In the words of PM Narendra Modi, “Startups are the engines of exponential growth, manifesting the power of innovation.” One of the most significant expressions of this is seen on the cloud, where commercial and academic enterprises have been capitalizing on the technology since its inception.

Technology researcher Gartner, sees Indian public cloud services growing by 38% this year in a business worth $1.8 billion. This is accelerating the shift to digital across the country, as organizations of every type and size develop their cloud strategies.

Gartner sees Indian public #cloud services growing by 38% this year in a business worth $1.8 billion. Click To Tweet

Partnering with diverse organizations from many disciplines and industries, we see how cloud helps generate new business models that have the organizational agility which was previously impossible. Freed from deploying and maintaining their own IT infrastructure, remotely located teams work together using the same cloud-hosted data in real time. This allows them to focus on innovation and business optimization rather than IT related issues.

This wave of technology adoption covers all the industries that we work with and has become essential to companies ranging from architects to retailers. Among the manufacturing focused businesses that we partner with, Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturer bases its entire business strategy on cloud. This appealed to investors who saw that with no internal IT department, technology costs could be precisely matched to growth, enabling new employees to be productive from day one even without IT support and training requirements. This, significantly reduced start-up costs and simplified operational complexity. For this manufacturer interoperability of legacy, design data was also a crucial business requirement. Cloud operation means that everyone has access to all relevant data through a single unified workflow interface.

Cloud operation lets businesses talk directly to their customers, and it is fascinating to see fashion brands and high-tech consumer product companies digitally bringing their customers into their R&D process. This generates customer loyalty even before there is anything to buy.

In a recent, The Hindu Business Line interview businessman, philanthropist, politician and the ‘brain behind Aadhaar’  Nandan Nilekani, said, “My view is that we should not go so much by what large businesses say … but get millions of small businesses to become part of the economy. That’s where the growth is.”

IT industry body NASSCOM amplified this thinking when it stated that in India, “Cloud computing is one of the thrust areas in the national IT policy.”  Adoption at national and local government level of GI Cloud or Meghraj is prodigiously rapid and encompassing the whole nation. This fully connected cloud enables communication, collaboration roll-out of e-services through new connections in unprecedented ways.

This new cloud connectivity is also revolutionizing the academic world where the power of digitally connecting teachers with students is bringing exciting results to the universities that we are proud to partner with. In line with Make In India and Skill India initiatives, students can collaborate in cloud-based groups to work on projects that teachers can monitor, manage and guide in real-time. Working this way, using the same technology and methods that they will experience in the world of work gives students a solid grounding that future employers value.

Cloud operation means everyone has access to relevant data through a single unified workflow interface. Click To Tweet

Senior Vice President, Global Innovation & Managing Director, Pitney Bowes India, Manish Choudhary, has been quoted saying, “Diversity is a great driver of innovation.” Cloud-based teaching achieves diversity because students and teachers are encouraged to work across subject boundaries. Medical students and engineers, for example, can find new solutions when they collaborate.

Students know that cloud learning lets them experience things differently.  And they are naturally drawn to the technology as it appeals on social and academic levels. There is no other way you can get inside a virtual nuclear reactor, jet engine or 3D simulated human heart in a group with your peers to explore, discover, learn, teach and experience new things together.

Cloud-hosted project-based experiential learning and startup business culture, complement and nourish each other by delivering exciting innovations to students, teachers, and entrepreneurs. Cloud makes innovation easy and natural because new ideas and products emerge smoothly when people can concentrate on their work; not on IT.

Cloud facilitates mixing social, academic and business skills producing the vital spark that initiated many of today’s 4200 Indian startups. And it is cloud that is responsible for adding fuel and accelerating this engine of growth through innovation.