India can transform with cloud and AI, to become self-reliant, and digital-ready: Christian Klein

SAP Now AI Tour was held in New Delhi today. 

Christian Klein, CEO, and Chairman of the Executive Board of SAP SE, said: "Today, we are launching the SAP Software Cloud in India. With this, India can transform with cloud and AI, to become a self-reliant, and digital-ready future economy. We are building the foundation for the digital future."

Manish Prasad, President and MD, SAP India Sub Continent, said that SAP has 30-year legacy, and a huge client base across various verticals. We now need to make AI more relevant. Sovereign cloud is something that the market now needs. We carry responsibly globally, and in the market. We see great potential in India. This has lot of secure engineering capability. We are providing the full stack to take India to the next level.

"We are going to use the cloud for all critical infrastructure. All depends on client requirements. We are making sure the transformation, scale of adopting AI, are met. We are providing the entire stack that is mission-critical in nature."

Why India, now? He said that there is always a right time. We have India's growth story, and we are exploding. We have lot of critical installations that we are managing. We can't wait for policies to evolve. India has to add $5-7 trillion every 10 years. You need that agility, innovation, etc., to move to that stage. 

Every sector will be coming, with classified data requirements, and they can explore the sovereign cloud. India needs innovation and capability. Deployment will take some time. He cautioned that right now, everyone does not have requirement for sovereign cloud. They need to have critical data and infrastructure. 

Digital sovereignty
Martin Merz, President of Sovereign Cloud, said that we now have digital sovereignty. There are lots of discussions around sovereignty. You now have freedom of choice and control. You can get the best technology under national control. We have over 20 years experience with the data sovereignty. We launched in USA about 20 years ago, and we have launched in Europe, and in Asia. We also have legal sovereignty. We also went to Canada, Australia, etc. 

In Europe, customers were asking about the cloud. There are geopolitical tensions. We need some more time to established the cloud across countries. There is lot behind technology and innovation.

We also have the infrastructure to contend with. India will create 10ZB of data by 2025. We also need to look at what India needs to do with this data. India needs to benefit more from the cloud. SAP will invest Euro 20 billion by next year around the world.

We have organized lots of meeting with government and regulatory customers. There are customers comparing us with secured or normal cars. Data can be stored and processed in very secure way, and be armored. Customers need to understand why they need the sovereign cloud. Already, lots of things are happening, and present here in India.

We are not cannibalizing the public cloud. We have big customers that have interest in the future of the country will go for the sovereign cloud. We can have defense and security agencies, and electricity suppliers approaching us. We are serving nations today. 

Access to all SAP cloud solutions
Oliver Beck, CTO, SAP, Sovereign Cloud, said that you can now get access to all SAP Cloud solutions. Public sector has been excluded from cloud use till now. We have added compliance to the cloud, and opened it to critical sectors. We also have localized the control plane. We encapsulate and bring that into the country. We have hyperscaler-based offering as well. 

We have already started the build-up. We are onboarding customers. You will likely not see big win announcements, as customers are very sensitive now. 

India has been on our watchlist for a long time. From an economical standpoint, India is a very important country. We are providing highly secure and highly compliant services. We need to have mutual comfortable levels with customers. All checks need to be fulfilled first. 

We also analyze the security requirements across countries. We can create super set of compliance requirements. Deployments round the world from technology perspective are nearly the same. Customer requirements can be different. Countries will also ask for data residency. Regulations can be either fulfilled, or they won't. 

Meity is organizing the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, Feb. 19-20, New Delhi.