The purpose of this article is to carry out a comprehensive analysis of Cloud-based big data (BD) challenges and opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. BD is a big buzz word, and many large enterprises are making significant advances in their product development, customer relations and increasing profitability by targeting specific customers. Therefore, it has generated interest for both the academic and industry worlds as it has the potential to enhance the decision-making process by providing valuable insights. Large organisations are benefiting from using BD as a tool to gain a competitive edge over rivals by driving new revenue streams and improving internal operational efficiency. The large organisations are already investing in as well as leveraging BD. On the contrary, SMEs in India are slow adopters of new technologies due to many factors and pose to lose their competitive edge on the world stage. SMEs can also leverage BD to gain a strategic competitive advantage but are resource poor in terms of investment in manpower and financial resources. Major challenges still exist in the adoption of BD, especially in information technology (IT) architecture. Cloud computing (CC) can eliminate the need to maintain expensive computing hardware, software and networking resources. CC can also provide a solution to scalability issues, high-speed performance and fault tolerance for using BD. With CC usage, SMEs can take advantage of BD without significant investment in IT and manpower. This research uses secondary data as a research data collection technique, which is its limitation. However, a quantitative research methodology using statistical surveys is planned to be conducted in the near future to understand the factors impacting the adoption of Cloud-based BD for Indian SMEs. This article contributes to exploring and enhancing the understanding of the challenges and opportunities for SMEs in India for adopting BD. This study will also have both industrial implications for practitioners in India, as well as those in other developing countries, and academic implications for researchers who are interested in BD adoption in developing countries.
Keywords: Cloud computing (CC), big data (BD), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), challenges, opportunities, India.
Keywords: Cloud Computing (CC), Big Data (BD), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Challenges, Opportunities, India.