- The Cloud Computing Innovation Council for India (CCICI) was formed to help India achieve global leadership in cloud computing usage, services, offerings, and innovation.
- CCICI's vision is to accelerate cloud adoption and innovation in India and enable India's emergence as a global leader in cloud computing. Its mission is to promote collaborative initiatives through thought leadership, standards development, pilot projects, and creating an innovation ecosystem.
- CCICI has organized working groups to prepare a white paper with recommendations on cloud usage scenarios, platforms/infrastructure, and enablement frameworks. It aims to release several innovation proposals in 2013 and establish India's leadership in cloud computing.
Cloud Computing Innovation Council for India - concept paper
1. Cloud Computing Innovation Council for India:
A Concept Paper
July 16, 2013
By CCICI Executive Committee :
Pamela Kumar (ex-IBM)
SrinivasRamakrishnan (ex-CDAC)
CSR Prabhu( NIC)
Sri Chandra (IEEE)
Rahul De’ (IIMB)
PrahladRao (CDAC)
GeethaManjunath( Xerox Labs)
GopalPingali (IBM)
SandeepDhar (CISCO)
D Janakiram (IITM)
VibhakarBhushan( ATM)
Praveen B (Zinnov)
NitinUpadhyay (Samsung)
SairamIyer (EMC)
SuhaanMukerji( NInC)
2. Background
At the successful conclusion of the firstIEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing in EmergingMarkets
(CCEM 2012) (http://ewh.ieee.org/ieee/ccem/) atBangalore in 2012, a group of professionals from industry, academia,
R&D labs and government came together to develop a vision for enabling Cloud Computing Innovation in India.
Seeing how the Cloud Computing paradigm is fast transforming industries and governments around the world and the
tremendous opportunity for India to lead in this area, this volunteer group of technologists, forming the Cloud
Computing Innovation Council for India (CCICI), haveestablished the following agenda:
Achieve global leadership for India in Cloud Computing Usage, Services, Offerings, and Innovation
Accelerate national adoption of Cloud technologies, driven by local expertise
Developan innovation framework and ecosystem to enable new and relevant Cloud Computing initiatives in
the country for both national and global impact
Contribute to the development of relevant standards at the national and international level(e.g. interoperability,
privacy and security ) and
Foster an environment for multi-stakeholder partnership and joint progress
There is significant expertise in India across industry R&D Labs, academia, government labs, and startup companies
in the technology areas associated with cloud computing. Indeed, a significant part of the global development of cloud
computing technologies and solutions is happening from India. However these efforts have been primarily operating in
isolation.Given thatCloud Computing is a fast emerging and potentially disruptive topic that India cannot afford to
ignore, the CCICI group has organized itself as a collaborative think-tank of motivated volunteers focused on
promoting innovation and technology driven solutions for and from India.
Key Drivers
1. Cloud Computing(CC),a new paradigm in Information Technology (IT) and IT Enabled Services (ITES), is
defining the future of computing. While India has the potential to leap-frog into this paradigm, the adoption and
deployment of CC poses a unique set of technological, business and regulatory challenges. Current estimates
project an exponential growth in the CC market in India from $ 0.9 B in 2011 to $ 4.5 B by 2015. Focus on
innovation can make CC the dominant IT model and enable a 10X bigger market opportunity.
2. There is significant opportunity for stimulating Indian markets for accelerated adoption of CC, attraction of
investments for infrastructure and innovation driven by Indian needs. For example, adoption of CC can
change the complexion of current painful and slow adoption of e-Governance in the country.
3. Rapid adoption of cloud in the global market and the prolific innovation “for the cloud” and “on the cloud”
represents a disruptive play in the IT/ITES industry. This is a great opportunity as well as threat for India‟s
IT/ITES industry. Only a proper strategy and focus on innovation will enable Indian industry to ride this wave
and emerge as a global leader, as was done in „90s with respect to software services export or outsourcing.
4. Opportunities to tap the „disruptive‟ technology based on innovative products, technologies, IPs, standards,
business models and early markets both in India and around the world.
This note shares CCICI‟s vision, mission, scope, activities, structure, and initial thoughts on governance and funding.
Vision
To provide a collaborative platform to accelerate cloud computing adoption and innovation in India and
enable India’s emergence as a Global Leader in Cloud Computing (CC)
Mission
The mission of the CCICI is to execute on its vision by promoting a number of collaborative initiatives in India
with well-defined outcomes.
