Puneet Chandok, who stepped down last week as the President of Commercial Services for Amazon Web Services India and South Asia, is likely to join rival Microsoft India, people familiar said, as both firms compete to meet the growing customer demand for cloud services in the country.
“He (Chandok) has sounded off people internally that he is joining ‘competition.’ Talks of him joining Microsoft have been doing the rounds for the last few months,” one of the sources cited above said.
While Chandok said he had ‘no comment' when asked about his move, a Microsoft spokesperson too said the company has no comments to share on the matter, in response to email queries. AWS did not offer specific comments, only confirming that Chandok would be stepping down after four years at the firm
Also Read: Puneet Chandok, head of AWS India & South Asia, resigns
It is not clear yet if Chandok will replace Microsoft India President Anant Maheshwari or take up a new responsibility. Sources say the latter will stay on and is likely to get a bigger role within the firm.
Maheshwari has been the face of Microsoft in the country, was front and centre during CEO Satya Nadella’s India visit and engages closely with policymakers on the opportunities arising out of India’s digital transformation.
Chandok’s resignation, effective August 31, 2023, came just days after AWS announced that it will invest $12.7 Billion into India’s cloud infrastructure by 2030, a move that would generate 131,700 full-time equivalent jobs in the country.
Also Read: We are investing in India for the next decades: AWS country president Puneet Chandok
Its huge India commitment comes at a time when growth in its cloud computing business has slowed as companies cut back spending in a tough macroeconomic environment.
Expanding presence
AWS’ rivals such as Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM too count India as a key growth market and have expanded their presence by setting up data centres and cloud regions.
While Google expanded its cloud services in India with a $1 Billion investment in new data centers, Microsoft too stated a few months ago that it will be setting up its largest India data centre region in Hyderabad with an investment of over Rs 15,000 crore over 15 years.
In fact, given the growth of cloud technology in the country, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronic and IT, recently said he expects the country to become the largest market for servers in the world.
Research firm IDC estimates that the overall India public cloud services market is expected to reach $13 billion by 2026, as organisations have realized the power of cloud to help them transform digitally.
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