|
Listen to this story
|
The cloud computing market is dominated by three names – AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. However, accessing these Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) could prove to be expensive for micro and small businesses, individual developers, as well as research institutions in India.
So what is the solution? An open cloud computing (OCC) network.
People+AI is on a mission to develop an interoperable cloud computing network that could transform India’s growing tech ecosystem.
The idea isn’t just to democratise cloud computing in India but also to empower smaller players within the Indian public cloud sector, like Vigyanlabs and Von Neumann AI, among others.
“One of the challenges these smaller players are facing is discoverability. Moreover, besides helping them with marketing, OCC also aims to support them in figuring out the right tax subsidies, infrastructural policies and with ease of doing business,” Tanvi Lall, director of strategy at People+AI, told AIM.
People+AI, which branches out from Nandan Nilekani-backed non-profit EkStep Foundation, has already teamed up with 24 technology partners, including the likes of Oracle Cloud, Vigyan Labs, Protean Cloud, Dell, NeevCloud, and Tata Communications, among others.
Democratising Compute in India
Based on the concept of open-networks such as the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the aim of OCC is to establish an open network where consumers can discover and access heterogeneous compute providers through standard interfaces.
“It’s an open network of providers powered by protocols, powered by trust, where diverse providers can log in and then on the other hand customers who need computing in different shapes and formats can go to this interface and find the provider on the other end,” Lall said.
According to Lall, an OCC will be significant for students and research institutions that need compute for their research work, hackathons, etc.
It will also benefit individual developers who are experimenting with newer things, for example, fine tuning an open source model.
“These are developers who are not developing any products but are carrying out different projects. This also includes pre-startup developers who might not be able to afford a CSP,” Lall added.
Moreover, the open cloud network will prove to be of significance for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). India is one of the largest MSME markets in the world, and today many of these enterprises are in their digital transformation process.
“These companies today want a website, they want some sort of CRM tool, some planning tool, business ops. It might not be the high calibre graphics processing units (GPU) compute, but they want some compute,” Lall said.
“However, there are also MSMEs who are starting to apply AI to their business process, for example, to improve sales, deploying AI chatbots for customer service, etc.”
These companies might even need GPUs for inference and other similar workloads. Lastly, Indian tech startups also stand to benefit a lot. These are startups, which are developing B2B or B2C AI applications for others to use and might need high calibre GPUs, according to Lall.
“This is a very big category and they need significant reliable compute power because they are the ones selling these AI applications to others,” she said.
Furthermore, OCC aims to create common standards, APIs, and interoperability protocols to enable seamless integration and provisioning of compute resources from multiple providers within the network.
This implies that although your data may be stored with one CSP, with OCC, you can access services from another provider without the need to migrate your data. Generally, migrating data from one CSP proves to be challenging.
Challenges Ahead
While it’s an ambitious project, implementing it on a population scale will truly help the whole ecosystem reap its benefits. However, implementing this at such a large scale remains a challenge.
According to Lall, building the technology is not the biggest issue. “We have talented people in this country who can build the tech very easily,” she said. The biggest challenge for Lall and her team will be developing the ecosystem and sustaining it.
Moreover, it will be critical for these cloud companies to find value in the network, the same goes for the end users.
What makes many enterprises choose the CSP is their ability to provide scalable and flexible infrastructure, robust security measures, seamless integration with existing systems, and reliable customer support.
The network will have to ensure the same things are easily available for the stakeholders in the ecosystem.
“We’re adopting a highly granular approach to this. It’s not merely compiling a GPU directory or a simple listing of available GPUs; while that’s undoubtedly beneficial, we’re emphasising the importance of considering user experience, deployment strategies, and other critical factors,” Lall said.
Moreover, according to Lall, what makes the CSPs like AWS worthwhile is the whole community they have developed. “They put out these videos and documentation which help you find quick fixes to your problems while using their services.
“At OCC as well, we need to establish an ecosystem where individuals and entities such as startup founders seeking compute resources can easily communicate. They should be able to engage in straightforward conversations about their requirements,” Lall said.
Presently, there isn’t a centralised platform for this purpose. While there may be some Discord channels available, according to Lall, there isn’t a single venue where users can explore offerings and interact with each other.
The Indian AI-as-an-Infrastructure Landscape
In the last year or so, we have seen various startups emerging in the AI cloud space. For instance, startups such as Yotta and NeevCloud have announced their entry into the AI cloud space.
Yotta, backed by the Hiranandani group, is setting up a GPU infrastructure of 32,768 GPUs by the end of 2025. Likewise, NeevCloud intends to acquire 40,000 GPUs by 2026.
Tata Communications, which is also a 24-member technology partner for People+AI, is ramping up efforts to establish AI cloud infrastructure by aligning with NVIDIA.
There are also other players like Jarvis Labs, for instance, which is based in Coimbatore. What OCC also sets out to enable is to bring computing closer to MSMEs or tech startups located in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India.
Can Hyperscalers be Part of it?
According to Lall, hyperscalers like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud could even be part of the network. “ Our entire approach is plus one. The idea is not to leave certain folks out. There is room for everybody and there is a reason why we approached Oracle Cloud.”
“If the hyperscalers feel they have something to offer in the Indian context, they are welcome. It would also be foolish for us to imagine that everyone will abandon the big CSPs as and when the network is up and running,” she concluded.
