SMBs to make up 30% of Rs 63,000 cr public cloud market in 5 years: NASSCOM

The small and medium business (SMB) sector, which employs over 110 million people and contributes to 34% of India’s GDP, will have a 30% share of the public cloud market by 2025, according to a study. 

Valued at Rs 17,000 crore for the financial year 2019-20, the country’s public cloud market is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30% and be worth Rs 63,000 crore by 2025, the report, released by Indian IT and BPM trade association NASSCOM, said.

NASSCOM said it surveyed over a thousand SMBs for the study. Titled SMB Cloud Adoption in India: Towards a Cloud First Nation, the report showed that 60% of those surveyed were already using the cloud technology, but in varying degrees of maturity.

While ecommerce, IT and BPM firms lead cloud adoption in the country, sectors such as BFSI, media and entertainment, retail, automotive healthcare and manufacturing are fast emerging as large adopters of the technology, it said. 

The pandemic, it said, has fast-tracked digital transformation of companies across all verticals. However, they have also been forced to tackle liquidity crunch, and lack of demand and alternative operational models. 

SMBs that have an online presence have shown greater resilience and are expected to realise short-term revenue gains, it said.

Read: Remote working to push 64% of Indian enterprises to the cloud: IDC 

“As India aims to become a cloud-first nation and with the government’s push for cloud adoption by MSMEs, it will be crucial for SMBs in India to think of themselves as digital enterprises and lead the e-revolution for India,” Debjani Ghosh, president of NASSCOM, said. 

In the current scenario, the cloud is expected to enable business continuity for SMBs, expand customer segments across geographies, and realise cost optimisation, while helping companies innovate and customise their products as per customer needs.

Read: Accenture commits $3 bn for cloud-first initiative, appoints Karthik Narain to lead unit 

According to NASSCOM, cloud computing, big data analytics and cybersecurity form the three pillars of a company’s digital transformation journey.

Currently, the demand for collaboration and conferencing tools, customer relationship management, business intelligence, marketing and security tools as well as managed services have increased, the report said. The deployment of these technologies has led to a 20-25% increase in productive gains and 15-20% reduction in operational costs, it said.