Amazon Web Services witnessing strong uptake of services from startups in India

AWS Head of Startup Ecosystem (Asia Pacific and Japan) Gaurav Arora said cloud is the best place to build startups as it is cost effective and allows scaling based on growing business requirements.

AWS, which competes with players like Microsoft and Google in the cloud computing segment, has been strengthening its presence in the Indian market. (REUTERS)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Thursday said it is witnessing strong uptake of its services from startups in the country across segments like fintech, healthcare, e-commerce and logistics.

AWS Head of Startup Ecosystem (Asia Pacific and Japan) Gaurav Arora said cloud is the best place to build startups as it is cost effective and allows scaling based on growing business requirements.

"...Startups are conscious of building a robust and cost optimised architecture early on, so that they can run like a lean startup as they scale their business. Cloud services to begin with are extremely cost effective as they give startups access to all these on-demand compute resources on a pay as equal model," he said.

Arora added that the three biggest budget items for startups are people, technology, and marketing, and that startups need to manage their capital to succeed.

"Whatever state startups are in, every dollar counts and we would want them to appreciate that cost optimisation needs to be seen as a continuous journey, rather than a one off exercise...AWS is dedicated to helping startups achieve the highest saving potential on the technology spends," he added.

Arora noted that there are three sectors where the company is witnessing a lot of activity and momentum.

"One is fintech, we are seeing a lot of disruption happening here, startups in the fintech space are offering similar services that the banks used to provide and it is improving customer experience and (offering) different functionality, making it easier...So fintech is definitely one sector where we're seeing a lot of momentum," he said.

He added that the healthcare vertical is also seeing a lot of activity as more outreach has been made possible by remote healthcare startups, telebooking of appointments and telemedicine etc.

"The third is e-commerce and logistics that continues to be a long-term sector which has been like, kind of evergreen over the last couple of years at least...we stay deeply committed to helping startups run as lean startups on top of cloud, and therefore, help them succeed in their journey," Arora added.

AWS, which competes with players like Microsoft and Google in the cloud computing segment, has been strengthening its presence in the Indian market.

Last month, AWS had announced setting up of its second data centre region in India in Telangana that will be operational by mid-2022. This will see the tech giant investing about ₹20,761 crore.

AWS customers in India include Ashok Leyland, Aditya Birla Capital, Axis Bank, Bajaj Capital, ClearTax, Dream11, Druva, Edelweiss, Edunext, Extramarks, Freshworks, HDFC Life, Mahindra Electric, Ola, Oyo, Policybazaar, Quantela, RBL Bank, redBus, Sharda University, Swiggy, Tata Sky, YuppTV, Zerodha, and others.

Government agencies, educational institutions, and non-profits including Common Service Centres (CSCs) are also using AWS' services.