Being a game-changer in Cloud offerings, Cloud.in caters to the fast-growing Cloud Computing Market
Cloud Security is another key area to excel in for security experts. They should know how to leverage the latest technologies and tools to strengthen the security posture of the organization, by assessing threats and resolving them, besides proactively preparing to counter future attacks.
Rahul S Kurkure, Founder and Director of Cloud.in
Do share a brief about your organization, who are the founders, and what are your
service offerings?
Cloud.in, is an established cloud tech organization and the flagship brand of Hostin Services Pvt Ltd., which started its operations in 1999 in Pune, India. Brand Cloud.in was launched in 2016 and is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, Solution Provider, and Public Sector Partner, today. It was founded by Rahul S Kurkure, a first-generation entrepreneur, who is the Founder and Director of Cloud.in.
Cloud.in empowers large enterprises, digital-native businesses, and start-ups across all sectors. Its wide range of Cloud Solutions includes Cloud Consulting, Planning and Implementation, Migration, and Modernization, Managed Cloud Services, FinOps, SecOps, Automation and DevOps, Cost Optimisation and Resource Augmentation, and Content Delivery and Edge Security Solutions, besides Media Solutions. Our Intellectual Platforms are Freedom (Multi-Cloud Billing and Management Platform), Cloud Advisor (Multi-Cloud Security Advisory Tool), Edge Insights (Edge Analytics and Intelligence), and VFORT (Secure Edge Delivering Platform).
There has been a significant uptick in the demand for Cloud Computing Professionals. What are the skillsets requirements and how can they be built?
New-age technologies, including cloud computing, are rewriting business models and the way organizations are connecting with their customers. With almost every other organization moving to the cloud, the demand for Cloud Computing experts is on the rise. They should have complete knowledge of how organizations can benefit from cloud migration, configuration, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance besides minimizing downtime.
It is good to have experience in managing multi-cloud environments besides having programming and database skill sets. Sound knowledge of the operating systems and languages for scripting, serverless architecture, DevOps, and automation, is important too for a Cloud Administrator.
Cloud Security is another key area to excel in for security experts. They should know how to leverage the latest technologies and tools to strengthen the security posture of the organization, by assessing threats and resolving them, besides proactively preparing to counter future attacks.
What key megatrends do you foresee in the Cloud and Digital transformation markets?
Cloud Computing is the key technology that enables digital transformation which is today an imperative to organizations of all sizes across industry verticals. Hybrid-cloud models will be increasingly leveraged by businesses to drive innovations at a faster rate and to provide quicker responses to customers, delivering an enhanced customer experience.
There is a constant increase in demand for cloud services and the need to deliver in real-time. To cater to this, the serverless cloud delivers better scalability and flexibility at lesser costs and will replace traditional cloud computing. This architecture enables expanding into the cloud across the public and private cloud platforms.
The multi-cloud strategy will become more popular for the benefits it brings, such as optimized ROI, lower vendor lock-in and latency, in addition to enhanced security. The role of cloud computing in AI will be further emphasized where it will be more of a catalyst in the improvement of AI services.
Digital transformation will further increase the deployment of hybrid-work models. There will be more investments in AI and machine learning technologies. An increase in the customer data platforms will be seen to predict customer behaviors and deliver a better experience to them. Data security and protection will gain more attention in the coming years.
What are the major factors that are impacting the growth of the Cloud industry? According to Facts and Factors, the Global Cloud computing market size and share revenue that was valued at around US$429.5 billion in 2021 is estimated to grow to about US$1025.7 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 15.80% between 2022 and 2028. The phenomenal growth in the cloud computing market is driven by an increase in the adoption of digital transformation and the use of new-age technologies such as Big data, AI, and machine learning. The hybrid-work model, rise in OTT platforms or the consumption of Video-on-demand, and increased usage of SaaS-based solutions are leading to the growth of the cloud technology market.
Cloud computing has brought about more efficiency in business operations, speedy adaption to the fast-evolving market conditions, business agility, and cost-efficiency. With workloads on a cloud platform, lower network latency is also achieved, benefiting users in different locations across the globe.
Name key digital technologies that help to enhance customer experience and why?
Technologies that are fueling customer experience are witnessing high growth in today’s digital era. Delivering the best customer experience is what all businesses are aiming for, which will lead to the organization’s success. AI and machine learning help to optimize resources and ensures an effective omnichannel presence. AI chatbots can ensure engaging communication with customers. Cloud-based CRM solutions are hassle-free to install with no hardware involved, easy to use, and can be accessed from anywhere. They are flexible and can be integrated into the existing IT infrastructure, providing a high level of security besides being cost-effective. Cloud enables product innovation to suit the fast-evolving market and customer tastes.
