Open-source technologies and cloud computing will continue to power India’s digital economy, says Karmendra Trivedi of Canonical India

“India has recently surpassed the UK and has become the fifth largest economy in the world. So, that clearly indicates the potential of the Indian economy and I strongly believe that cloud technology can contribute in terms of innovation, and innovation can drive and can add to the economy of India,” says Karmendra Trivedi, Sales Director, Canonical India, the company behind Ubuntu. Canonical provides enterprise security, support and services for a wide range of open source technologies, covering every part of the stack – from infrastructure to applications. . Indeed, India wants to be a $1 trillion digital economy by 2026, and cloud computing is critical to support and enable this growth.

In a conversation with Miloni Bhatt, editor – digitalbroadcast, economictimes.com, Trivedi maps the direct and indirect impact of cloud technology on the Indian economy, reiterating that the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) predicted that by 2026 cloud’s contribution towards the gross domestic product (GDP) will be anywhere between $315 to $375 billion and will, directly and indirectly, create 14 million jobs.

Decoding the Indian economy’s cloud map, Trivedi highlights four components that he believes would be impacted by cloud computing. “If I talk about it in a nutshell, there are four things that are going to be impacted by the adoption of cloud technology, one is the GDP, second is employment, third is innovation and entrepreneurship and finally technology progress.”

Trivedi stresses that open-source technologies and cloud computing support India’s digital journey and will continue to do so as the technology keeps evolving.

Inside the boundless world of cloud computing
No longer confined by physical infrastructure, computing now exists ubiquitously in a virtual reality brimming with untapped potential. Cloud computing is the linchpin of the digital revolution, where technology allows for the storage, precession and management of data across a network of servers around the world, rendering geographical boundaries and hardware limitations obsolete. The cloud offers unparalleled flexibility, scalability and cost efficiency. In this digital age, businesses must embrace cloud computing as an essential part of their operations.

The agility and resilience offered by cloud technologies have not only emerged as beneficial but fundamental to the survival and success of any business. The scalability it offers enables businesses to easily adjust their computing power on demand, mitigating the risk of overprovisioning or under-utilising resources. It helps businesses save costs by turning capital expenses into operational ones. The tools and platforms that are provided to teams offer seamless communication promoting collaboration. Additionally, advanced artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and analytics available on the cloud ensures higher business resilience.

Barriers in adopting cloud technologies
There is an opportunity cost for the Indian economy in terms of it lagging behind in adopting cloud technology. Trivedi states that this gap will reduce India’s competitiveness and slow down its entire digital transformation journey. So, what are some of the barriers hindering the adoption of cloud? Trivedi outlines that the primary barrier to adoption is simply the lack of organisational understanding of the benefits of the cloud. It is crucial for organisations to enhance their knowledge and keep themselves aware of the innovations that are taking place in the tech space and how these advancements are driving growth.

However, the cloud is a fast and rapidly advancing technology. So, the question remains, how do organisations stay ahead of the curve? This is where companies like Canonical come into play. “We at Canonical understand this. We are an open-source technology provider, and we work very closely with cloud computing. We are committed to staying two steps ahead. That is the reason why Ubuntu is widely used, and the most preferred operating system in the cloud. We have more than 65% of the market share in the production workload,” states Trivedi.

Canonical India provides organisations with the long-term support they need, whether it is security-based or other enterprise-level support, effectively integrating with the cloud. Trivedi talks about how Ubuntu works in different scenarios of cloud computing, such as hybrid cloud, private cloud, in telecommunication, network functions virtualization (NFV), and more.

Ubuntu gives users the freedom of Linux and a way to consume or use open source software with no toil on configuration, maintenance or security.. The strong community behind Ubuntu makes it the best supported OS in the market and Ubuntu has a dedicated version for those that require additional security and compliance. This is called
Ubuntu Pro, a solution that provides extended maintenance support (including more than 30,000 third party open source packages in Ubuntu Universe), Livepatch and enterprise-level support for open source applications.

Ubuntu is secure by design, and Canonical ensures that any vulnerabilities that arise are resolved with speed and skill. Ubuntu offers automatic critical updates and committed security maintenance as part of its LTS model, which covers Ubuntu for 5 years from its release date.

The future of cloud and India’s digital leap
Delving into the Canonical India landscape, Trivedi states, “The Canonical landscape helps customers in managing and automating their Ubuntu servers or desktop, or if they’re using Ubuntu in the cloud. So, it’s an automated tool, which not only helps in terms of getting the repositories, but also helps in getting the patches in an automated manner. It reduces the operating costs for the organisation because it’s a nightmare for an organisation to manage the virtual machine and manage the servers within the organisation. The Canonical landscape has the capability to manage more than 40,000 servers or desktops with a single API.”

Furthermore, Trivedi throws light on the spectrum of innovation and some of the innovative use cases of Ubuntu. For instance, Trivedi states that ChatGPT—one of the hottest technologies right now—is nurtured on the cloud, and the underlying technology that they are using is from the open-source world, and Ubuntu is part of the journey.

Despite transitioning shifts in an ever-evolving ecosystem, India is one of the primary adopters of open-source technologies, even when compared to the mature markets, emphasises Trivedi, and the dynamic world of open-source technologies will likely continue to power the country’s next leap of digital transformation.

Watch the full interview.