Enter the cloud

Cloud computing is an incredibly powerful versatile, scalable technology that can power this government transformation. Cloud computing has already been heavily deployed in the consumer SMB market through cloud service providers such as Gmail, Salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services.

However, the cloud is just as versatile in the government sector as it can be for enterprises.

The Government of India is working on a policy that would help foster the entire cloud revolution and aid the process of migrating government-to-citizen services to the cloud. During the 2012 cloud summit Hon Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications & IT, said "The government is willing to collaborate with the industry and academia to develop a secure and progressive ecosystem for cloud services in India."

The partnership of the Indian Government and the cloud computing industry advances a large opportunity to drive the adoption of the cloud in India, transforming the country into an important hub for offering cloud-related services. In order to harness the advantages offered by cloud computing, the department of Electronic and IT (DeitY) of the Government of India has undertaken the GI cloud project, an initiative that will endow the government to use cloud computing for the delivery of e-services they offer. By The DeitY has announced a roadmap and a specific implementation plan for GI Cloud after assessing the present scenario of the ICT infrastructure in India.

A well-architected cloud roadmap offers a great way to leverage the scalability and agility of the cloud paradigm to provide inexpensive, accountable e-services to citizens.

Instead of being limited by the inherent costs and complexity of integrating and managing traditional on-premise server-based systems, migrating e-services to the cloud allows a cost-effective, scalable and agile solution.

The Indian market is ready for employing cloud computing measures says Business Software Alliance (BSA), a global non-profit IT alliance, as it ranks India 19th (ahead of BRIC nations) among 24 nations in its preparedness for cloud computing implementation. According a recent study the Indian cloud computing market is expected to reach $16 billion by 2020.

A key factor for this growth is the need for reduced cost of ownership in a world where economic growth is slower (as compared to the previous decade).