Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw says Microsoft outage creates an ‘unexpected opportunity’ for Sridhar Vembu's Zoho

Following a Microsoft outage, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw urged Indian businesses to consider domestic backups and said Zoho could be an alternative.

A Microsoft outage on Thursday disrupted access to services such as Outlook, drawing a reaction from Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. Calling it an “unexpected opportunity” for Indian software company Zoho, she said the disruption could be a chance for the company, founded by Sridhar Vembu, to emerge as an alternative for Indian businesses.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw suggests Zoho as a backup to Microsoft services. (Bloomberg)

In a post on X, Mazumdar-Shaw tagged Zoho and wrote, "This is an unexpected opportunity for @Zoho to be an alternate backup MIS for India Inc given such unforeseen events."

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw’s message for Zoho

Mazumdar-Shaw's post called for Indian companies to have domestic backup options for essential software and systems, instead of relying entirely on global technology providers.

Founded by Sridhar Vembu, Zoho offers a range of business tools, including email, office productivity and enterprise management software. The Microsoft outage has also led users to question whether Indian software companies can step in when major global platforms stop working.

Internet debates whether Zoho can be an alternative

Her post drew mixed reactions on X, with some users backing the idea of greater reliance on Indian software, while others questioned whether domestic companies could handle the scale of demand.

One user wrote, "Why Zoho alone? Moving from Microsoft is not going to be easy. Zoho - All state and Central Govt to start using atleast as a security measure."

Another user pointed to the risks of depending heavily on a few global technology companies, saying, "Rightly said as the influence of these mega7 has grown multifold ,kind of monopoly in there respective area and when they fail we can see the scale of devastation on people and global economy. But its challenging to surpass big lobbies to make domestic company to succeed."

Others, however, questioned whether Zoho would be able to handle the scale of demand. "I doubt Zoho can handle so much traffic!" one comment read.

Another user raised concerns about the reliability of smaller alternatives, writing, "Atleast we are confident Microsoft will be able to recover at some point. If Zoho is to go down, we can be sure that the whole company will go down with it."

Some also viewed dependence on foreign technology platforms as a national security concern. One user said, “Absolutely. Microsoft Outages or other such global services can be misused to blackmail countries like India in case of War or Trade Sanctions.”