The Pakistani IT Market, A Market Made For Cloud Computing

The Pakistani reluctance in investing in an own IT infrastructure is a meaningful sign for the cloud’s potential.

Cloud computing omnipresent in today’s Information Technology sector. Considered as the digitization tool par excellence, the cloud has attracted a lot of interest across the globe. As business development progresses, the infrastructure must be able to cope with new modern initiatives and steady growth. With cloud computing the possibility of having a modern and state-of-the-art IT infrastructure without the need for substantial capital investments and personnel increases becomes real. It is therefore not surprising that the cloud market revenue is expected to double in the next three years reaching up to 162 billion USD. However, surprising is the fact that more than 65% of the cloud market is occupied by only a few leading giant providers, mainly American such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. The remaining 35% market share is in the hands of thousands of cloud providers scattered around the world.

The basics of what cloud computing is about

Salesforce CEO and Chairman Marc Benioff brings it straight to the point. Cloud computing is a better way to run your business according to him. The possibility of improving your business is something that is appealing to every decision maker across the globe. Who thought that the cloud would one day be considered as the digitization tool par excellence. The year 2000 will always be remembered as the millennium of the more and more outstanding pace of technological progress. New and old technologies are as close together as never before. The almost uncontrollable increase in human knowledge leads to endless incremental innovations. The hunt for the next big thing seems to be never ending.

Source: The CFO Imperative: Next-Gen Technology Drives Cost Optimization

Even though cloud computing still plays that role, one might think that it is being pushed aside by the likes of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain. Interestingly, most new technologies are distinguished by a huge number of data and intelligence. In other words, “the many disparate servers which are part of cloud technology hold the data which an AI can access and use to make decisions and learn things like how to hold a conversation. But as the AI learns this, it can impart this new data back to the cloud, which can thus help other AIs learn as well” as noticed Gary Eastwood from the IDG Contributor Network. Same goes for blockchain and other data intensive technology. Cloud computing plays undoubtedly a key role in today’s technological progress.

The cloud, in other words, providing IT resources and on-demand applications over the Internet at usage-based prices

Whether you run apps that share photos with millions of mobile users or support critical business operations in your organization, the cloud is a technology providing quick access to flexible and cost-effective IT resources. When it comes to cloud computing, you do not have to invest in hardware in advance or spend a lot of time managing it. Instead, you can provide the exact type and size of computing resources you need to implement your latest breakthrough idea or operate your IT department. You can access as many resources as you need almost immediately by paying only for what you use. Cloud computing provides an easy way to access servers, storage, databases and a full range of application services over the Internet. Cloud providers such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform or “Swiss made” n’cloud.swiss operate and manage the network-attached hardware needed for these application services, providing and using the resources you need through a web application.

Advantages of cloud computing, it’s not only about cost-efficiency

The cloud has become a technology that influences everyone’s daily life. The adoption of solutions and services in the cloud present a number of advantages and benefits, among others:

• No more costs for operating and maintaining data centers: Focus on projects that differentiate your company in the market, not the infrastructure. Cloud computing allows to focus on customers rather than setting up, populating, and operating server cabinets.
• Speed and agility: In a cloud computing environment, new IT resources are always just a click away. The time required to deploy these resources will be reduced to minutes. This leads to a remarkable increase in the agility of the enterprise. In fact, costs and the expenditure for experiments and development decrease substantially.
• Go for variable costs rather than investment costs: Instead of investing heavily in data centers and servers, cloud computing makes it possible to work by paying only for the computing resources that are actually used.
• Flexible capacity: No more uncertainty in determining the infrastructure capacity requirements. Customers can access as much or as little capacity as needed and adjust their demand for short notice as desired.

Source: Top 10 benefits of cloud computing

Why Pakistan?

Pakistan is a growing economy with many opportunities. In particular, with the regard to the Pakistani market, companies are known for their reluctance in investing huge capital to buy their own IT infrastructure independently although decision makers are aware of the importance of cutting-edge technologies businesses to compete within a competitive global market. Highly advanced technological and sophisticated environment without important cost is exactly what the cloud presents as one of its advantages. The likes of Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure have already launched their cloud services in Pakistan.

Source: Pakistan To Sign The Information Technology Agreement To Stimulate Its IT Sector

“The cloud services market in Pakistan is on the rise. As a result, it presents a huge potential for cloud providers. Safety, reliability and outstanding quality without the need for heavy capital investments in IT infrastructure is indeed something decision makers in Pakistan look for. The reluctance in investing in an own IT infrastructure is a meaningful sign for the cloud’s potential”, explains Danish Ali Chaudhary, Business Development Manager at n’cloud.swiss AG.

From a more general point of view, Pakistan’s economy is the 25th largest in the world with a population of over 200 million. According to Pakistan Economist 36 percent of Pakistan’s overall economy is undocumented. When calculating per capita income these 36 percent are not taken into consideration. As one of the developing country, Pakistan is believed to have the potential of being one of the Next Eleven. Together with the BRICS, they are expected to become one of the world’s large economies in the 21st century.

Source: Pakistan economy in 2018 — swinging between hope and despair

The Pakistani IT Market, A Market Made For Cloud Computing was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.