By Varoon Rajani
The influx of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, IoT and ML has rendered traditional businesses redundant. Digital transformation is the new paradigm, that helps them stay ahead of the competition. Cloud fuels innovation by giving a compatible set of APIs for developers. The way cloud computing is providing the reusability of IT resources for maintaining large databases is simply unprecedented. Enterprises are increasingly directing efforts toward cloud platforms to hone their digital strategies, expanding their core services on demand, and reducing investments on large scale infrastructure.
Government’s vision of creating a digital footprint
With the emergence of the National e-Governance Plan, e-Sign Framework, Digital Lockers, AADHAR, etc., Indian government envisions of creating a digital footprint for every individual, facilitating the same with high-speed digital highways, technology-based mobility, analytics, Internet of things, etc. In retrospect, now, the case of the transformation of ‘India’ to ‘Digital India’ is quite evident and real. In fact, it would be right to say that this digital disruption is a result of the technologies like analytics, social, and mobility that are enabling India’s vision of becoming a ‘Digital-First’ country.
Cloud computing has grown to be the backbone of the country and the technologies it’s investing in.
It’s why digital transformation which was once a top priority for early adopters and cutting-edge enterprises, has now moved to be mainstream. And as digital transformation by definition is holistic and requires integration and collaboration, the strategy needed looks at building blocks and the bridges to connect them. Businesses that implement cloud computing and digital transformation report enormous growth and improved efficiency. By utilizing the power of cloud computing, businesses taking benefits of a solution that truly transforms their organization digitally, which in turn is accelerating the growth of ‘Digital India’.
Power of unstructured data has put the banking industry on a roll
Unlocking the power of unstructured data (industry reports, investment advisory reports, financial news, etc.) using deep text and/or image/video along with offering personalised engagement to their customers by dealing in an individual fashion with each customer and focusing on their requirements has put the banking industry on a roll. Banks are now targeting people intelligently with the right product, increasing the chances of sales and positively impacting, both banks and customers.
Retail industry engaging better with the customers via cloud
The retail industry is not lagging either when it comes to imbibing the transformation using cloud. Today, majority of transactions are led by the use of smartphones which helped retailers to gain access to additional data and insights on spending trends, shopper history, and a lot more. As customer experience is the main driver in growing engagement with a specific brand and with today’s consumers spending more and more time in the digital environment, the experience they get interacting online with the brands is of utmost importance. Businesses pivoted the way they interact with customers and how they provide the consumer with a consistent experience.
The education sector is also looking at a large-scale reformation using cloud technologies
Under the Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) scheme implemented by the government, digitising education is our best bet, keeping in mind the affordability, accessibility, inclusiveness of the large trainable youth population of our country. Another government scheme, SWAYAM (Study webs of active learning for young aspiring minds) which aim at making learning material available to all citizens, especially teachers and students, has become possible only because of cloud computing. MOOC (massive open online courses) platforms, NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) are already in use for promotion of higher technical education. These are further getting refined for reaching out to school children across the country as well.
It’s worth mentioning that the cloud market is also changing as we go from ‘cloud first’ to ‘cloud only’ and organizations outsource many cloud and IT activities and most of all want reliable cloud partners who have a real hybrid cloud offering which translates in seamless integration. From the Internet of Things, analytics, systems of insight, security and big data, cloud is omnipresent. And for those who like to talk about disruptive players in existing markets is close to impossible to name one that isn’t based on the cloud.
(Disclaimer: The author is Co-Founder and CEO at Blazeclan Technologies and the views expressed are his own)