INITIATIVE OUTCOMES
Provide thought leadership in CC White papers, Reference Architectures
Promote early adoption of CC Interoperability &Standards Framework, Pilot Projects (Apps
store, prototypes etc.)
DevelopCC solutions to address India‟s unique
challenges – scale, diversity etc.
Innovation Sandbox, Research projects
Creating a globally competitive Innovation
Ecosystem in India
Incubation of Innovation Clusters, Venture Capital funding,
academia driven research partnership, mentoring start-ups etc.
Promote sustained multi-stakeholder partnership Innovation proposals leading to PPPCollaborations
Establish world class technical expertise Conferences, workshops, eLearning, challenges, awards,
participation in global forums
3. Scope, Organization, and Progress till date
After starting as an informal group, the CCICI has now been registered as a formal entity under the IEEE Standards
Association – Industry Connections program. This provides an incubation umbrella and accessto collaboration tools
and other best practices for governance. CCICI today is operating with an Executive Committee, various Working
Groups (WG) and sub-groups addressing different topics identified from time to time (see current WG list below).
The short term agenda of the CCICI is to prepare a White Paper on “A Framework and Roadmap for Cloud Computing
Innovation in India”for release at the Second IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing in Emerging
Markets(http://ewh.ieee.org/ieee/ccem/) on October 17 2013. CCICI has organized itself into working groups and
sub-groups in line with the planned table of contents for the White Paper as outlined below:
WG 1 Cloud Usage Scenarios & Service Delivery Framework
WG 1.1 e-governance
WG 1.2 Industry Specific Clouds
WG 1.3 SaaS and Applications Evolution
WG 1.4 ICT for development – e-Education, e-Health etc.
WG 1.5 Big Data & Analytics
WG 1.6 Innovation Ecosystem
WG 2 Cloud Platforms & Infrastructure Framework
WG 2.1 Architecture:
WG 2.2 Cloud Management
WG 2.3 Platforms
WG 2.4 Support Infrastructure
WG 2.5 Storage for Cloud
WG 3 Cloud Enablement Framework
WG 3.1 Cloud SLAs
WG 3.2 Cloud Security, Anonymity, Privacy
WG 3.3 Standards & Interoperability
WG 3.4 Policies & Regulations
Chairs, Vice Chairs and members of the above WGs and sub-groups have been firmed up in most cases with new
members signing up regularly. Each working group and sub-group is addressing global trends in the relevant area,
initiatives and opportunities in India, challenges and barriers, specific recommendations, and innovation
proposals.Each Working Group will frequently publish innovation proposals, after due review, and drive related
activities under the broader framework of the Council. The following is a list of innovation proposals targeted for
release this year.
1. Innovation Sandbox for Cloud Computing
2. World Cloud Council
3. Cloud Computing Innovation Clusters
4. Web Services framework &Appstore for eGovernance
5. Knowledge as a Service
6. Cloud based eHealth Reference Architecture, Standards & Analytics
7. Cloud Standards Development Framework
8. Intercloud Interoperability Demonstration
In the medium term, CCICI will also grapple with the following issues:
• Steering Committee to drive primary character of the group, and a long term affiliation to provide
stability and growth
• Funding methodology and funding sources to support the agenda, activities and principles of CCICI
• Institutions that could best help support the Council‟s activities
• Name, logo, branding, and membership
Summary
Clearly, there are opportunities and challenges in achieving global leadership. The Internet, Computing, and
Information Technology industries in the US have scored again and again by fostering the right ecosystem, seizing an
early mover advantage, and by driving market creation. Europe, Japan and South Korea and Taiwan have done it in
GSM, 3G/4G, Consumer electronics, Electronics hardware, and Broadband penetration. China is making the right
moves in many technology areas such asinfrastructure build out for communications and computing. India has
registered its own share of success stories in software, services outsourcing,mobile penetration, National e-
Governance Plan, and investments in high bandwidth public telecom infrastructure. There is a window of opportunity
now for India to think big and act rapidly to achieve leadership in Cloud Computing. The CCICI has been launched
4. with this objective in mind and looks forward to progress through sustained efforts by growing numbers of committed
members and by forging strong partnerships with stakeholders in the Indian ecosystem.