Technology decision makers in India prefer public cloud: Wakefield Azure survey

BENGALURU: Technology decision makers in Indian companies have said that they are the highest adopters of public cloud solutions in the world. A survey by Microsoft and leading market research firm Wakefield Research shows that 57% respondents from India have adopted public cloud solutions. 33% respondents stated that their companies use hybrid cloud (a combination public and private cloud) solutions. These are among the highest rate of adoptions and are better than markets such as US, UK and Japan.

The results of the Wakefield Azure survey highlight some key areas where cloud-based technology solutions are making the difference for Indian companies. The survey was conducted among Information Technology Decision Makers (ITDMs) and IT Professionals across major markets like India, US, UK, Japan and Brazil.

ITDMs in India, refer to Sales functions (CRM and ERP), Data Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) as the top three services or applications that their organization would like to host on the public cloud. Since their launch in September 2015, Microsoft cloud services from local datacenters in India, have proved to be a platform that drives innovation and customer delight. Startups in India are driving innovation in these key areas by leveraging the power of Microsoft’s local cloud services.

The Wakefield Azure survey highlights several other trends on cloud adoption among Indian organizations:

64% Indian respondents were comfortable in hosting their company’s most essential applications or services on the public cloud.

64% Indian respondents believe that public cloud solutions are very important to connect seamlessly to the organization’s existing data centers five years from now

Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality and Conversation bots, such as virtual assistants are the top technology choices which Indian respondents want to learn more about. The survey also revealed that, 52 of the top 100 Indian companies listed on the BSE use Microsoft cloud (local and global). Microsoft’s comprehensive cloud services across Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) have allowed customers across segments to begin their digital transformation journey. Five major sectors – Healthcare, BFSI, E-Commerce, Startups and Government - are leading cloud adopters in India.