Cloud computing is creating the next wave of services transformation, said Vivek Malhotra, director, IBM Cloud, India/South Asia.
“Cloud has changed the way enterprise consume bandwidth and data. And it has done so at a time when data has exploded, bandwidth use has risen exponentially, while at the same time making it cost efficient and inexpensive,” Vivek Malhotra told InfotechLead.com.
According to Vivek Malhotra, the top two priorities of CIOs with regard to cloud partners are accessibility and security. Further, they look thorough expertise in managing the data center and all aspects of storing the data.
With 47 global cloud data centers, IBM offers public, private and hybrid cloud services. Networking, analytics, mobile, IoT, storage and cognitive computing comes under IBM cloud services.
The IT major had generated $10.2 billion revenue from cloud in 2015, with cloud delivered as a service revenue of $4.5 billion, business analytics revenue of $17.9 billion, tripled mobile revenue and a 12 percent increase in security income.
IBM’s cloud strategies
Talking about IBM’s cloud strategy, the IBM official revealed that the company’s plan lies on its research capabilities, industry expertise and users’ feedback. IBM clients include leading companies and major industries around the world.
Vivek Malhotra elaborated that IBM clients are guided by three fundamentals – Big Data, Cloud and Innovation. IBM is focused on helping clients innovate in this era of cloud and big data.
“With IBM’s security, software and business acumen, when it comes to embracing the cloud, clients look to IBM for its enterprise leadership,” Vivek Malhotra said.
Further, Vivek Malhotra noted that IBM is committed to open standards for cloud. IBM has long been a champion of open standards such as Linux, Apache, Eclipse, in the enterprise.
IBM is a platinum sponsor of OpenStack, an open-source cloud platform backed by AT&T, HP, Cisco, Intel and VMware.
Growing industry verticals in India
The IBM official expects information technology in India to grow even more in the coming years as the country develops further.
“We can expect continued growth in infrastructure, telecom as well as renewable/clean energy. Services such as healthcare, BFSI and retail will continue to be important verticals,” said Vivek Malhotra.
Latest cloud wins / partnerships
IBM has reasons to cheer up with a bundle of cloud deals in hand. Recently, India’s telecommunication company Reliance Communications partnered with IBM to provide its customers with a complete portfolio of secure and scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings running on the IBM Cloud.
Reliance has also launched new offerings designed to provide integrated e-commerce services for India’s SMB market, running on the IBM Cloud.
Reliance Communications has a client base of over 115 million, including over 39,000 large enterprises and small and medium business (SMBs) across industries.
Further, the IT major has won a contract from Kstart, a Kalaari Capital initiative, which is a seed program designed to empower next generation startups and accelerate disruptive ideas.
Together, Kstart and IBM will offer training and mentoring sessions. Moreover, Kstart’s entire roster of seed-stage portfolio companies will have the opportunity to apply for the IBM Global Entrepreneur Program, which provides business mentoring, technical support, and networking opportunities with enterprise clients and credits to help entrepreneurs build their applications on IBM Cloud.
Another client win was from Chumbak, India’s lifestyle products retailer. It selected IBM Cloud to improve management efficiency of critical data across multiple locations.
As part of the agreement, Chumbak will host and run their enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications on IBM Cloud.
Furthermore, Suburban Diagnostics, a diagnostics company, has signed a five-year partnership with IBM to transform its business leveraging IBM’s business consulting services and IBM Cloud.
Indian ICT company Wipro will use the IBM Bluemix cloud development platform for the creation and deployment of mobile, analytics and machine learning solutions for clients around the world.
HCL Technologies is partnering with IBM to jointly build hybrid cloud solutions to help enterprises drive their digital transformations. HCL will use Bluemix, IBM’s Cloud platform to build applications and solutions in the areas of Unified Service Management and IoT.
A few days ago, India’s flowers and gifts retailer Ferns N Petals has moved to IBM cloud to run its web and mobile applications on IBM Cloud.
Meanwhile, IBM has become the first company to offer the NVIDIA Tesla M60 GPU in the cloud. IBM Cloud is already offering Tesla K80 and Tesla K10 GPUs to accelerate deep learning, data analytics and high performance computing (HPC) workloads.
The latest NVIDIA GPU technology supports industries including healthcare and financial services, oil and gas exploration, media, architectural, engineering and construction.
Arya MM
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