What Indian Start-ups in the Cloud may be Missing!

Indian start-ups are high on SMAC and are brimming with ideas and many are working hard on their ideas in a garage somewhere in Bangalore or yonder;  working day and night to bring out the next big winner in the cloud, but can they hit pay dirt like Hewlett & Packard?

Many of these start-ups will be driving SAAS solutions on the cloud and Nasscom has added  momentum by leading the charge with a target of 10,000 start-ups a very modest number, India can  do with a million start-ups'  to service the world  and create economic value for India.

The first aspect the start-up needs to get right is the domain name, is it "startup.in" or is it startup.com, starup.biz, starup.net, it is nice to be nationalistic but in the cloud SAAS you are building could be used by anyone in the world and will  need a global address.; also is the start-ups  twitter handles and other social media address available in the proposed name of the start-up?

The website is the start-up's sales brochure in the cloud,  have the founders spent enough time on the start-up's website and do they have a social media footprint and presence. Awesome technology alone will not bring in the revenue, you need marketing muscle and agile selling online, plus you need audience. There have been great technology companies, names we cannot even remember now in the cloud rush that vanished before they were even born. Get the Branding and Positioning Right of the start-up right, if it does not work change the name of the start-up, not driven by an astrologer or numerologist but by the attributes of the product offering.

The first is S in SMAC has to be done right; either your start-up is in social media or you are not there. Word of Mouth is good to take your start-up places and bring in the eyeballs, but you need to get it right. Has the website been launched in more than one language, the world's most spoken language is Spanish followed by Mandarin, do you provide support in these languages other than English for your global customers? If you do not have Spanish you will miss most countries in Latin America and without Portuguese you will miss Brazil which is a mature Digital Market.

The next is M -  Mobile support, does your website and application work in the mobile, has the start-up tested their presence in various mobiles and tablets.

Then there  is  A - Analytics, is the start-up measuring its engagement in the digital world,  if you do not know how to do it, subscribe to a SAAS solution in the cloud which can do it for you.

The last is C - Cloud; has the start-up chosen the right cloud partner for its solution.

The Start-up has to get its SMAC right and to get high in the cloud.

Some more some more pointers which need to be addressed by the start-up up in its

digital avatar starts with the description of its offering. Does the start-up's  web page and

 social media campaigns get prospective customers excited about their product, is it

supplemented by video advertising on Television and You tube and other social media

sites?

Is the start- up  able to sustain its  digital footfall and get visitors  excited and subscribe to  its offering? Remember  layman's  language works best since most SAAS users do not understand Geek language.  Tell your prospects  why they should try your offering, and highlight the features and benefits of your solution,  be transparent on the pricing and let there be no surprises. Make sure you offer a self service trial of your offerings from your website, which can be  used with no fuss and can be concluded with two mouse clicks. If the trail user's like the start-ups solution they will continue using it irrespective of the pricing, so getting them to use it is the first step.

The start-up needs to explain the security around the offering, cloud is all about trust, the more you share the better is the TRUST.  A full  page on security is warranted, including standards, backups and what not to convince your customer they are in safe hands.

The start-up should share its coverage in the media and also customer  success stories and testimonials, this gives confidence to a prospective customer.

Start-up needs to talk about the Help & Support available, it needs to provide a chat room for immediate support on inquiries  to close sales and offer solution support.  The start-up needs to share its  marketing presentations and videos to  be easily viewed by the prospective customer, remember you will need to close the sale most times without ever meeting your customer in person. Many Indian start-ups still believe they need to meet the customer and close the SAAS sale, this shows their reluctance and lack of understanding of Digital Branding and Marketing. The most classic lament is we do not have a Beta as yet, how can a start-up get a Beta without a self-service delivery of its SAAS solution on its website. Who has the patience to write to the start-up for a Beta site, when I stumble on the start-up's site I am looking for instant Nirvana  not Penance.

The start-up needs to share on the website details about its partners, affiliates and Careers, also needs to Provide  Contact through, an online form, email, chat, social media, phone and any other innovative ideas of communication. The start-up should encourage prospect to remain connected through Social Media, email and newsletters.

If Indian start-up companies with great technology skills and brilliant SAAS solutions incorporate some of these points which they may have missed, then India can serve the world and multiply into a million start-ups in the cloud.

