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Why industry cloud?
Industry cloud solutions prioritize deep integration and vertical alignment, catering to the specific business, operational, legal, regulatory, and security needs of an industry. Instead of aiming for broad applicability, they focus on maximizing value within well-defined industry parameters. Such parameters can range from providing infrastructure stack compliant to regulatory requirements to software with out-of-the-box business processes aligned to the value chain.
Beyond just tailored solutions, industry clouds offer a curated ecosystem of innovative tools, applications, and datasets. These elements flawlessly integrate with the full range of cloud services, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). This creates a comprehensive, ready-to-deploy stack that empowers companies with superior agility in managing workloads and go-to-market.
Since industry clouds come pre-loaded with solutions and best practices of specific industries, they streamline implementation, saving businesses time and effort. Additionally, cloud service providers (CSPs) offering industry clouds have deep expertise in industry-specific regulations, data protection, and security needs. They integrate these compliance rules directly into their cloud solutions, known as sovereign clouds, which offer businesses greater control and ownership over their data. This ensures data is stored and managed according to local regulations and laws, often including keeping data within specific countries or regions. Sovereign clouds also address industry-specific security and compliance requirements, providing both infrastructure and tools for seamless workload migration. It is a massive opportunity as the focus on sovereign clouds can empower Indian data center businesses to become leading indigenous CSPs.
Built upon technologies designed for immediate business deployment, industry clouds promote shared resources by allowing multiple organizations to utilize the same underlying infrastructure. A shared resource model promotes more efficient utilization of computing resources, resulting in lower overall costs for the organizations involved. CSPs offering industry clouds further contribute to a smoother operational environment by providing automatic software updates and conducting behind-the-scenes maintenance, significantly alleviating concerns and expenses associated with downtime.
That said, industry clouds are neither a new concept nor a new solution. But their relevance in the current times, when being digital for legacy or a modern business is an existential need, has steadily increased. As a result, major CSPs rose to the top of the cloud industry and smaller cloud providers became industry specific. Major cloud service providers now offer industry clouds as a solution for specific types of enterprises. This is a logical progression in their service portfolio as more customers subscribe to cloud services and seek to maximize the value of their investment.