Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw believes the Microsoft outage creates opportunity for homegrown suite Zoho — here's how
Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw believes the recent global Microsoft outage creates an opportunity for Sridhar Vembu-led Zoho to offer its services as a viable alternative. In a post on social media and subsequent responses to users, she said the homegrown brand is well-positioned to make a move.
Mazumdar-Shaw took to X (formerly known as Twitter), to react to the Microsoft outage. She termed it “an unexpected opportunity for Zoho to be an alternate backup MIS for India Inc given such unforeseen events”. MIS is management information system.
Notably, Microsoft on Saturday said it has fully restored its flagship software and ended an outage that paralysed government offices, traders and businesses around the world, Bloomberg reported.
Quick answers to key questions
•5 QUESTIONS
1
Why did Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw say the Microsoft outage could create an opportunity for Zoho?⌵She said the disruption highlighted the value of having an alternative backup management information system for Indian businesses. She described Zoho as a homegrown option positioned to benefit from such events.
2
Can Zoho fully replace Microsoft 365 after the outage?⌵The article does not establish that Zoho can fully replace Microsoft 365. It notes concerns about Zoho’s capacity to handle Microsoft-scale workloads and the complexity of replacing deeply embedded productivity workflows.
3
Why are businesses considering alternatives to Microsoft after the outage?⌵The outage disrupted email and other business services across more than 70 countries, renewing concerns about dependence on a small number of technology providers. It may make some customers more receptive to alternatives, though a near-term shift is not expected.
4
Has Zoho been used for Indian government email accounts?⌵Yes. The article says nearly 12.68 lakh official email accounts across ministries and departments were migrated to a Zoho-based platform through the National Informatics Centre.
5
Were Microsoft services restored after the global outage?⌵Yes. Microsoft said all products were operational and that the backlog of email messages had been processed. The company said it had restored service to affected customers and regions.
“All products are operational,” according to a service health status update on its website. A “backlog of email messages has been processed, thus this issue is remediated,” it said of its Microsoft 365 services.
Notably, the global Microsoft outage caused massive stops to business and critical infrastructure as its Windows operating system and productivity apps remain the top choice for many. There has been renewed criticism over the risk of a single provider holding so much power.
To be sure, the Microsoft outage on Friday was felt around the world, with people in over 70 countries, including India, impacted, as per data on Downdetector. The company’s M365 software bundle has over 450 million commercial users, as per the Bloomberg report.
When asked, why Zoho, by a user, the Mazumdar-Shaw acknowledged that it was the only homegrown system she is aware of. Another user questioned why there is a need for global outages to create opportunity for Indian companies to “build our own”, Mazumdar-Shaw stated: “It’s always about events that create opportunities”.
Responding to the executive's posts, some users noted that Zoho may not have the required capacity to handle loads that Microsoft does, some others noted that there are free alternatives, and other felt that in the large scheme of things they would continue with Microsoft products.
William Blair & Co. analyst Jason Ader wrote in a note, “We do not expect the incident to meaningfully change Microsoft’s competitive position in the near term, given the high cost and complexity of replacing deeply embedded productivity workflows. Longer term, however, it could make some customers more receptive to alternatives, particularly Google Workspace and emerging productivity offerings from Anthropic unveiled earlier this week.”
Notably, in India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said in a written reply to Lok Sabha last December said that the Centre migrated nearly 12.68 lakh official email accounts from various ministries and departments to a Zoho-based platform. Of these, 7.45 lakh accounts were of central government employees, it added.
The migration was carried out through the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which remains the mandated provider of official email services for government ministries and departments, Jitin Prasada, Minister of State, MeitY said in the response.
Zoho Mail is a secure email service launched by the multinational technology firm Zoho Corporation, a Chennai-based software services company which was co-founded by Vembu and Tony Tomas in 1996.
Jocelyn Fernandes is a journalist and editor with nearly 13 years of experience covering the business, corporate, economy and markets beats in news.<br> As chief content producer for around three years at Livemint (Hindustan Times), Jocelyn publishes breaking stories, explainers, features and live blogs on a range of business and economy topics, including the Budget, corporate developments, stock markets, income tax, money and personal finance, cryptocurrency, government policy, impact of US tariffs, international developments and more.<br> Jocelyn's writing philosophy is focused on delivering news in an accurate and accessible format for readers. She thus focuses her news coverage on explainers and FAQs in order to breakdown business, corporate, economic, and policy topics that are of importance to everyday readers.<br> She holds a Bachelors in Mass Media (BMM) and Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Journalism and Communication and has previously written for online business and markets news site Moneycontrol (Network18), Business-to-business (B2B) trade publications — the industry magazines Power Today and Solar Today (ASAPP Media), and the national news agency United News of India (UNI).<br> Outside of work, Jocelyn keeps up-to-date with local and international news, enjoys reading fiction books, novels and short stories, and enjoys movies, travelling and art. <br> She can be found on X and LinkedIn, and reached by email: <a href="jocelyn.fernandes@htdigital.in">jocelyn.fernandes@htdigital.in</a> <br> X/ Twitter handle: <a href="https://x.com/scribeJocelyn">@scribeJocelyn</a> <br> LinkedIn: <a href="https://in.linkedin.com/in/jocelyn-fernandes-journalist">LinkedIn</a>
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