The Gold Rush for Secure Clouds

Europe has blown the War Bugle, they will build their own EU clouds and secure their data and applications within the boundaries of Europe.
The Rest of the World will also follow suit in building their own Secure clouds for their business, government and anything else that needs cloud computing.
The Gold Rush is on for Secure Clouds built bottom up, it is going to be a bonanza for leaders who offer virtualisation solutions like VMWare and its competition including Microsoft Azure & others, Data Center Equipment hardware providers  IBM, DELL, HP and CISCO and others.
The marketing teams in these companies that provide the building material for cloud computing are going to be busy and laughing all the way to the bank. Their fears of the cheap Public Cloud will be history and no longer a challenge to their growth and revenues.

Secure Clouds in the Horizon will herald the demise of Public Clouds.

The cloud pundits who understand how to put together a cloud computing environment will be in demand, irrespective of their nationality. Cloud Architects who can deliver secure clouds will be  paid in gold for their skills.
China has shown how to build a secure national cloud by buying the Azure platform from Microsoft other countries will follow.
Open Source Computing may be used by countries who have good cloud computing  talent like India, China and Eastern Europe.
Are you ready for the Gold Rush, even if you do not understand the cloud it is a great time to invest in companies which provide the hardware, software and services in building secure clouds.
It is also time for to dis-invest from Public Clouds and SAAS solutions in the Public Clouds, their demise will be swift once these secure clouds are build, the decline could start from  New Year if the requirement for Secure Clouds becomes stronger
Are you ready for the Gold Rush for Secure Clouds, there is gold for everyone.

Virtualization is not Cloud Computing

Recently Forrester stated that 70% of "private clouds" aren't really clouds at all

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/022613-forrester-private-clouds-267108.html

Therein lies a tale of deceit, misinformation and false gratification of many organizations believing they have a cloud in place. 

To get the facts right we need to revisit the definition of cloud computing as defined by NIST which in may opinion is the final authority on cloud computing standards and is followed by the industry and professionals. 

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared 

pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that 

can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. 

This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment 

models.

Essential Characteristics: (Five)

On-demand self-service. 

Broad network access. 

Resource pooling. 

Rapid elasticity.

Measured service. 

Service Models: (Three)

Software as a Service (SaaS). 

Platform as a Service (PaaS). 

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). 

Deployment Models: (Four)

Private cloud. 

Community cloud. 

Public cloud. 

Hybrid cloud. 

Cloud Computing affects traditional hardware and software vendors adversely.

Though virtualization may provide resource pooling and rapid elasticity, there will be a need for on-demand self service, broad network access and measured service to meet the essential characteristics of cloud computing. 

But in a thrust by manufacturers for servers and hardware and connected virtualization solutions and software there has been pressure on NIST to change the parameters of cloud computing, thankfully NIST has held its ground, though there is a regular clamor to change the definitions to meet the needs of IS Vendors who have millions of dollars a stake. 

I know of a bank in India who claims to have implemented cloud computing, though nowhere do they publish their architecture or their adherence to the NIST cloud definition. The vendors who have sold them the hardware and software for virtualization are delighted to tout this as a cloud implementation and even the CIO has won a few award for taking the bank to the cloud. This is not the only instance of false reporting of cloud computing implementation. To add to this the said bank also runs a SAAS banking solution on it purported cloud and has signed up a number of banks for its services. The Indian regulators are clear that data cannot be kept in a public cloud or outside India, but they have no guidelines for cloud computing in India.

Since there is no enforcement or regulation for  Cloud Computing other then guidance from NIST, CSA and ENISA the vendors and their customers continue to brag  about their cloud computing prowess without adhering to the standards.

Virtualization  comes with its own risk though it seems attractive given its significant return of investment, I remember an IT team wanted to virtualize their infrastructure. When queried about their expertise they told me they had installed the virtualization environment on their desktop and were ready to do the same to their data center. Though I recommended that they not go ahead, I am sure they would  implemented virutalization without understanding their lack of skills and the risks for their organization.  I am sure they will soon brag about having built a private cloud for their organization. 

It it time for more compliance in cloud computing implementation and there is a need for a certification process to quality that the organization is truly cloud ready from a reputed assurance consultancy or a knowledgeable cloud evangelist. 

Do share your stories of organizations who have reached the cloud without NIST guidelines, love to hear about them. 

Cloud Computing for Business

Today's program on cloud computing for Business at Bangalore was well received and was attended by Senior Business Leaders.
Some of the keen observations was the lack of adoption of cloud computing by business in India because of poor internet connectivity in smaller cities and rural areas. There were live examples of challenges in getting reliable internet access and bandwidth and more needs to be done to fix this problem to make cloud computing adoption a reality.

