Covid impact: More Indian firms rely on cloud solutions, study finds

CHENNAI: Almost 97% of Indian enterprises increased their reliance on cloud technology as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic with enterprises accelerating use of solutions such as Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), according to a recent survey by ManageEngine, the enterprise IT division of Zoho Corporation.
The study, conducted with a total of 1,210 IT executives and technology professionals globally, also revealed a significant rise in the utilisation of business analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) over the last two years.
Around 91% of respondents said their confidence in AI had increased in the past two years, with a majority of them reporting a "significant increase" in confidence. Cloud adoption is primarily driven by a need to continue IT operations, support remote workers and perform data-related tasks such as storage and backup.
However, security concerns remain high. Around 95% of Indian companies plan to stick with remote work for the next two years at least but 89% of respondents say implementing a work-from-home policy has led to an increase in security challenges faced by their organisation.
“The risk posed by shadow IT is especially high, as 89% of companies have no control over the software that employees purchase and install on their devices,” the study noted. As cyberthreats, primarily phishing, malware and social media attacks, endanger remote employees, companies want improved performance, reliability and security from cloud providers.
“Till about 2019, both private enterprises and governments could afford to wait and watch for cloud adoption, but that has not been the case after the pandemic. Cloud solutions have helped companies navigate the pandemic, and the IT teams have been like frontline staff helping their organisations not just survive but also thrive,” Rajesh Ganesan, vice-president of products at ManageEngine, said.
ManageEngine’s cloud products grew by 80% last year, and its security products are growing at 40%, the company has said. BFSI, manufacturing, healthcare and public sector are the top adopters of ManageEngine’s solutions since Covid struck.