TCS unveils iON cloud-computing based solution for SMBs

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) yesterday entered a business, which it says could potentially grow into a billion dollars venture - a cloud computing offering to small and medium businesses or SMBs.

The largest of India's software companies, looks to offering 30-40 per cent savings in IT budgets to SMBs, with its cloud computing offering.

According to analysts, however, TCS seems to be entering into a segment that is already crowded from a service provider perspective, but has not yet seen any significant business deals as regards technology adoption.

The offering has been operating in a pilot phase for a year now with around 130 client, according to TCS chief executive N Chandrasekaran, who plans to ramp up of the customer base to at least 1,000. He added that current revenues from the services were negligible, but over the next five years the company had hopes of generating at least a billion dollars in revenue.  

This revenue would be included under TCS' ambitious target of earning 10 per cent of its revenues from non-linear initiatives, seeking to de-link revenue growth from head count.

The new cloud offering would combine individual hardware and software components offering solutions to  address specific requirements of SMBs, who can pay for the services on a monthly basis as they would for a typical utility service like electricity or cooking gas.