KARACHI: As Pakistan’s business community becomes more adapt with cloud technology and seeks more cloud-based solutions for growth, Microsoft is expanding its operations in the country in a bid to increase its enterprise customer base.
“Our initial focus in Pakistan was primarily on the corporate sector. However, as the cloud computing segment in Pakistan is now growing rapidly, we are expanding our operations in Pakistan, with a new strategy of Cloud first – Mobile first,” company’s Cloud and Enterprise Business Group Lead Stephane Consalvi said in an interview with The Express Tribune.
The regional head of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise business for North Africa East Mediterranean and Pakistan, Consalvi has been visiting different cities of Pakistan to explain and market the company’s latest product, Azure, to enterprise customers.
Azure is a collection of integrated computing services for storage, data, networking and an application that helps the enterprises move faster, do more and save money, said Consalvi. “It is a Platform-As-A-Service. So basically, it means that you can build any piece of hardware by providing system and employment on demand, without waiting for any hardware to be shipped.”
Explaining their new strategy, Consalvi said, “We are now a device and services company. We are building services in the cloud, and you will be able to consume these services with whatever kind of device you are using.”
Technology is evolving so rapidly that new versions of products replace older ones in a matter of months, something that might not bode well with the country’s businessmen, usually slow in technology adoption. To this, the Frenchman said Pakistanis are embracing latest technologies in the same way as people in developed markets.
“I don’t think that in Pakistan you should underestimate your technological acumen.” He, however, added that everyone has a different pace towards adopting technology. “Even in Europe, common people are not on top of every breakthrough,” he said.
“We would love to have bigger operations and events in Pakistan with more resources deployed in the country.” Referring to a conference in Karachi, he said he received some intelligent and interesting questions. “This means that the level of the maturity of the market is pretty good.”
Consalvi said he did not see any difference between Pakistan and the much advanced European countries in terms of technology adoption and demand for cloud services. “I have been to Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad and seen many customers who are very tech-savvy and advanced like those in developed countries,” he said. They want to take advantage of the latest innovations and remain well integrated with the global line of modern business applications, simply to ease business, he said.
Summarising his observation of the Pakistani market, the Frenchman said, “I can see tremendous opportunities in Pakistan. The new generation of young and talented developers has given us the opportunity to work more actively with the local market. I think, in a span of two to three years, this market will evolve and grow dramatically.”
THE WRITER IS A STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2014.
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