"By posting a substantial jump in the domestic IT/ITeS market since 2002, the industry is now onto a new growth trajectory," said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India. "Growth Phase 2.0 will leverage the IT infrastructure and technical capability built up so far to offer new-age services to the Indian enterprises and consumers."
According to IDC, fixed-line broadband will emerge as a favoured choice in 2008, though mobile Internet will continue to grow as an alternative Internet access medium. In the first half of 2008, all major operators will be offering broadband up to 8 Mbps to consumers in metros and some other key cities. Web 2.0 market in India is poised for a take-off in the second half of 2008. The entry of big players in the market will lead to increased spend on marketing and promotions.
Virtualisation will become mainstream in 2008. IDC India estimates the share of virtualised servers to double from the present 22 per cent to 45 per cent by 2008 end. Partnerships and collaborations are the mantra of today's new business environment.
IDC predicts that in 2008, worldwide IT market growth will be lower, at a moderate 5.5-6 per cent worldwide, down from 2007's 6.9 per cent.
IT Solutions (hardware + software + services) delivery will witness change in 2008 with pockets of success and growing awareness setting the stage for wider market adoption. 2008 will witness a major expansion of software-as-a-service (SaaS) as a way to accelerate SMB penetration and service oriented architecture (SOA) adoption. The year 2008 will also witness traction in markets like CRM, document management (DMS) and human capital management (HCM), payroll.
Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) will signal the onset of a new battle in the Indian telecom sector. FMC can be used as a strong and effective marketing tool to 'top up' an existing fixed-line subscriber base.
Uptime, availability and performance management of infrastructure and applications will be at the core of innovation, says IDC. Delivery mechanisms will witness significant change with both Tier I and Tier II managed services providers setting up more Network Operation Centres (NOCs) and Security Operation Centres (SOCs) to adhere to stringent QoS (quality of service) and SLAs (service level agreements).
As the BRIC nations move towards IT maturity, vendors are scouting for new emerging geographies to maintain sustainable growth. IDC India expects India revenues to grow the fastest during 2006-2011 amongst all BRIC nations even if the focus moves beyond the BRIC countries. India currently contributes to about one fifth of the total BRIC revenues. |
