Microsoft sees a huge market for its cloud services in India, given the level of interest from enterprises and governments here, Mr Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International, said today.
In a conversation with Business Line , Mr Courtois said that Microsoft is able to offer businesses a flexible combination of public and private cloud services, which he described as unique to Microsoft.
(‘Cloud service' refers to Internet-based provision of server capacity to customers, as opposed to their having their own servers. ‘Cloud' enables customers to use only as much server capacity as they require, with the ability to flex-up or flex-down the capacity provided to them on real-time basis.)A recent study of Zinnov has said that global cloud computing market would cross $70 billion by 2015. It said that it would create two million jobs in India by that year. Mr Courtois, who is also a Senior Vice-President in Microsoft Corporation, sees the market being expanded by the advent of smartphones.
In India, smartphones account for 5 per cent of all phones sold, but this number is set to increase to 20 per cent in the next few years.
Nissan tie-up
Giving an idea of the kind of services that Microsoft is able to provide using cloud computing, Mr Courtois said that in Japan, the company is working with Nissan to introduce a product for the Nissan Leaf, which is an electric vehicle.
Microsoft's cloud-based product will be able to tell the driver of a Nissan Leaf, on real-time basis, how much of battery the vehicle has consumed, and how longer the battery could last, taking into account even the driving habit of the driver. This product is close to be launched, Mr Courtois said.