Hardware-as-a-service: A new offer of the IT firms

Pune: With IT and IT-related companies targeting SMEs, or small and medium enterprises, hardware-as-a-service has become the newest offering of the IT firms. While IT-hardware makers like Dell and HP launched specific products for the SME segment early this year, companies like Airtel, Cisco, Microsoft, Wipro, Global Outlook, etc, have now started offering their products on the infrastructure-as-a-service model for SMEs, reports the Economic Times.

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Sam Elangalloor, CEO, Airtel Telemedia Services, told the Economic Times, "All large companies have a lot of IT infrastructure and their vendors, who are all SMEs, also need to have a compatible IT infrastructure. However, shortage of funds to make capital investment and the unscalability of the infrastructure restricts IT and connectivity adoption by SMEs. IT infrastructure needs heavy configuration and integration to be done at the customer's end, which is difficult unless the SME has an internal knowledgeable resource. We are strong in connectivity for large enterprises, but we could not have sold the same products and services to SMEs. So came up with the hardware (plus connectivity)-as-a-service model along with Cisco."

Airtel along with Cisco has launched 'VPN in A Box', a ready- to- deploy bundle of a managed private leased line port, bandwidth, last mile connectivity and customer premise equipment. Meanwhile, Microsoft, along with Airtel, Wipro and Global Outlook are running a pilot of a pay-per-use model for knitwear companies, usually SMEs, in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. Also, The $2 billion plus knitwear industry in Tirupur has invited and received bids from top tech firms including IBM, Wipro, to develop an ERP software on a pay-per-use model. If it is an SME, or there are no heavy capital investments to be made, then hardware-as-a-service offers a cost-saving alternative.

Also, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India, told the Economic Times, said that IT should be around when companies want to use it and should be priced according to usage. "Indian SMEs have potential for immense growth, but the challenges before them are equally a fact of life. Relevant technology, at an affordable price, can reduce the threat these challenges pose." In Airtel's 'VPN in A Box', the customer need not even understand technology, Elangalloor said.

Along with its VPN in a box, Airtel is also providing tools like a website builder, which allows anyone to build and manage a website using pick-and-choose options, along with all Microsoft software on a hosted model. For SMEs in Tirupur, Microsoft is offering MS Office and Windows operating system on an online desktop from Airtel with anti-virus software and 10GB storage space.

"The customer has to tell us his needs, we will figure out how and what equipment he will need, configure everything at our end and give him the complete bundle for plug and-play use, configured for use with whatever equipment he already has. In return, the customer pays only for the operating expenditure, and not for the capital expenditure," added Elangalloor.