Big Data and Analytics are being extensively leveraged by enterprises to gather data across sources, predict customer behaviors and identify patterns and apply them in decision-making. Targeted promotions can be implemented across customer touch-points with improved offerings. Big data tools also improve operational efficiencies and have cost advantages too.
What are the challenges organizations face in their digital transformation journey and how can they be addressed?
Organizations that are not adopting digital transformation but sticking to their traditional methods of operating are failing miserably in this digital age. On the other hand, many of the digital transformation efforts by some organizations have also failed due to various factors. Many a time, the organization’s culture itself has some faults and limitations when it comes to this change. There exists a lack of understanding of the initiative in the leadership team. Employees resist change for the fear of losing jobs or they are reluctant to change.
The C-Suite has to be convinced about the RoI of investing in digital transformation. The implementation should start with the top management and they should bring about a change in the culture of the organization.
The lack of relevant IT resources and talent is another challenge that can be addressed by outsourcing the activity which is more efficient and economical and helps in overcoming the skill gaps.
Cyber threats are another area of concern that comes with digital transformation efforts, which can lead to financial, customer, and reputation losses. This aspect can be managed with the organization adopting a ‘cyber-security’ first culture.
Customer needs are constantly evolving and many a time the initial digital transformation initiative may not be able to cater to the changes. Businesses must remain agile and relevant with ongoing transformation efforts by planning and adopting new technologies.
Please share some learning from customer deployments.
With over two decades of experience in deploying and managing Mission Critical workloads across different sectors, we have got a good understanding of the customer pain points. Product and Service knowledge: Customers feel safer and more secure knowing they’re in certified hands. Today’s ever-changing technologies call for upskilling regularly, hence we regularly provide training and development programs. Glad to say that we have a 100% certified team.
Customer Experience: We at Cloud.in, strongly believe in personalized service to all customers whether enterprises, SMEs, digital native businesses, or startups. We work at configuring tailor-made solutions as per their requirements and suitable to their budgets. We are working with customers from the e-commerce, financial services, and media sectors among others, on AWS. Being a game-changer in Cloud offerings, Cloud.in has numerous endorsements from its customers and the industry in general.
What have been your organization’s achievements and your plans? Elaborate.
Cloud.in has always been growing at a good pace since our inception. As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, we have gained further credibility as a cloud tech organization, where we leverage AWS’s evolving portfolio of new technologies and services to deliver a better customer experience. Being a game-changer in cloud offerings, we cater to customers in the e-commerce, financial services, and media sectors and have been endorsed by them. Cloud.in has added Intellectual Platforms which include, Freedom (Multi-Cloud Billing and Management Platform), Cloud Advisor (Multi-Cloud Security Advisory Tool), Edge Insights (Edge Analytics and Intelligence), and VFORT (Secure Edge Delivering Platform).
We look forward to a y-o-y growth of 100% by 2025 and plan to expand our presence across international markets too. We also look forward to becoming a multi-cloud services provider as well as a SaaS Service provider. In addition to serving enterprises, we want to equally focus on acquiring more customers from the Startups and Fintech segments. Migration and modernization will be our key focus areas. We will be delivering CDN
and Edge Solutions to customers to help them improve the performance of their applications, and websites in addition to supporting in managing edge networking, deployments, and integrations.
Which is the fastest-growing product category in your portfolio and why do you think is driving its uptake?
CDN, Media and Edge Solutions, Cloud Security, and Managed Services are the key services in our portfolio.
CDN, Media, and Edge Solutions: Enterprises today are striving to keep up with the pace in the growing digital landscape and are constantly looking for solutions to better engage customers with their products and services. However, they often find it difficult to grow with low-performing websites and applications, and the challenges of deploying edge applications and ensuring the security of storing and processing data on the cloud are additional. To help enterprises of any size improvise the performance of their applications, and websites and better manage edge networking, deployments, and integrations, we at Cloud.in provide ‘CDN, Media and Edge Solutions’ along with AWS.
Cloud Security: Meeting the security mandates is critical for the success of any business. But securing business data and infrastructure on the cloud can be quite challenging for enterprises. With our Cloud security services, we help enterprises strengthen their security strategy against rising cyber threats while also ensuring security resiliency requirements.
Managed Services: Our Cloud Managed Services offering helps enterprises maintain business continuity by monitoring and managing the enterprise applications and infrastructure on the cloud. With our 24*7 managed services, we help customers avoid security threats, data losses, and occurrences of downtimes. Our team of managed services experts can help to streamline the different processes and free up resources for business initiatives that are significant.
