Digital Transformation is an all-pervasive tech buzzword of the decade—enterprises are into it; governments are into it; even non-profits are into it. But digital transformation isn’t just a bunch of IT projects: it is an entirely new way of life for an organisation and its customers, vendors, and employees. From interactions to processes to production, distribution, and customer service—nothing is left untouched. Done well, digital transformation can deliver superior efficiencies and enhanced customer experience, while also creating strong competitive advantages.
But there can be no digital transformation without Cloud Computing.
How does cloud computing enable enterprise digital transformation?
Cloud computing provides the technology platform on which the entire edifice of enterprise digital transformation is built. Migrating the business to the cloud is the most crucial aspect of successful digital transformation.
The cloud offers a neat way to package away desktop apps to remote servers. So, employees can work remotely, vendors can take orders from anywhere, and enterprises can serve their customers everywhere.
Increased interconnections can generate massive amounts of data. Enterprises can analyse this data to derive insights that can boost innovation and build competitive edge.
Cloud computing also offers other fundamental advantages: best-in-class technologies, outsourced disaster recovery, zero maintenance costs, robust document control, enhanced flexibility, and strong data security. Each of these benefits is a key element in the digital transformation journey of an organisation.
The regional public cloud advantage
But what kind of cloud computing service provider should enterprises choose? Global providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform dominate the public cloud market. But regional public cloud providers like Yotta, a leading datacenter in India, offer significant benefits over them.
- With in-country servers, regional public cloud providers help enterprises comply with national data localisation, protection, and residency laws. Moreover, using distributed cloud computing, enterprises can spread their workloads between local and global providers, so that critical, law-mandated data remains on a regional public cloud, and the non-critical data on an international public cloud. This way, they can not only comply with local laws, but they can also take benefit of cheaper and faster alternatives.
- Low latency data transfer of regional servers helps apps run faster and sites download quicker, boosting employee productivity and customer user experience.
- Regional public clouds provide cutting-edge technology stacks to their customers, that too with low latency and local pricing. This quick and inexpensive access to latest tech encourages enterprises to experiment more, leading to innovative product and service offerings.
- Local cloud vendors bill in local currency, helping enterprises avoid forex shocks.
- Because of their geographical proximity, regional public clouds are more willing to customise the digital transformation journey of their enterprise clients. Local service providers can deliver quick and personalised services and full-fledged tech support when and where their clients need it. They can offer limitless options for stacking technologies and customising price plans because their scale allows them greater flexibility in designing service offerings.
- The collaborative and remote-working benefits of cloud computing are not lost on governments around the world. Mission-critical information can be moved seamlessly across the nation, improving logistics and utilisation of tax dollars. Nevertheless, every government wishes to exercise data sovereignty over its operational information, especially when comes to its defence forces. Domestic cloud services provide the security, speed, and control that governments and defence forces seek. So, due to strategic reasons, governments prefer the stronger opportunities presented by local cloud companies over foreign ones.
All these benefits lead up to a strong business case for why enterprises should choose local service providers for their cloud computing needs.
A great opportunity for telcos and ISPs
The global digital transformation market size is expected to grow from USD 469.8 billion in 2020 to USD 1009.8 billion by 2025. Parallelly, the global public cloud market is expected to reach USD 488.5 billion by 2026.
In India, Airtel recently became the first company to enter the USD 1 billion cloud communications market. Even realty major DLF has decided to invest INR 130 crore in developing a data centre to get on the cloud bandwagon.
These trends open up an enormous opportunity for Indian and regional entities to enter the business of providing cloud computing services. But here, local communication service providers (CSPs), such as telcos, ISPs, cable, satellite, and data centres, have an upper hand.
How? The core products that CSPs deal in, i.e., voice and data, need infrastructure similar to that needed for a cloud computing business. Both need high-speed internet, networking equipment, server farms, and data storage. Besides, CSPs also possess rich technical expertise and strong local networks. These factors provide a massive tactical advantage to CSPs over new entrants who may be from other industries.
Over time, voice and data have become such mass-market products that they are practically commodities now. Price plays a big role in consumer choice, and telcos are happy to bundle voice services with data plans. At the same time, more and more CSPs have started using the cloud as a replacement for traditional voice infrastructure. In this scenario, regional public cloud providers, with their inherent benefits, are going to be a significant differentiator for CSPs as they migrate their voice infrastructure to the cloud.
With powerful competitive advantages, regional public cloud service providers are set to play a significant role in the digital transformation journey of enterprises. Economy-wide trends reveal that the next few years will see rapid growth in demand for regional public cloud services. What remains to be seen is whether telcos, ISPs, and other CSPs seize this opportunity to cater to the multibillion-dollar market that is imminent.
With 13+ years of experience in business development, general management, and operations, Rishab brings his learnings from industries such as internet services, FMCG and industrial goods to Apiculus. A graduate of the Indian School of Business, he handles overall business operations at Apiculus focusing on partnerships, alliances, marketing and sales.