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Cloud Computing
The past decade has witnessed an exponential change in the way Businesses,
Corporations, Governments and Institutions have used Information and Web based
technologies to collaborate, share and process information.
Cloud, Cloud Storage and Cloud Computing
The ‘Cloud’ is a generic phrase used for a range of virtual solutions and services used
by individuals and businesses. The same includes cloud storage and cloud computing.
Cloud storage refers to the storing of data and files on a virtual server, and external offsite
backups. Cloud computing is the process of running applications through a virtual computer
using a secure internet connection.
The Cloud business is growing at a breakneck pace and Cloud computing represents
the convergence of IT efficiency and business agility with an estimated 50% of all enterprise
data to be managed in the cloud by 2020. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications have
enabled businesses to procure solutions directly with reduced capital and lag times.
IT Services and Cloud Computing in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka 's growing economy is supporting indications for sustained growth in the IT
sector with relatively low device and solution penetration rates, and potential for the growth
in outsourced services. IT Hardware Sales, Software sales and IT services sales are predicted
to increase between 2018 to 2021 at the rate of 6.2%, 15.3% and 13.4% respectively
(BMI, 2018).
The cloud, a CIO buzzword is leading the adoption and innovation cycle in IT
worldwide and by virtualizing resources, automating processes, standardizing tasks, and
businesses in markets like Sri Lanka can increase productivity, competitive intelligence and
differentiation by adopting the same; and while many Sri Lankan businesses are ready to
move on fully to the cloud (or already have), most need to undertake a more systematic step-
by-step approach – ‘retaining critical and confidential data on premises’.
A number of large and niche service providers (SLT, Microsoft, AWS) dominate the
Cloud services market in Sri Lanka. The same includes Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), who
launched their breakthrough cloud computing service, ”akaza”, offering end-to-end cloud
computing services, thereby providing business organisations with enhanced agility, cost
efficiencies, maximum ROI and scalability (slt.lk, n.d.) by connecting them to the largest
fibre optic backbone infrastructure in the country. Private companies like ESOFT
Technologies (Private) Ltd, Orix Marketing (Pvt) Ltd., John Keells IT
(srilankabusiness.com, 2018), ETPL etc. offer a range of IT and cloud based services
including Cloud Computing, Cloud Services, Web Development and Marketing, Data
Management, Card/Call center service, ICT, BPM, Mobile Application Development,
Systems Integration, ERP Software, IoT, etc.
Cloud computing enables the delivery of existing information technology services
while drastically reducing the upfront costs of computing that usually deter Company’s from
implementing hi-tech IT services. In 2017, the public cloud computing market was predicted
to be worth around USD$ 130 Bn worldwide.