TCS, AWS to speed up enterprise AI, cloud adoption

Indian IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) entered into a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Wednesday to accelerate its customers' cloud transformation journey at scale. This new strategic transformation agreement with AWS will enable TCS to facilitate full-stack digital transformation of its customers by leveraging data and generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions on AWS. 

Through this multi-year tie-up, TCS will provide its customers with tools to create modern architectures, deliver business value using state-of-the-art cloud-native capabilities, and drive modernization at scale. These include a clear cloud modernization roadmap, access to modernization platforms and tools, exclusive investment models and technology betas, and proof-of-concept (POC) projects. The customers selected for this program are globally distributed across all verticals, particularly within banking and financial services, life sciences, healthcare, travel, transportation, hospitality, manufacturing, automotive, communications and telecom.

Matt Garman, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Global Services at AWS, said, "At AWS, we are excited to expand our strategic partnership with TCS, a globally recognized leader in IT services. Together with AWS's comprehensive suite of generative AI and modernization services, along with TCS' domain expertise and global delivery capabilities, our customers will benefit from accelerating their enterprise transformation. By upskilling 25,000 TCS professionals, we are committed to addressing the evolving needs of our customers through innovative solutions to accelerate their modernization journey."

While cloud modernization can lend organizations next-gen capabilities, they are comprehensive and require converting, rewriting, or porting legacy systems to modern technology platforms. The initiative by TCS and AWS is focused on removing these barriers and realizing faster time-to-value. It offers customers a unique opportunity to leverage AWS's cutting-edge technologies and TCS's contextual knowledge and ability to build branded intellectual property (IP) on AWS. TCS is uniquely positioned to lead large-scale continuous modernization with a deep understanding of customers' domains, including significant investment in industry platforms. As part of this collaboration, AWS will support TCS in upskilling and certifying 25,000 members of its workforce on AWS, creating a modernization champion team with modernization specialists.

Krishna Mohan, Deputy Head of AI Cloud Unit at TCS, believes that the partnership offers an opportunity to drive significant value by accessing innovative technologies such as generative AI and modernization at scale for our clients globally. 
"This agreement also represents the continuing progress of our strong collaboration with AWS, including being awarded the AWS Global System Integrator (GSI) Partner of the Year - Global at AWS re:Invent 2023, and we look forward to deepening our strategic ties with the hyperscaler to bring further innovation to our clients," he added.

TCS is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner with more than a decade-old strategic partnership with the hyperscaler. TCS and AWS offer a comprehensive suite of services, including cloud migration, application modernization, data analytics, and AI-powered solutions.

Earlier this week, Nasdaq-listed IT services firm Cognizant collaborated with Microsoft on an expanded partnership to drive the adoption of generative AI among enterprises.
 As part of the partnership, Cognizant purchased 25,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot seats for Cognizant associates, along with 500 Sales Copilot seats and 500 Services Copilot seats to enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and transform customer experiences. In addition, Cognizant will work to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot to a million users within their global 2,000 clients and across 11 industries. Through Cognizant's Synapse skilling program, 35,000 Cognizant developers have been trained on GitHub Copilot, with an additional 40,000 developers slated to receive training.

Almost every company is jumping on the AI bandwagon. A recent forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that the worldwide artificial intelligence (AI) software market will grow from $64 billion in 2022 to nearly $251 billion in 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.4%. The forecast for AI-centric software includes Artificial Intelligence Platforms, AI Applications, AI System Infrastructure Software (SIS), and AI Application Development and Deployment (AD&D) software (excluding AI platforms). However, it does not include Generative AI platforms and applications, which IDC recently forecast will generate revenues of $55.7 billion in 2027.