While there is no clear leader in the cloud computing space today, companies like Wipro, Infosys, HCL and TCS could get there in the next 12 months, said Mr Karthik Ananth, Director, Zinnov Management Consulting.
Zinnov recently conducted a survey and placed major IT players in various zones to mark their capabilities.
The slide for cloud computing stood out because in the ‘Leadership Zone', which is reserved for companies capable of performing concept to Go-To-Market for the product, there was no player — Wipro, Infosys, HCL and others fell in the ‘Execution Zone', which comprises companies that are capable of delivering complete product development, but fall one step short of attaining a leadership position.
According to Mr Ananth, there is no leader in cloud computing because the market is still maturing.
“It is too early for anybody to become a leader,” he said. However, many companies are trying to do something to gain a leadership position.
“MindTree is helping ISVs to move to the cloud, while Wipro is providing hosting and infrastructure through Infocrossing,” he said, referring to US IT services provider Infocrossing, which Wipro acquired for about $600 million in 2007.
“Different companies are approaching the cloud from various perspectives. Start-ups are creating applications for the cloud, while large systems integrators are providing infrastructure along with applications and consulting,” Mr Ananth told Business Line .
While many of the smaller companies may not be able to compete directly with the big guns, they could consider offering innovative out-of-the-box solutions.
As an example, Mr Arun Gupta, Customer Care Associate and Group CTO, Shoppers Stop, pointed out that the cloud could also be used to de-risk a new initiative.
“The cloud is useful if you want to create a low risk option in the initial stages. You can later contemplate if you want to buy the technology and host it in your own data centres,” he said.