The opportunity to modernise and move applications to the cloud is significant for companies of all sizes. “The speed of cloud adoption doesn’t matter; what’s important is reaping the benefits,” says Dilip Kumar, vice-president, AWS Applications. He talks to Sudhir Chowdhary on how he plans to drive a growing category of AWS services. Excerpts:
How is AWS addressing the changing trends in the enterprise technology space?
We are observing several trends that resonate with customers and are driving advancements. Although supply chain management is not new, Covid-19 highlighted its importance as customers realised they were not as robust as they thought. Many businesses experienced challenges with using multiple vendors’ applications that lack seamless integration and require manual data transfer. With technology like AWS Supply Chain, our approach is to leverage existing investments by building a management layer and creating a universal data lake.
Another trend gaining traction is customisation. Customers now understand the value of customised and relevant information, rather than generic messages. For instance, a banking company could utilise Amazon Pinpoint to send targeted SMS messages, delivering personalised experiences to their customers. AWS not only offers scalability, reliability, and security but also helps customers add business value on top of these infrastructure services, making cloud adoption more accessible.
What are some of the critical challenges for the cloud market?
Interestingly, only around 10% of total global IT spend is on cloud services globally, but the opportunity to modernise and move applications to the cloud is significant for companies of all sizes. The speed of cloud adoption doesn’t matter; what’s important is reaping the benefits. Without modernisation, innovation on on-premises platforms becomes challenging and limited in scalability.
As cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities evolved over the years, there’s been a growing demand from customers who want to interact with the cloud, not just at the compute and storage level – but also at an easy-to-use applications level.
The AWS Applications group is a growing category of our services that helps our customers take advantage of the AWS Cloud and machine learning expertise, without them having to build solutions from scratch.
Which new facets are favouring AWS business growth in the APJ region, especially India?
Certainly, there is a notable shift in technology requirements and increasing cloud uptake in the Asia Pacific region, particularly in India. For example, the modernisation of India’s call centre industry, which hosts a significant number of multinational companies, highlights the growing demand for advanced technological solutions. This trend indicates a rising need for robust and scalable cloud-based communication and customer service platforms. Another new facet is India’s high volume of OTP (one-time password) messages which reflects the country’s significant reliance on digital authentication and transactional processes. Additionally, digitisation is rapidly increasing in India’s public sector. There has been a substantial growth in digital initiatives, surpassing many other countries.
How important is the role of data and analytics in a cloud ecosystem?
It’s becoming imperative for enterprises to embrace data-driven practices. Customers now expect companies to leverage their data to provide insights and analytics. Companies must invest in tools, capabilities, and processes over time to build a comprehensive data strategy. Data tends to be scattered across different departments within organisations, following their organisational structure. To create an end-to-end data strategy, companies need to consolidate and unify their data. AWS offers various analytics tools, data lakes, and machine learning tools to facilitate this process. However, it’s essential for companies to realise that becoming data-driven is no longer optional – it’s what customers demand.
