows intraorganisational connections. These assist in sharing of files, contacts and resources with anybody within the enterprise. The Cloud builds intelligent reports and enables 360-degree collaboration with customers and offers full customisation of the dashboard with Email and Telephony. |
Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik, in an official statement, said, “The Microsoft Cloud in India will transform the way computing is done in the country. The hyper-scale Cloud will empower governments, businesses and users and offer enough computing power that will support all their existing workloads.”
Market research firm Gartner claims that the public Cloud market in India is expected to reach USD838 million (roughly `5,527 crore) by the end of 2015, an increase of 33 per cent over 2014, and finally reach USD2 billion (roughly `13,193 crores) by 2018. Meanwhile, the Government of India’s spending will go up to USD6.88 billion (roughly `44,856 crore) by the end of 2015, an increase of 5.2 per cent over 2014.
On the other hand, Amazon has also announced setting up of an AWS infrastructure in India for its Cloud Computing platform by 2016 and the US-based IBM is also planning to set up its second data centre in India to cater to the demands from various sectors, including financial services and government. The firm already has a data centre in Mumbai.