Amazon announced the introduction of AWS Lift in India, a programme aimed at assisting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) to embark on their digital transformation journeys. The programme offers new and existing customers a beginning package of AWS Promotional Credits over a 12-month period, giving them access to all 200 fully featured services on AWS, the most complete and widely used cloud platform in the world.

 

The programme will enable qualified Businesses to take advantage of AWS services without worrying about supplementary expenses. When they use Amazon services for the first time, they will receive US$750 (62K INR) in AWS promotional credits, and when they use AWS services more frequently, they will receive AWS promotional credits to offset their cost, up to a maximum of US$83,500 (69L INR) over the course of a year.

 

AWS removes obstacles to the use of the cloud.

 

All businesses are under more financial strain as a result of the present economic climate, but SMBs are particularly vulnerable since they often lack the resources to handle the mounting inflationary pressures.

 

Amazon Lift offers Businesses a commitment-free way to get started on AWS and relieves financial pressures with a minimum billing rate of just $1 USD and no lock-in periods or hidden fees. SMEs will learn about the flexibility of AWS's pay-as-you-go model as they begin their AWS experiments. They will also gain the operational strength and modify their business processes in order to generate new revenue growth.

 

Amazon declared its intention to digitise 10 million SMBs in India by 2025 in January 2020. With SMB Vidyalaya and Amazon Digital Suite, AWS will support small businesses in 2022 in their efforts to upgrade their digital skills.

 

“Today’s announcement of AWS Lift in India is part of our ongoing commitment to provide support to SMBs and help them accelerate innovation and enhance productivity.” said Puneet Chandok, President of Commercial Business, AWS India & South Asia (Amazon Web Services India Pvt. Ltd.) “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,” said Mr. Chandok.

 

The Amazon Partner Network (APN) is a global network of over 100,000 partners from over 150 countries, with almost 70% having their corporate headquarters outside of the United States. It assists clients throughout the globe with their cloud-based digital transformation. AWS Lift enables AWS Partners in India that are focused on SMB clients to assist and make the cloud experience smooth for new customers.

 

Redington, a leading market multinational with a distribution service across the gamut of IT products, smartphones, non-tech products and services, is an AWS Partner. “Redington is delighted to be a part of the launch of the AWS Lift program in India, and we see tremendous opportunities for our customers and partners through this initiative. The AWS Lift program is designed to help SMBs in their growth journey by providing access to AWS cloud services and credits to help them scale their business,” said Rakshit Bhatt, Head Cloud, Redington Limited. “It will enable our partners to engage actively with customers who are at an initial stage in their cloud journey, offering them a commitment-free program to help them optimize their cloud spend, and we are excited about the value it will add to the SMB community in India.”

 

The Cloud has a positive business impact for SMBs in India.

 

India is expected to have a small and medium-sized business and a digital-native business by 2023, according to IDC FutureScape. Consequences: By 2025, 30% of SMBs will move to the cloud for half of their key workloads to increase business agility and long-term resilience.

 

By utilising the power of the AWS cloud, AWS has assisted thousands of SMBs in India from a variety of industries, including media & entertainment (Qube Cinema, Punjab Kesari), manufacturing (Shyam Steels, Vishakha Group), health care (Narayana Nethralaya, Mahajan Imaging, Sahyadri Hospitals), and retail and consumer goods (Havmor, Nandu's Chicken).

 

AWS customer Tork Motors, an Indian electric motorcycle and powertrain manufacturer, shared how they are accelerating their digital transformation. “Through our collaboration with AWS, we were convinced that AWS can help us run our cloud native applications seamlessly with close to 100% uptime while simultaneously helping our team build the right skills as we start our journey with AWS,” said Kanishk Nadkarni, Head of Software, Tork Motors. He shares how the new AWS Lift program will help them to leverage the power of the cloud further. “The financial support that we would receive through the AWS Lift program is beneficial as it allows us to experiment with different use cases such as vehicle telemetry and analytics. Collaborating with AWS helps us to achieve our goal of providing a truly great experience for our customers through electric vehicle technology in India.”

 

AWS's dedication to assisting Indian enterprises

 

In order to help India's economic development and digital transformation, AWS Lift builds on our long-term commitment to the nation, which is evidenced through investments in local infrastructure and support for small and medium-sized businesses. AWS made investments in India totaling more than US$3.7 billion (30,900 crore) between 2016 and 2022. The AWS investment in the AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region increased India's GDP by 38,200 crore or US$4.6 billion.

 

Launched in 2022, the AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region is anticipated to support more than 48,000 full-time jobs annually through a planned investment of more than US$4.4 billion (roughly INR 36,300 crores) in India by 2030. Additionally, it is anticipated that its development and operation will boost India's gross domestic product by about US$7.6 billion (roughly INR 63,600 crores) by 2030.