This is a new category that we've added to the Most Wanted IT Brands analysis this time. The number of data centers is increasing in the country, and companies have a lot of terest in hosting various services with them. Around 62% ofthe spondents to our survey said that they're likely to choose a data enter hosting provider in the coming 3 months, and a nearly ual percentage of them saying that they already host some of eir services with one. At an overall level, all brands seem to be aining pull, but need to put in more effort in rcler to become more persuasive. One more teresting thing we observed in this segment . that brand loyalties amongst the users of ata center hosting providers is very high.

very few people actually switch out. This is inresting but not surprising, because such rvices are long term contracts, which take long time to get in place, making it very difcult to shift out. Three brands managed to gather suffient votes for us to analyze in the survey this , e. Out of these, VSNL is the most future .y eady brand. As it's the oldest player in the it . me, it enjoys the highest degree of persua¬.on. Most of the CIOs who recall it on top of nind also say that they're likely to use its data ts rentre hosting services. Its brand pull situas. jon however, is a concern area. Though there :h ire usres likely to switch to it, there are more lsers switching out of it. Maybe it's because there are better facilities coming up for data center hosting, which are giving VSNL competition. VSNL enjoys a brand loyalty of 78% amongst its existing users, with only 5% users likely to switch to other brands, and another 17% who're not sure which brand to shift to.



Just behind VSNL is Sify, which is another brand that's been in the market long enough to understand its ups and downs. It is however far behind VSNL with a future readiness indes of 38%. It's the third most persuasive brand of the lot, and does need to work toward improving the same. The same goes for its brand pull as well, where though there are more users likely to switch in to it than switch out, the number needs to ramp up significantly. Even the brand loyalty figures for Sify aren't as good as the other players. It has 47% brand loyalty, but there's a catch. Currently, none of its existing users said thatthey're likely to move out of it. There is however, a massive 53% of the respondents who are not sure whhich brand to switch out to. So Sify should try and make the best of this situation before competition does .

At a distant number three is Reliance Info¬comm with a relative future readiness index of 35. It's the second most persuasive brand of the lot, and records the highest brand pull. Its brand pull is also better than Sify's at 56%, with only 6% users who're likley to switch to other brands and another 38% who are not sure.