IT services companies bet on organic cloud platforms for faster adoption

Top Indian IT services companies like Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, and Wipro Ltd, are betting big on organic cloud platforms built in-house to help customers accelerate their cloud journeys.  

The shift to cloud has accelerated due to the pandemic. According to Gartner, by 2025, 51% of IT spending in the areas of application software, infrastructure software, business process services and system infrastructure markets is expected to shift to public cloud (compared to 41% in 2022). Traditional offerings, constituting 58.7% of revenue in 2022, should witness a much slower growth than cloud.  

“Surge in cloud adoption could prove to be a growth lever for IT service providers on the back of cloud platforms created by them to help speed up cloud transformation journey of clients, thereby improving the utilization of cloud capacity subscribed by clients, and thus, translating bookings into revenues for hyperscalers partners,” analysts at ICICI Securities said.  

Infosys has developed an organic cloud platform known as Cobalt which is a set of services, solutions, and platforms to help clients, mostly large enterprises, build new cloud-first capabilities. It offers 14,000 cloud assets and over 200 industry cloud solution blueprints. Infosys has also created a Polycloud platform which enables enterprises to procure, build, and manage vendor-agnostic solutions across multiple hybrid cloud providers without worrying about vendor lock-in.  

Similarly, TCS Enterprise Cloud is a cloud platform that provides a range of flexible cloud infrastructure options to support dynamic cloud services. It offers data services built on an open-source stack supporting big data, analytics, internet of things (IoT).  

Cloud Smart by HCL Technologies aims to “reimagine” the cloud to provide an adaptive portfolio of innovative cloud services driven by high-tech automation and a robust partner ecosystem. 

Last year, Wipro committed to invest $1 billion to strengthen its cloud technologies, capabilities, acquisitions, and partnerships over the next three years. As part of this, it launched Wipro FullStride Cloud Services, which brings together the full portfolio of Wipro’s cloud-related capabilities, offerings, and talent. 

To be sure, IT services companies have partnered with hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud to increase their market share in cloud. Infosys has stated that for every dollar spent on hyperscalers, service providers will have about $2 revenue opportunity.  

While clients may be already using the services of these hyperscalers, the integrated offerings from IT services companies have their own value proposition. “They help by providing a one-stop-shop to expedite customers’ cloud journey, integrate multiple clouds, and scale up. Most IT services companies are partnering with these hyperscalers to provide tailored solutions to meet specific client requirements,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder and chief analyst, Greyhound Research.