Microsoft’s Digital Juggernaut

Microsoft India organised ‘Microsoft Media Days 2017’ at the Hyderabad campus where it outlined its plans and initiatives for India

Microsoft Drives Digital Transformation in India

Microsoft stated that 70 of the top 100 Bombay Stock Exchange-listed companies are now using Microsoft cloud to drive their digital transformation. Microsoft works with over 200,000 large, medium and small enterprises, 29 State Governments and over 5000 start-ups in the country.

In the last 18 months, the company has seen many these customers start their digital transformation using the hybrid cloud. The only provider of all three clouds – private, public and hybrid – Microsoft has now launched Azure Stack for India.

Azure Stack is an extension of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, and brings the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing to on-premises environments and enables entirely new hybrid cloud scenarios. All the major Azure Stack partners HP, Dell, EMC, Lenovo and Cisco, have started shipping Azure Stack to customers in India.

A large Azure Stack ready partner ecosystem has been created with partners such as Netmagic, Embee and G7CR. Microsoft has three of its 42global datacenters' regions located in India at Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. Operating since September 2015 (Microsoft was the first global public cloud provider to offer local cloud services in India), Microsoft was also the first public cloud service provider to be empanelled by Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY) in late 2016.

It continues to be a certified cloud provider for Governments in India. “We are fueling innovation and accelerating India’s digital transformation with our global and local cloud services. As many mobile-only and cloud-only collaboration and productivity scenarios emerge in the workplace, we are working with our customers and partners to accelerate the movement to the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge in the next year, and to help build new engines of growth.

Microsoft and our partners are helping customers who want to utilize the full power of our cloud platform and use Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cognitive Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT),” said Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India. “As the pace of digital transformation picks up in 2018, we recognize that many customers prefer to evolve gradually by first moving to a hybrid cloud environment before fully embracing the public cloud. With Azure Stack, we will help our customers move forward in their preferred digital transformation path at a pace they prefer,” he added.

Microsoft Cloud Adoption Across Industries

Financial Services and Information Technology (IT/ ITeS) have emerged as the top Microsoft cloud adopters followed by the Manufacturing industry and Startups in the last year. Microsoft has also witnessed significant uptake of its cloud in the education sector in the country.

In the financial services sector, 10 of the 12 largest banks in India use Microsoft Cloud solutions (State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank and others).BankChain, a blockchain consortium of 30 banks runs exclusively on Microsoft Azure blockchain platform.

They are creating innovative applications on top of Azure for near real-time cross-border remittance at near zero cost, real-time peer-to-peer transfer systems with automated reconciliation, end-to-end loan syndication process management, vendor onboarding, NDA processing, and vendor rating and many more.

In the IT/ITeS sector, the top five Indian companies are using a diverse portfolio of Microsoft Cloud solutions and advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Cognitive Solutions, Big Data & Analytics, Power BI and other services on Azure to not only transform their own organizations but to also create cutting-edge solutions for their customers.

In the auto manufacturing sector, the market leaders (Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and others) in all four sub-segments (passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three-wheelers and two-wheelers) are on Microsoft Cloud.As India is poised to become the third largest car market in the world by 2020, Microsoft continues to partner with auto companies to support the projected four-fold growth in the automotive industry.

India’s startups are fueled by Microsoft cloud solutions. Microsoft continues to add more than 100 startups every month to its BizSpark program. Microsoft supports5000 startups yearly through multiple programs including Microsoft Accelerator.

In 2017, Flipkart, Ola Cabs and Prime Focus started to use Microsoft cloud. In the education sector, Microsoft’s cloud offerings are built on the foundation of the National Knowledge Network Grid (NKN) and are used by several technical institutes in India including NarseeMonjee Institute (Mumbai), FIITJEE (Chennai) and Deccan Education(Pune), among others.

Microsoft’s Partners Ecosystems drives digital transformation

The partner ecosystem is critical in driving digital transformation through the cloud in India. For more than 40 years, Microsoft has been a partner-led company, which reflects the fact that it generates more than 95% of its business through the robust and constantly evolving partner ecosystem. Today, Microsoft India has more than 9,000 cloud partners.

Globally, Microsoft has 64,000 partners — more than any other cloud services provider. To help partners innovate more, go to market faster and connect with the right customers at the right time, Microsoft transformed its partner team in July 2017. The new partner organization is driving partner profitability (for every dollar of Microsoft revenue, partners make nine dollars), and innovation using Microsoft’s AI, machine learning, cognitive and IOT services.

The Author was hosted by Microsoft in Hyderabad