The introduction of its programme AWS Lift in India was announced by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the e-commerce giant Amazon's subsidiary for cloud computing. The program's goal is to encourage small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use the company's different cloud solutions. The 200 AWS cloud services are accessible to both new and existing SMB customers who sign up for the programme, according to AWS, "without worrying about associated fees." The starter pack of AWS promotional credits will be distributed over 12 months.

 

“Their first dollar billed on AWS services will unlock $750 (Rs 62,000) of AWS promotional credits in their account and increased usage of AWS services is rewarded with AWS promotional credits to offset their bill, up to a maximum of $83,500 (Rs 69 lakh) over 12 months,” the company said in a statement.

 

In the current economic climate, which has increased financial pressure on all businesses, particularly SMBs with limited finances to weather the rising inflationary pressures, the programme, according to AWS, will not have any lock-in periods or hidden fees and would help alleviate cost pressures for SMBs. The news coincides with Amazon's goal to digitise 10 million SMBs in India by 2025, which it had previously said in January 2020.

 

Puneet Chandok, President of Commercial Business, AWS India & South Asia said, “Our SMB customers are already seeing business results by leveraging the cloud to enhance their productivity, increase customer acquisition, and expand into new markets. We look forward to empowering more customers to adopt the cloud with AWS Lift, in collaboration with our partner network, as India realizes the vision to become a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.” 

 

The business claims that AWS invested more than $3.7 billion in India between 2016 and 2022, and that by 2030, its Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region, which was established in 2022, will have created more than 48,000 full-time jobs in India. A region at AWS is a geographical area with numerous 'Availability Zones,' each of which has one or more data centres.

 

As per Microsoft survey of small and medium-sized businesses conducted in October of last year, which included 301 SMBs from India, 35% of respondents said they planned to use the cloud exclusively or primarily, while 39% of SMBs said they looked to technology to expand their customer base and 38% to increase customer retention.