SMB and Cloud– The Great Indian Goldmine

The next frontier for SMB development

India’s industrial landscape is largely dotted with small and medium businesses (SMBs). More than 90% of income is generated from these businesses. As per data sourced from the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, India has a staggering 48 mn SMBs which contribute to about 60% of the country’s GDP. It is also one of the largest employers in the country and employs 60 mn people every year.Despite this, the segment faces challenges and the biggest challenge grappling the industry is its inability to adopt technology especially in a day and age where technology is the driving force of every business. According to a study conducted by Zinnov, only 12 mn SMBs in the country have adopted technology. However times are changing and SMBs are realizing the importance of technology for their business and are now adopting technology in a big way.

Today, cloud is the need of the hour for SMBs due to its faster decision making ability. Given the market scenario in present times, businesses need to constantly deliver and hence technology comes into the picture since it helps in smoother and faster business transactions. SMB’s therefore need to take a pro-technology stance and bolster their technological infrastructure since it provides a number of benefits such as reducing the cost and dependency on e-mail servers and storage systems as well as the need to outsource IT services to external agencies. The biggest benefit it brings is the ability to share content anywhere and at any time and gives one the freedom to collaborate with other businesses to bring out better results. It also saves space since you don’t need a dozen odd computers but just a single system providing cloud solutions and you are all set to roll out your business.

SMB’s are a lucrative segment for IT solution providers to foray into and some of the leading enterprise software solution providers are offering a host of cloud solutions to these SMB’s. These providers have come up with an array of solutions which helps to make the life of an SMB owner easier and hiccup-free. Some of the leading IT vendors offer Cloud based solutions which help in streamlining your desk operations and offers a host of features which assist in collaboration and sharing of data among business. IT solution providers help to transform your business by helping in leveraging the power of cloud.

It is important to understand that some issues often pose hurdles in the success of any business. However this problem can be resolved with the help of cloud computing which will help in bridging the gap between what your business needs and what you can provide for the same. Today, every organization strives to achieve better performance through capacity analysis, service virtualization and performance management. To this end, cloud computing solutions provide a host of benefits needed to achieve the same. One such cloud based solution which helps in achieving this goal is Automation Suite which helps in transferring of virtual and physical infrastructure, is designed to support usage based pricing to customers/ users who are involved in the business.

The past year has witnessed the prioritization of technologies in the industrial landscape. To this end, SMB owners are keeping up with the shifting dynamics by incorporating mobiles, tablets and laptops in their daily transactions. In the past year itself, 14% of SMB’s adopted mobility related products in their businesses. SMB’s are adopting virtualization in a big way and as a result cloud market is growing rapidly. Research has shown that the Indian Cloud market is estimated at 17 mn and is expected to grow as high as 35% every year and the market is expected to reach 42 mn by 2016.

From the above numbers, it can be deciphered that SMB’s are increasingly moving towards a cloud approach and now the onus lies on IT solution providers to offer these services to them and this requires enterprise software application channels to grow in scale. The emergence of a stable government post the 2014 elections will accelerate the economy and this will result in SMB’s taking baby steps towards technological growth by adopting mobility, cloud computing and incorporating BYOD in their daily functioning. Communication is an integral part of every business and SMB’s will spend a large chunk of their investments on developing these communication technologies.

Until recently, businesses were under the impression that only big business owners were the target for cyber-crime but today the scenario has completely changed and SMB’s are at a greater risk. More than 50% of such attacks were aimed at SMB’s with less than 2500 employees. The question that arises is- Why are SMB’s becoming soft target for cyber-criminals? The main reason is the lack of proper security precautions undertaken by these business owners. Since businesses are moving rapidly towards the virtual space, they expose themselves to danger. With the advent of BYOD and mobility, employees are unknowingly exposing themselves and their company towards a cyber-attack due to lack of security awareness. The solution to this problem lies in regular back up of data and secure as well as trusted cloud storage services for reliable backup. Some cloud services enable you to encrypt your file before uploading it which gives you and only you access to the file since the encryption keys are with you and it cannot be unscripted.

Today SMB’s are growing at a fast rate. This points out to the fact that cloud services will be in demand constantly. As a company grows so will its data grow and to manage this data, services such as big data and cloud will come into the picture. Secondly, with employees feeling the need to bring their mobile devices to office, BYOD is gaining traction and mobile computing has become an integral aspect of every business set-up. To facilitate this, mobile applications will be employed but the data will live in the cloud which will help in securing the data.

The crux of the matter is that SMB’s are emerging as the big fish in the pond which was earlier ruled by big organizations. The dynamics have changed and with this, the rules of the game have changed as well. This exposes them to larger technological risks and this is where cloud comes into the picture as a saver. As a result, in a couple of years, we will witness a deluge of these services and the clouds will surprisingly be sunny for the first time in history. All this points out to the fact that Indian SMB’s will be in a unique position to exploit these resources and if done wisely, it will transform the way they compete with their larger counter-parts and can eventually over take them.