The second takeaway was the large  technology  cost to support transactions in Banking sector, almost about Rs. 50 a transaction was the estimated cost. Cloud could substantially lower this technology cost by banks adopting cloud computing.
Some banks are there in a nascent stage and some Banks offer their application as a SAAS based core banking solutions in a virtualized environment which is marketed as a cloud. More needs to be done in this area and one solution was to build a dedicated and secure cloud environment to support the Indian Banking Sector.
The take away was that Indian Business Leaders are open to adopting cloud, understand and recognize the benefits but will wait for the Network Infrastructure (Internet) quality to be upgraded in India.
I would like all the people who attended this event and also the friends and acquaintances who helped to make the program  Cloud Computing for Business a reality.

SME in India may not be ready for the Cloud

The SME sector in India has been identified as the sector that is ready to adopt cloud computing and also benefit the most because its IT Deployment is limited today.
But as one engages with the SME sector we find its leaders are ignorant about IT Management other then using a financial software on a PC the trust factor is abysmally low.
The SME is mostly owner run in India and privately held and has been mainly built by entrepreners with an healthy knowledge and specific niche skills.

It is a long road for Indian SME to adopt Cloud Computing.
Photo Credit : Amitav Thamba

The bankers, lenders and government have been spending years to list these SME companies with limited success, I recollect trying to list SME companies in 1991 which was disastrous in the OTC Exchange of India, it is the same fate of the two new SME exchanges started by NSE and BSE the leading stock exchanges of India.
To get the SME sector to speed it is important to allow them to deploy traditional onsite computing to demonstrate the benefits and build their trust. The SME sector is about 5 years behind schedule in adopting information technology  and about 10 years behind in adopting cloud computing.
Companies like Mindcraft a Mumbai based IT services company (mindcraft.in) in India are adding value to the SME sector by providing them C level expertise for their IT deployment and sustenance. This is the first step in getting SME's in India to adopt computing, once they enjoy the benefits of computing only then they will be ready for cloud computing.
Mindcraft offers SME the same quality and responsiveness they offer corporate customers they support like large banks and financial institutions. They also add a strong IT leadership team and ITIL compliant IT support with quality and agility.
More companies need to start taking the SME to the first baby steps into computing into India to benefit the Indian economy and make an impact on the GDP of India.
This blogger welcome your thoughts and experiences with information technology as SME in India or as a IT service provider to the SME Sector.

New Banks in India need Cloud Computing

The Indian regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently agreed to provide licences to a number of new Banks in India with a caveat of serving the under banked population.
The promoters of these Banks will be scurrying with their consultants to hire CIO/CTO from other Banks to get off their Core Banking Systems off the ground before they can launch their banks.
It will be good for them to pause for a moment and consider Cloud Computing as a vehicle for their technology launch and here are some of the benefits

Cloud Computing will be the dawn of a new technology paradigm for Indian Banks. 

1. Time to Market will be in weeks rather then months so they can start their operations ASAP, especially if they adopt a SAAS based Banking solution. (e.g. the cloud based core banking solution offered by NABARD through Wipro and TCS).
2. They will operate in an Opex model, which means capital will not be locked into traditional technology capex investments. 
3. Agility  in their business will make launch of new and innovative products a breeze.
4. The under banked population can be easily reached from any device that can connect to the banks cloud Infrastructure. 
5. The significant savings in technology operation costs will be of immense benefit to the bank. 
6. They can focus on Banking rather then tackling information technology constraints and challenges. 
7. The regulator will support this initiative because this is not the first cloud computing banking solution in India. 

In a few months time we can spot the technology winners in these new banks and I am sure that the banks that adopt cloud computing will be at the top of the list. 

Arranged Marriages in the Cloud

India is a nation which is progressive and has a large middle class population who enjoy the benefits of this fast growing economy. But when it comes to marriage most of India relies on Arranged Marriages which binds communities together with similar traditions, language, dietary preferences, dressing , attitudes and more.
In the old days when communities were more local and not widespread Indians had the Matchmaker who would bring families together through marriages.
A good description of the matchmaker is the song from the movie Fiddler on the Roof :

Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match
(courtesy : http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/fiddlerontheroof/matchmaker.htm)

Indian arranged marriages Wikepedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriage_in_the_Indian_subcontinent

With an Indian diaspora with global dispersion the Indian arranged marriage has become a challege to deliver.

The finalization of the Indian arranged marriage is  the engagement ceremony  followed by the lavish wedding a few months later, a cooling period between the two  partners to make sure it is all going to work out.

Harmony is essential for Indian Marriages. 

