RBI plans to launch cloud services in 2025 to offer local cloud data storage

Reserve Bank will launch a pilot program in 2025 offering local cloud data storage to financial firms at affordable prices, according to two sources aware of the matter, who declined to be identified as conversations are confidential. The Reserve Bank of India's planned cloud platform will use local IT firms, pitting it against the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud, in a first-of-its-kind initiative from a major global central bank.

The burgeoning cloud services market in Asia's third-largest economy was estimated at $8.3 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $24.2 billion by 2028, according to a report by International Data Corporation, but it is largely dominated by foreign firms.

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"We want to start implementing on a smaller scale in the next few months," said one of the two sources, a senior executive working on the project. The pilot will be expanded in phases over the next few years, the source said, adding the cloud service will be built keeping in mind the needs of smaller banking and financial services firms who find existing offerings unaffordable.

Setting up a cloud service built in partnership with local IT firms is a further step in the central bank's push for localization of payments and financial data.

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