Right skilling key to unlock Cloud potential in India

Not just a right mix of Cloud solutions, proper training of the key staff and relaxing old procurement rules are must to unlock the potential for both the government and enterprises.

The journey of Indian enterprises and state governments to Cloud, especially towards Hybrid and Public platforms, is gradually gaining momentum.

At this juncture, Cloud giants alike Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft have embarked on the journey to train millions of government officials so that these disruptive technologies can be optimised for the benefit of over one billion-plus people.

"This is the right time to skill them, train them in AI-enabled Cloud computing so that India can move faster on embracing new-age technologies," said Peter Moore, Regional Managing Director for APAC and Japan, Worldwide Public Sector.

According to Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services, training relevant government employees is the key to fulfil the government's mission to create a Cloud-first approach towards digital transformation.

"It is high time the Indian government deploys AI and Machine Learning-driven Cloud models to make sense of the humongous sets of data. Training is a crucial part of this exercise," Carlson told recently.

Microsoft India has also begun training Indian government officials in emerging technologies. The company has announced the "Digital Governance Tech Tour" programme to skill government IT officials in technologies like AI and intelligent Cloud computing.

Microsoft will organise a series of physical and virtual workshops to train 5,000 government IT personnel over a period of 12 months.

According to Moore, the vast Indian public sector will embark on a true digital journey only once the government decides to relax old procurement rules.

Civil servants can't be forced to learn Cloud computing faster or convinced easily to replace legacy IT infrastructure and reskilling the workforce can only change the scenario.

"We would like to help the government design effective procurement vehicles that cut long paperwork aligned with traditional hardware purchasing," emphasised Moore in an earlier interview.

According to NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, as India moves beyond pilots and understands how to scale AI implementation and Cloud adoption across states and sectors, "it is vital to equip the ecosystem with the right know-how and skills".

( With inputs from IANS )