I was in an engagement last week of an Indian arranged marriage and the girl and boy were in fine spirits. They discovered each other on a matrimonial website (maybe hosted on the cloud) and it matched all the criteria set out by them and their families for their future life partners  This was the first step of identification of prospective life partners.
Then it was the Facebook connection, the chatting  and the sharing of the photographs. The girl and boy met only about a week before the engagement. The boy was in the Silicon valley  and the girl was in Mumbai.
But  they  spent hours chatting with each other to make sure they were meant for each other and  their marriage would work for them, the outcome  of weeks of online socializing and online commitment was the engagement ceremony.
The boy sang a song  which was the clincher for the acceptance from the girl, wow how did he do that with 10000 miles of separation. When I asked the couple about how they could sing to each other, hey gave me a quizzical look, have you not used Skype.
The Indian arranged marriage has all its tools for its trade in the internet, the matrimonial website, Facebook, Google for discovery and Skype, everything that is needed for two hearts to meet and culminate in matrimony.

Thank you cloud computing for keeping the Indian Matrimonial process effective in a digital world.

Cloud Migration the next Y2K for Indian IT Companies

It has been a rough patch for Indian IT companies as they struggle to transform themselves in a recessionary world where the old methods of providing bodies for service has changed to service delivery with compensation based on successful completion of projects.
The Indian IT industry grew on one great phenomenon of fixing the challenging Y2k problem way back in the years 1999 to 2000. This allowed Indian technology professionals to support and deliver skills to keep the business running into a expected catastrophe in the year 2000 (Y2K).
I was in the USA in the months of December 1999 and January 2000 on a holiday and remember the New Year of 2000 being brought in with bated breath. It was a new decade where programmers had forgotten that the century would end when they created digital solutions. Luckily the new year rolled out with no major glitches because of the century transition.
Y2K was the catalyst for the growth of the Indian Industry supported by savvy marketing and cost positioning and mass training in the cities of Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai.
A reality check shows there are many  Asian and European countries who are able to provide cost effective and innovative technology solutions and they  are clawing away the market share of Indian IT Companies.



Y2k Cheered the Indian IT Industry to double digit growth, Cloud Migration can do the same !
Photo - Thanks to Mr. Ajay Gopal - Big Data Specialist.

About a decade ago a new technology emerged known as cloud computing which was proved and tested by the layman by use of social applications like Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Animoto, YouTube and Amazon Web Services whose success was driven by the lay consumer and today the Business is ready to adopt the cloud as its preferred  computing platform.
The challenge for businesses  is to migrate their legacy application to the cloud and also replace some of the legacy applications with newer and more agile solutions available on the cloud which support mobility.
Business need consulting for a cloud strategy and a migration plan, but more importantly they will need IT  skills for Cloud Migration..
The ability of Indian IT companies to handle complex projects in time and cost with  talented  technology professionals is the elixir to take the  Business to the cloud.
 Indian IT companies need to quickly get ready for this next big opportunity of Cloud Migration which will put them back on their feet and into a double digit growth trajectory ?
Is the same enthusiasm and leadership available in the Indian IT companies toady as in Y2K  to drive this opportunity ?
Will Indian IT companies to do their jig in the cloud and relive their glory days ?
Are they listening ?
Are they Ready of this opportunity?
Or is the writing on the wall for the decline of the Indian IT industry unwilling to adapt to a changing world fueled by Cloud Computing ?

Cotton to Cloud

Cotton to Cloud - Sunset to Sunrise

We stopped over at the Davanagere Town recently,  a district headquarters in the state of Karnatakaand the 7th largest city in the state of Karanataka ( Bangalore/Bengalooru is the largest). It is about 260kms/160 miles from Bangalore.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davangere) on the Bangalore Mumbai (Bombay) National Highway and also boasts of a large Railway station and the government plans to set up an aiport soon in Davanagere (.http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/13/stories/2008071352540300.htm).

Davanagere was the textile capital of  South India in the last century and it even today people remember the quality of Davangere cotton dhotis ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhoti).

Davangere's cotton mills are closed today and stand testimony to a hoary past when it was called the "Manchester of South India", today the looms stand still in these factories.

Davanagere today has a number of wonderful educational institutions and a cultured and vibrant people who are hardworking and industrious like their grand parents who came to work in the cotton mills. 

Davanagere has the opportunity to nurture innovation and new solutions and also provide support for cloud computing at a fraction of the cost offered by Bangalore or other big city companies in India.

Davanagere is a lovely city with its own football and cricket clubs and a wonderful quality of life when compared to Bangalore.Its most famous cuisine is Benne Dosa (Butter and rice pancake) washed down with a cup of hot coffee.

Towns like Davanagere will be the future destinations for Cloud Computing , these will be the new temples for  Information and Communication Technology solution delivery for the world from India. 

Are your ready to help Davanagere to move from Cotton to the Cloud ?