Indian technology industry catching up global trends
The IT landscape in India is looking more and more like that of the developed world. A recent Gartner article highlights that emerging technologies and IT practices, such as IoT, bimodal IT and Devops, are all firmly on the Indian IT map across vendors. Continued strength in the Indian economy is expected to see the IT segment mature further.
The technological lag seen within the IT landscape in the developing powerhouses of China and India is quickly shrinking. According to recent research by Bain & Company, in 1995, China’s tech infrastructure was fifteen years behind that of the US, with much of its infrastructure being on-premise, self-operated and enacting backend applications. The industry has, however, continued to develop rapidly, placed at six years behind by 2006 as more of its servers moved onto web-based offerings. Today, Bain estimates that the Chinese industry is four years behind that of the US and is on the cusp of adopting cloud-based services, including virtualised infrastructure, private infrastructure as a service as well as software as a service.
Indian IT
At the start of 2010, the Indian technology industry was around two years behind that of the rest of the world, and has continued to develop since. A recent Gartner report, titled ‘Gartner Hype Cycle for ICT in India, 2015’, highlights that more and more of the country’s local vendors are engaging emerging technologies. Santhosh Rao, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner, remarks: “Many of the technologies on the 2015 Hype Cycle for ICT in India also appear in the global ICT Hype Cycle. When we compared the technology entries for India with the rest of the world, we noticed that the overall technology lag – that is, global traction versus India traction – is gradually closing.”
The Gartner research identifies 26 of the most relevant information technologies in India, and by measuring their maturity and traction, positions them on the Gartner Hype Cycle. The Hype Cycle for ICT in India is designed to provide technology vendors, service providers, stakeholders in IT, and business and government organisations with information regarding the maturity of the various technologies considered, as well as when their expectations are projected to hit the mainstream.
The research finds that a number of technologies are currently at the peak of the hype curve, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), which is expected to mature in 5-10 years. According to Gartner, while the technology has a considerable potential for Indian businesses, the use case for the IoT – with its current drawbacks – needs to be carefully considered. Devops, another emerging technology, also entered the Innovation Trigger segment of the Indian IT market, with the improved technology collaboration across the whole business projected to create considerable new opportunities for developing innovation.
A number of technologies are reaching maturity in India. These include business service management tools, mobile device management, social media analytics, SaaS, and cloud- testing tools and services. Most of these will take another two to five years to reach their true expectations. Rao remarks that the “Indian economy has recently shown signs of resurgence, with increased efforts by the government toward ease of doing business.” As a result, global money has started to flow into the country, seen through “a significant increase in foreign direct investment (FDI).” The picture for IT within India continues to look rosy, according to Rao, he adds that “with 5.5% growth in overall IT revenue projected for 2015, India is set to be the fastest-growing IT market worldwide.”
