The development of the MSME sector will play a defining role in enabling India’s ambitious goal of becoming a US$7 trillion economy by 2030. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, MSMEs contribute nearly 30% to India’s GDP, employ over 230 million people, and account for close to 50% of the country’s exports. As global work models evolve, digital readiness is now a fundamental requirement for enterprises. The two areas driving this transformation are cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Together, these areas of technology are redefining the work process, growth, and industry.

The Shift Towards Cloud & AI-Native Work

The nature of work continues to evolve towards the cloud. In practical terms, Rahul Takkallapally, Co-Founder, BharathCloud explains, “Businesses are transitioning from traditional on-premises solutions to the more flexible, scalable, digitally-enabled and AI-ready environments of the future. SMEs will benefit greatly from this shift as they are able to take advantage of increased cloud-native work that unlocks agility through collaboration among team members, regardless of where they are located, as well as the ability to rapidly scale application usage and shorten time frames for innovation.”

However, most small and medium enterprises are not looking to deal with the complexities associated with global cloud hyperscalers. Instead, they require straightforward, predictable, and right-sized cloud models that align with their business needs. “For SMEs, an effective cloud model is essential for supporting AI development within the enterprise. Without a cloud-enabled enterprise infrastructure, a company finds difficulty in successfully deploying AI” Rahul adds.

Challenges Slowing SME Adoption 

• Low AI and cloud awareness: Many Indian SMEs believe that AI and Cloud technologies are only for large enterprise customers. Until they understand the actual benefits of these technologies, they will continue to be hesitant or have delayed adoption of Cloud and AI despite clear business benefits.

• Weak data foundations and legacy systems: Due to outdated infrastructure, fragmented data, and on-premise hosting configurations, cloud migration could be a complex and time-consuming challenge for smaller businesses.

• Skill gaps: Reliance on in-house skills to handle cloud-native environments, containers, and artificial intelligence workloads creates dependency concerns and uncertainty in decisions.

• Security, compliance, and vendor lock-in concerns: Organisations are hindered by concerns related to data privacy, regulatory compliance, ransomware attacks, and long-term reliance on one cloud service provider. For SMEs, unpredictable pricing models add further challenge in an environment already sensitive to costs.

How the Right Cloud Infrastructure Helps

SMEs can take advantage of purpose-built cloud infrastructure to resolve many of these issues. The use of auto-scaling storage and containerised platforms ensures that they can continue expanding without experiencing sudden price spikes. Additionally, cloud-based Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) enables secure remote and hybrid working arrangements while ensuring the ability to maintain business continuity and control of their data.

Padma Reddy Sama, Co-Founder, BharathCloud says, “Having an AI-ready infrastructure, such as access to GPUs and managed machine learning platforms, is also essential so that SMEs can gradually embrace AI. Indian public cloud platforms like BharathCloud provide predictable pricing models, local support, and freedom from vendor lock-in for future digital developments.”

Security, Compliance, and Trust

For Indian SMEs, trust is closely tied to data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. Hosting workloads within India allows Indian businesses to align with changing data protection standards and security controls, including Data Backup, Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), and Zero Trust security models to mitigate Cyber Attacks and operational failure.

Reliability is improved through local cloud infrastructure in India. BharathCloud has cloud centres located in multiple cities throughout India, such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, and provides redundancy, reduces latency, and ensures that enterprises can feel confident that their data and applications are hosted and supported in proximity to their business.

Preparing for the Cloud & AI-Native Future

You do not need to make a sudden leap to achieve cloud-native capabilities. Instead, you should take a phased approach, starting with your storage, VDI solutions, and monitoring infrastructure, and proceed from there into containers, databases, and your company’s core business applications. Additionally, upskilling your teams to use cloud-native technology and partnering with providers that offer migration assistance and 24/7 operational support can ease the transition.

In the present day, many of the Indian managed cloud ecosystems support AI/ML workloads and database modernisation, and include SAP environments, which allow SMEs to modernise in a sustainable manner.

The future readiness of SMEs in India depends on choosing secure, right-sized, secure cloud platforms that are compatible with Indian standards. The Cloud-first strategy is now considered a business strategy rather than solely a technological one. India-first cloud providers like BharathCloud are helping SMEs transition with confidence, combining scalability, compliance, and cost predictability to build a resilient, AI-ready future of work.