Opinion: Cloud is a democracy
Given that govts are owners of large datasets in critical areas, they should go from being laggards to leaders
By Bhargav Reddy Piduru
The world is awash in data. Some facts reel the head. Ninety per cent of all data has been generated over the last two years alone. We generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day — 1 billion gigabytes that is. Storing, processing and retrieving this data instantly are straining the budgets of even the largest tech companies. To be able to do so, however, is table stakes today for any company — even startups are expected to process thousands of gigabytes of data. How do they manage to do it? The answer is something you must have heard about several times but always felt hazy about: cloud.
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For Everyone
What exactly does cloud mean? Before we answer that, we need to understand how apps function. Behind every shiny new app is a lot of clunky infrastructure. We need servers to run the software, databases and storage drives to save all the data, and lots of wires and cables to supply electricity and transfer data in and out. In the old days, companies purchased this infrastructure and employed teams to manage it. These days, they just rent it from companies that manage this infrastructure for them — namely Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and countless other providers.
Renting the computing power, storage and other services you need without having to buy and manage all the underlying infrastructure is what the cloud enables. When someone says their app is hosted on the cloud, what they mean is that it is running on infrastructure that someone else is maintaining. But, that’s not all. This centralisation enables cloud companies to lower costs for everyone, which is why even bootstrapped startups today have access to infrastructure similar to the ones that large companies traditionally enjoyed — and all this for very little expense.
The flexibility of the pricing models and the availability of generous free tiers make it easy for twenty-somethings with a novel idea to rapidly create and release an app with mere pocket money. In the words of Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, ‘the cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy’.
Taking World by Storm
Today, cloud computing has emerged as the new normal, with the market for cloud services at an estimated $591 billion currently. As more and more businesses embrace cloud solutions, the demand for skilled professionals in cloud computing, software development, cybersecurity, and related fields has skyrocketed. Global job site Indeed identified cloud as one of the hottest skills in the tech world now.
The shift to cloud has also been accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis. As the world grappled with unprecedented challenges, the cloud emerged as a resilient lifeline, empowering enterprises to adapt and thrive. One restaurant chain went from 50,000 online orders to 4,00,000 per day. Thanks to a pre-pandemic transition to the cloud, the company was able to scale its resources to match demand without difficulty. On balance, cloud apps are also more secure because providers with deep pockets dedicate substantial resources to fortify their systems against threats.
The world of entertainment is virtually inconceivable today without the cloud. A world without cloud is a world without OTT. Not only distribution but film production is also being revolutionised. A prime example of this technological prowess is evident in the creation of the iconic movie ‘Avatar: The Way of Water.’ For this movie, the team relied on cloud to amass an awe-inspiring 3.3 billion thread hours in a mere eight months.
Lagging Adoption
Governments, however, still lag cloud adoption. In India, users often experience sluggish performance or outages when they are booking train tickets during peak hours, filing taxes on the last day and responding to bids when they open. All this points to infrastructure that cannot scale elastically to meet peak demand.
Given that governments are owners of large datasets in critical areas like weather, taxes, land records, demographics and public health, it is important for them to accelerate their journey to the world of cloud. This will boost security, improve reliability and enhance user experience.
Governments around the world should focus more on managing their data infrastructure in a manner that delivers value. This often means moving to the cloud and they should accelerate such investments. Given the importance of the data they own, it does not suffice to merely work on aspects like privacy and security, which are no doubt important. Instead, they should also focus on broader themes like making the data accessible, shareable, and interoperable.
The cloud story is still in its early years. Only 25% of enterprise applications are on the cloud currently. Over the next decade, we will see a lot of innovation and activity in this area as more and more companies and institutions embrace the cloud. The rewards for those on the right side of the cloud divide are immense.
