Enterprises are turning to specialized solutions to gain a competitive edge. One such transformative trend is ‘Industry Cloud’, a cloud platform built for industry use cases.
As businesses seek more agility, compliance, and innovation, the adoption of industry cloud platforms is rapidly gaining momentum. Gartner’s report highlights that by 2025, over 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2021.
This surge underscores several key drivers: the advancement of AI tailored to niche industry use cases, increasingly stringent compliance and regulatory demands, and the emergence of industry-specific cloud solutions that deliver faster business value.
In this blog, we discuss what to look out for as this evolves from a trend into a necessity. But first, let’s understand how it works as a solution for you.
What is an ‘Industry Cloud’?
An industry cloud solution addresses your industry’s unique needs. These are built to cater to what’s needed now and what’s coming next, with your cloud platform, features, and workflows aligned to niche value chains within industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, retail, logistics, and many more.
Built on Cloud Platforms, Built with Cloud Services
Industry cloud solutions are offered by both cloud platform and feature providers like Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud, and cloud services providers like Hexaware, Accenture, TCS, and more. Popularized by the key IT decision influencers, these solutions have gained traction.
Unlike traditional, general-purpose cloud offerings, industry cloud solutions use prebuilt, domain-specific features, regulatory compliance tools, and workflows designed to support industry use cases. These are further mapped to use cases across your value chain and improved to help deliver business outcomes better.
These cloud setups let enterprises address sector-specific challenges and stringent regulatory requirements right from the outset.
Understanding How Industry Clouds Are Delivered and By Whom
- Industry Cloud Platforms: Majorly offered by hyperscale cloud platform providers (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Snowflake, Salesforce), who provide the foundational infrastructure, security, compliance, and integration capabilities required for industry-specific solutions.
- Industry Cloud Services: Delivered by cloud service providers like us as modular, industry-specific solutions that can be consumed individually or as part of a larger solution. These services are often the building blocks that make up comprehensive industry cloud solutions.
- Industry Cloud Solutions: Developed jointly by both platform providers and service providers. Platform providers supply the technical foundation, while service providers (including consulting firms, ISVs, and industry specialists) contribute domain expertise and build applications tailored to industry needs.
Driving Factors Behind Industry Cloud Adoption
Several key trends are propelling the shift towards widespread adoption of industry clouds:
- Ever-evolving Compliance: Complex industry regulations need unique solutions.
- Data Sovereignty: Data residency, AI-readiness, and governance controls.
- Rapid Innovation: Pre-built industry workflows for deployment of new services.
- Faster Alignment: Build upon business models that are proven to bring success.
- Competitive Pressure: Early adopters gain faster agility and market advantage.
How Do Industry Clouds Differ from Other Cloud Types?
Public, private, and hybrid clouds provide general computing resources for a wide range of uses.
In contrast, industry clouds deliver prebuilt, industry-specific solutions that businesses can easily select and implement, enabling faster results and targeted impact.
In general, there are two main types of industry cloud offerings:
- 360° Industry cloud solutions that support broader business transformations across the entire value chain, driving overall business improvement.
These solutions support broader business transformations across the entire value chain, driving overall business improvement:
- Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare: Connects patient engagement, clinical systems, operations, and analytics for healthcare providers.
- Oracle Cloud for Financial Services: Covers end-to-end banking operations, risk management, compliance, and customer experience.
- Salesforce Industries (formerly Vlocity): Provides comprehensive solutions for sectors like insurance and energy, integrating sales, service, and operations.
- Niche Industry Cloud Solutions that address specific parts of a company’s value chain, providing specialized tools tailored to niche operational needs.
- Veeva Vault QMS for Life Sciences: Focuses on quality management and regulatory compliance for pharmaceutical companies.
- ServiceNow Healthcare Vaccine Administration Management: Specializes in scheduling, tracking, and reporting for vaccine distribution.
- Guidewire Cloud for Insurance Claims: Specializes in claims management for property and casualty insurers.
These industry cloud solutions come equipped with key features such as:
- Pre-configured compliance frameworks (e.g., HIPAA for healthcare, PCI DSS for finance) that ensure regulatory adherence from the start.
- Integrated analytics and AI provisions optimized for sector-specific data, empowering smarter, data-driven decisions.
- Industry-specific APIs and data models minimize the need for extensive customization and accelerate deployment.
