Cloud and Security Services to be in high demand in 2024

For the services business in 2024 and the next three years roadmap, we would like to be known as one of the reliable services organizations with highest customer retention, says Sivamani Sangaranarayanan, CEO, Esconet.

Managed Services market is on the growth charter across the globe and across industries. The managed services market spending in India is anticipated to grow at an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 9% over the next five years as per IDC Playbook for Tech Sales Leaders: India Trends and Opportunities in Managed Services.

Furthermore, the landscape of managed cloud services is witnessing an extraordinary boom, with projections indicating a CAGR of 25% by the year 2026.

Esconet Technologies with its main emphasis on Cloud computing, Servers, Storage, Virtualization, Backup and Disaster Recovery, as well as Network and Network Security is well poised to offer cloud and cybersecurity services to its customers across India Inc.

Esconet recently bagged an order for Edge services on cloud from one of leading pharma industry customers. “We offer Backup-as-a-Service and DR-as-a-Service through Zeacloud, which offers predictable output for the customer, with 24x7 availability and a fixed cost, says Sivamani Sangaranarayanan, CEO, Esconet.

“We stand out in the marketplace due to our customized offerings in the cloud space versus competition,” says Sivamani.

In terms of services business at Esconet, there is a lot of scope for growth, “At present, services contribute around 6 to 7% of our revenues. Overall, the target is to have 20% of our topline in services by end of 2025,” he says.

The expectations of CIOs with tech / solution services from Esconet includes guarantee of services, support during crisis and know-how of technology. These three factors are extremely important to sustain a healthy services business, he says. Does the expectation list change for cloud services or emerging tech services like AI etc.? No, when it comes to cloud services, AI is just starting and of course everybody is in the same boat as of now, he adds.

Security Services on the Rise

Esconet is increasing its offerings in DATA Protection and Security domain. Esconet’s technical team is highly skilled and has received industry-standard training and certification in these areas like data protection and cybersecurity.

“We are collaborating with an ISV for a product which can help our government customers in terms of workflow and enhance their productivity. Adding new customer logos is a continues work which all of us do, and it is a journey, he says.

The driving force behind this expansion is the escalating demand for hosting infrastructure services as businesses continue to migrate their on-premises applications to cloud environments and service provider-owned datacentres as per IDC.

Sivamani agrees, “The main driving factors that led to increased services business in 2023 were adoption of cloud services, and also many enterprises (our customers) are looking outside Hyper scalars for small workloads.”

Hosting infrastructure services are also experiencing a surge in demand due to the preference for engaging with managed service providers (MSPs) to efficiently manage and optimize infrastructure and workload performance across various cloud platforms.

Security related services continue to be in high demand followed by automation and audit services, says Sivamani.

Esconet is investing in security domain to expand its service offerings, and deliver a high-quality service which are perceived well by the customers.

The Focused Outlook

Esconet has a separate team for services and they are working out the structure for services organization (a Separate BU for Services along with Service delivery team)

Building strong skillsets across the company as technology changes especially for services business can become a major issue. “There is no short cut for this. We trust our people and we will continue to train them. We have skills matrix available to analyze the skill gap and try and fill it. At times we collaborate with like-minded partners as well,” he says.

Sivamani’s top priorities in 2024 to grow its services business includes - a dedicated services BU focusing on revenue target, build skills around Security and Cloud and reach to new markets and customers.

“For the services business in 2024 and the next three years roadmap, we would like to be known as one of the reliable services organizations with highest customer retention,” says Sivamani Sangaranarayanan, CEO, Esconet.