A fulfilling journey of 100+ Cloud deployment for SMBs

First and foremost, we have all gone through various reports and insights from Industry experts on cloud adoption. We want to share our learnings from deploying a Cloud based productivity suite for 100+ SMBs in the past 3 years. As a company focused on delivering cloud services with Microsoft, we have seen a great transformation during this time. Smartphone proliferation and the consumption of data from mobile devices have grown manifolds in this country.  SMBs have a pivotal role to build new India. Can they do it without Cloud?

The term SMBs is vague in literal terms, only based on geography and business. We, in this piece, refer to SMBs as an organization with a computer enabled user base of 50 to 600 and an organization that can demonstrate a double digit growth in the next decade.

Indian SMBs should not make the mistake of solving problems the same way western countries and China have solved their problems. The core scenarios have changed since when similar problems were being solved in the West or in China, and it's evident that a different approach has to be adopted.There are two key parameters which have changed over time, the first being connectivity which in turn affects the other factor; the consumption of technology as Cloud Services. The solutions to old problems will need to be novel and more suited to Indian SMBs.

What have we learned from our cloud deployment in 100+ SMBs?

• Biggest asset and strongest bottleneck    o The flag bearer of the company wants to monitor everything from evaluation to deployment.     o Every stage has to be approved by him and in most cases he/she gets so engrossed in their day-to-day activities that they can't focus on getting what they want.    o Trade-offs occur where compromises are made to accommodate for time and required effort.

• There is intent but no execution capabilities    o We have felt that SMBs are facing some typical technology problems and their internal teams have made a mess of it and what's worse, they do not realize the additional problems being caused by it.    o Our discussions, on how cloud can help them solve their IT Infrastructure problems often turns into 'Can you deploy it for us end to end?'.    o There are very few innovators who are disruptive in their outlook and are willing to go after the greater benefit.

• Cloud is not just about deployment but finances also    o Cloud comes under a services model and it gets really difficult for finance departments to understand that IT has to be paid for in recurring model.    o In most cases, when an apple-to-apple comparison model is adopted, cloud technology generally emerges much more scalable and much less expensive.

• Jump ladders    o Once the SMBs understand the value Cloud can bring to them, they start looking at the last mile without even taking the first step on cloud, they need to understand it is a step by step process.    o Jumping ladders is a hit-and-miss process and due to incomplete understanding of the right adoption mechanism, the failure seems unacceptable.

• Change the system instead of adopting the system    o Once SMBs get to know the flexibility of cloud, SMBs starts working on their own systems and processes instead of adopting the new system and learning the best practices.    o A certain inertia exists where SMBs need to become adopters and focus on their core rather than looking for the perfect fit. Cloud is yet to see a wide spread adoption across the world and adopting cloud faster can turn into a great competitive advantage for India and for every SMB. You should not wait any longer and become an early adopter.

Why should the next SMBs look at cloud in 2015-16?

• Focus on the core: We believe that India can only achieve its true potential in the global economy if we focus on building Intellectual property now. With the cognitive surplus Indian SMBs have, they can lead the transformation by leaving everything on the periphery of the business to cloud to address.

• Technology consulting: Time is of the essence at this juncture. Instead of experimenting with technology, SMBs should take help from an expert for evaluating the right products and getting the deployment done in fastest possible time.They can start in a hybrid model and then transform the entire possible ecosystem to the cloud. But the key is to set a time frame to get the deployment properly done.

• Standardization: To build businesses for scale, standardization is the key. Earlier, SMBs did not have access to enterprise grade technology, neither did they know how to deploy technology processes. The most common buzzwords were heard and these products became aspirational. Now things have changed, they can achieve the same at a fraction of the cost.

• Connect the dots: If you are spending most of your time on a smart phone, whether it is reverting to business emails, checking and sending files to colleagues and customers or even connecting with your near ones staying in different countries via video calls, the apprehension about cloud is unreasonable. These are some serious thought provoking everyday tasks, it's time to connect the dots and open up to enterprise grade cloud usage.

• Take a leap of faith: You have always believed in your gut more than anything. Cloud comes under a services model. In case, it is taking a lot of time to fully understand the value of cloud, we would advise the SMB owners to take a leap-of-faith in favor of cloud and they won't be disappointed.

With a decisive leadership at the center, initiatives such as Digital India and Make in India have come as a boon for Indian SMBs (small and medium-scale businesses). As a matter of fact, these years can turn out to be the best ever in the life span of SMBs to take their business global.

Remember it's not just about your future but the entire country is looking up to you to take the next leap of faith.

SMBs should work towards demystifying Cloud to their advantage.

What can Cloud do to your business?

For an SMB it is extremely important to work smart and to be able to use technology in a competent manner because if used correctly, it can help them save every single resource of their organization which in turn also helps them save cost and time. Incorporating Cloud in your organization can be the very first step to leverage the power of technology in your company, and be able to get one step ahead of your competitors. 'Cloud Computing' is the new buzz word in the market and rightly so, you no longer have to worry about spending heaps of time managing your IT Infrastructure that barely suffices your needs and costs a bomb. Cloud makes you more independent and flexible by reducing your dependency on servers that bind you to work only on-premises,and instead be able to work from anywhere, anytime at your ease and availability. Did I mention no device dependency and the added security features that come with it? It is time you open your eyes and senses and for a short while, stop thinking about that way the IT/ITES environment has always been. Cloud gives you the power to run your company at your own terms, and have control over every aspect of your business by making it more secure and intelligent. But, the biggest reason you must consider cloud for your business is not because it is the next big thing, but because the revolution brought about by it is happening right now and it's time you became a part of it.