- Collaborative ecosystems that connect suppliers, partners, and customers within the same industry vertically, fostering seamless collaboration and innovation.
These address industry challenges effectively while accelerating their cloud transformation journeys.
Sector-Specific Applications of Industry Cloud Solutions
Industry clouds are reshaping operations across multiple sectors. Here’s how:
- Healthcare: Secure medical records, telemedicine integrations, and patient data analytics.
- Financial Services: Automated regulatory reporting, fraud detection, and real-time risk management.
- Retail: Omnichannel inventory management, personalized customer experiences, and supply chain optimization.
- Manufacturing: Predictive maintenance, IoT integration, and digital twins for process optimization.
- Logistics: Route optimization, real-time tracking, and seamless partner collaboration.
Key Benefits of Adopting Industry Cloud Solutions
Enterprises opting for industry clouds enjoy numerous advantages. According to McKinsey, industry cloud platforms rank among the top five transformative technologies in 2025, driving sector-specific breakthroughs and enabling smarter, more efficient operations.
Additionally, built-in compliance and security frameworks help reduce risk and foster trust, while modular scalability ensures these solutions can support long-term growth effectively. The key benefits are:
- Accelerated time-to-value:Deploy solutions faster with pre-built modules and compliance.
- Reduced risk: Inherent security and regulatory frameworks lower compliance failures.
- Multi-cloud agility: Rapidly adapt to market changes without heavy IT overhauls.
- Improved customer experiences: Tailored features meet end-user expectations and industry demands.
- Faster Scalability: Easily scale operations up or down as business needs evolve.
Common Challenges in Industry Cloud Implementation
While industry clouds offer significant advantages, enterprises often face several challenges during implementation.
Integration complexity is a major hurdle, as merging modern cloud platforms with legacy systems can be time-consuming and technically demanding. Additionally, vendor lock-in poses a risk, as bad cloud architecture can decrease flexibility and increase costs.
Building apps and migrating sensitive, sector-specific data using a cloud provider’s platform demands careful planning to ensure smooth transitions to real-world use cases. This process must avoid disrupting ongoing operations or compromising compliance.
Finally, effective change management within your enterprise is also crucial since your teams need proper training to adapt to new workflows and cloud features.
Proactively managing these challenges is crucial to fully unlocking the benefits of industry cloud adoption.
Key Features of Industry Cloud Platforms You Need
Industry cloud platforms should have the following features:
- Built-in compliance and security controls
- Industry-niche data models and workflows
- Advanced analytics and AI integrations
- Ecosystem integration for collaboration
- Low-code/no-code customization options
- Support for evolving features and compliance
The Shift Toward the Industry AI Cloud
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is fueling a significant shift toward the Industry AI Cloud, where cloud platforms are majorly with an outlook that forethinks for AI advancements within your industry.
A convergence of industry-focused cloud infrastructure and cutting-edge AI is accelerating innovation, aimed at moving from experimentation to production-grade AI at scale, and paving the way for smarter, more agile enterprises.
Industry-Specific Cloud Transformation with Hexaware
Hexaware is leading the global charge in the cloud transformation industry, delivering sector-specific solutions that accelerate cloud transformation journeys across regions.
Our cloud solutions combine cloud strategy, automation, enterprise AI features, and powerful change management, from years of industry expertise, to deliver:
- Rapid industry cloud deployment: Hexaware’s intelligent cloud journey automation accelerator Amaze® offers out-of-the-box templates tailored for industries, enabling fast and efficient rollouts worldwide.
- Compliance-first approach: With proven expertise in regulated sectors, Hexaware ensures regulatory alignment from day one, helping clients meet evolving standards in high-compliance industries such as finance, healthcare, and public services.
- Strong Hyperscaler Partnerships: Hexaware’s industry cloud strategies are backed by strong partnership solutions with Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services, ensuring minimal downtime and risk in your cloud journey.
- Continuous innovation: Hexaware leads in generative AI, cognitive automation, and ethical AI design, turning innovation into real business impact; recently recognized as an Emerging Leader in Gartner’s 2025 guide for generative AI.
We believe, in embracing purpose-built cloud platforms for your industry, you can aim for agility and compliance and position yourself for long-term growth and business innovation. With Hexaware’s cloud services and solutions, you can confidently begin your industry cloud journey, unlock new efficiencies, and prepare for an AI-first future.
