A recent Gartner report predicts that 20 percent of businesses will
own no IT assets by 2012 – a significant shift that the
research firm predicts will be caused by cloud computing. For
Indian IT service providers – this is a massive shift as the
traditional sources of revenues – application development,
application maintenance and implementation will be massively
impacted.
As there is no software to install, maintain or develop –
the cloud model has the ability to threaten the main sources, that
Indian software service players typically derive their revenues
from. Infosys saw this development almost two and half years ago,
and\ accordingly started analyzing how cloud computing could be a
possible threat, and how it could be converted into an opportunity
by strategically positioning itself into areas where it could
leverage the cloud computing model.
In addition to providing specialized frameworks and
accelerators, we will also provide the specialists who can deliver
the full potential of cloud-based solutions
Raghavan Subramanian, AVP, Cloud Computing CoE, Infosys
Technologies
To better address the opportunities provided by the cloud computing
model, Infosys also opened a Cloud Center of Excellence (CoE) that
enables enterprises adopt cloud-based capabilities on public as
well as internal private clouds. The software giant has already
created three cloud-based business process-specific platforms
– HR, procurement and processes specific to the advertising
industry. The HR platform, which Infosys calls as HR-in-a box
solution, has already been adopted by two customers.
With enterprises wary about adopting solutions on the public cloud,
Infosys is seeing huge traction from enterprise customers who want
its consulting expertise for building private clouds. The firm has
close to 25 customers who are using its consulting services to
adopt cloud computing solutions.
“Enterprise customers face several challenges in cost
effectively migrating to the cloud. In addition to providing
specialized frameworks and accelerators to help customers
effectively adopt cloud computing solutions, we will also provide
the specialists who can deliver the full potential of cloud-based
solutions to end users,” says Raghavan Subramanian, AVP,
Cloud Computing, Center of Excellence, SET Labs, Infosys
Technologies.
This approach is perfect for Infosys and its customers. Customers
can outsource their entire business process functions such as HR,
and only pay for what they use. Infosys will not only supply the
technology platform, but also the people to run it. So one side, it
will leverage its traditional skills in helping organizations build
private clouds, and on the other side, it will provide the business
process management platforms that will be run in the cloud.
“We are naturally built for the cloud as we have similar
experience in ramping up and scaling down teams and providing on
demand models for our customers,” says Subramanian, pointing
out to the synergies that exist between the outsourcing model and
the cloud.
About Author
An award-winning journalist with more than 14 years of experience, Srikanth RP is Senior Associate Editor with InformationWeek India. Srikanth is passionate about writing on topics which clearly show the business impact of technology.
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