Ganesan Arumugam, VMware Software India (P) Ltd.

Ganesan Arumugam,
Director - Partners,
VMware Software India (P) Ltd.

I think the adoption of cloud computing in the country is pretty good. We have seen that a lot of customers have started their journey with virtualization and they are moving towards Cloud environment through various steps. So, we called it as a three-stage adoption. What we have seen among most of our customers is that first they start with reducing the cost, wherein they try with various technologies. Then, they extend the adoption to the next level - that is on the production servers. That is where they bring in various automation tools, services, etc. Then, the third stage is where they go and put in self servicing, that is where the users can go and deploy their own servers or the services they want. So, from that perspective, I think India is pretty much on the right stage. Right now, I would say most of my customers are on stage two where they are trying to put up production servers and so the next stage will be complete cloud deployment.

If you look at it, any technology that goes to the customer then partners are looked as trusted advisors from selling of services or tangible technology. So, when it comes to selling of Cloud then also partners would again be looked as trusted advisors, as earlier. As per my experience, what my partners have shared is that they can be Cloud services partners or as the Cloud enablers who would help the customers to set up the cloud environment. This means that the partner would evolve from mere box-pushers to technology solution providers. The box pushers would continue to exist, but interaction with direct consumers would reduce and it would be more of selling to these technology solution providers.