Cloud powers India’s digital leap

Indian businesses are embracing cloud transformation as a critical enabler of artificial intelligence adoption, underscoring the vital role of cloud in India’s digital leap, according to an EY study of cloud implementation. As many as nine out of 10 Indian companies said that AI adoption would not have been possible without cloud migration, with nearly seven in 10 currently transitioning applications to the cloud, the survey found.

“The rapid adoption of cloud technology in India is more than just a technological upgrade — it’s a transformational shift that empowers businesses to reimagine their operating model, products or services,” said Abhinav Johri, technology consulting partner, EY India.

“By leveraging cloud to enable AI capabilities, companies can now respond faster to evolving client needs and market changes and deliver enhanced value through AI-led solutions. This marks a new wave of progress, which may potentially position India as a global leader,” Johri said.

Most Indian companies follow a hybrid approach, managing applications partly on the cloud and partly on premises, which makes for a balanced strategy allowing for flexibility while enabling gradual progress toward full cloud migration, the study noted.

The 20% of organizations that are fully on cloud are typically the new-age, digital native companies. Of the 80% that follow a hybrid approach, 30-40% have cloud-native business applications, including their software-as-a-service applications, Johri noted.

“This is a very encouraging trend, showing that there is an enhanced level of confidence in the functionality provided by these cloud applications,” he said. “This also means that there is a standardization happening and capabilities are being offered vis-a-vis something that you might want to develop yourself.”

Companies may want to maintain on-premises capabilities due to operating models or sectoral limitations, for instance, banks, non-banking financial companies, telcos, and others where data protection and high levels of confidentiality are of major importance.

Improving cloud adoption could require more awareness regarding its advantages and greater investment by companies in cybersecurity, Johri said, which continues to be a concern as some decision-makers see security as an afterthought.