Empowering Emerging Markets with Indigenous Cloud Solutions
Rawat highlighted the significance of indigenous cloud solutions for emerging markets in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. These regions are increasingly concerned about data sovereignty and reliance on major US or China-based cloud providers. The introduction of a new offering by TCS could serve as a model for reducing dependence on global cloud giants.
The Limitations of Existing Sovereign Cloud Deployments in India
While India has various sovereign cloud deployments in place, experts believe that their capabilities are somewhat restricted. The likes of National Informatics Center’s MeghRaj, C-DAC’s PARAMShavak, and Indian regions hosted by hyperscalers such as AWS Hyderabad and Oracle with Airtel focus on localization. However, they lack interoperability and sovereign enforcement, according to Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research.
Furthermore, the current options available in India, whether from hyperscalers or data centers, do not possess true indigenous characteristics. Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst and co-founder at Techarc, pointed out that while leading cloud services like AWS, Google, and Microsoft comply with regulations such as data localization, their technology stack is not indigenous in design and development.
Advancements in the Indian Cloud Sector
Indian data center players are also venturing into the realm of indigenous cloud solutions. Yotta Data Services recently acquired IndiQus Technologies to fill the void of locally-developed Cloud and AI platforms. Similarly, NxtGen introduced its sovereign cloud tailored for the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector. Additionally, Bharti Airtel’s B2B division, in partnership with Google, is gearing up to launch an AI-enabled sovereign cloud solution.
Challenges in Scaling AI Capabilities
Despite these developments, the true challenge lies in effectively scaling AI capabilities and demonstrating cost and performance competitiveness against the well-established global hyperscaler ecosystems. Prabhu Ram, VP for the Industry Research Group at CyberMedia Research, emphasized the importance of meeting these challenges to ensure the success of indigenous cloud solutions in the market.
