India’s public cloud market to rise to $4 billion by 2020: Reliance Jio’s Akash Ambani

The public cloud market in India is expected to experience a significant growth of more than 53%, reaching $4 billion by 2020, according to Akash Ambani, Director of Reliance Jio Infocomm. Ambani, speaking at the India Digital Open Summit, highlighted the country’s increasing digitization as a key factor driving this growth. He emphasized the importance of open source, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and OpenStack in this evolving landscape.

In 2018, the estimated value of India’s public cloud market was $2.6 billion, and it is projected to surpass $4 billion by 2020, as stated by Ambani. Gartner Inc had previously estimated the market at $1.81 billion in 2017. Public cloud computing, which involves utilizing cloud computing technologies to serve external customers, provides economies of scale and resource sharing, reducing costs and expanding technology choices.

Akash Ambani, also a director at the 4G telecom service provider Jio, expressed the significance of open source for the company, participating in projects like ONAP (Open Network Automation Platform). ONAP, an open-source networking automation standard, is reshaping the future of networks globally. Ambani emphasized the mainstream adoption of artificial intelligence, noting its integration with open source for continuous innovation.

OpenStack, identified as the world’s largest fully open source cloud project, is increasingly employed in various projects and enterprises, powering over 60 public and private data centers worldwide, including Reliance Jio.

Ambani highlighted the growth potential of augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) in India, expecting a compound annual growth rate of over 50% in the next five years. He also acknowledged 2017 as the year of blockchain and digital currency, emphasizing the broad applications of blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrency, such as in banking, fintech, healthcare, real estate, education, 5G, IoT, and agriculture.

Expressing Jio’s commitment to positively impact the lives of a billion Indians, Ambani stated that the company is dedicated to leveraging and contributing to open source technologies to enhance consumer experiences.