Asia Pacific Companies Enter a New Stage of Growth With Cloud Computing
While cloud-based services have become an inevitable part of the business processes of most companies around the world, Asia Pacific companies have yet to experience the full power of cloud computing technology. According to the Third Annual VMWare Cloud Index 2012, cloud adoption growth reached 42% in 2012. In 2010, the annual growth rate was 24%. This increased to 32% in 2011.
The interesting thing about this infographic (see below) is that 75% of Asia Pacific companies believe that cloud computing technology can leverage resources and improve business performance. However, certain businesses failed to adopt cloud services due to difficulties caused within the organization. Three important concerns have deterred companies from moving to cloud-based services, according to a VMWare survey:
Data privacy
Companies that deal with huge volumes of critical data are concerned about data privacy. Cloud computing services enable people to access data and applications from any place, and some businesses feel that this flexibility in accessing data can result in compromised privacy of the client. However, the data privacy issue is efficiently addressed by cloud computing companies. The highest security measures are incorporated into cloud computing procedures to ensure that only the client has access to his private data. The accessibility of data depends on the service mode selected by the client.
Costs involved in the integration of existing systems
Another important concern for businesses is the complexity involved in integrating existing systems into the cloud network. There are certain critical applications that might not suit the cloud environment. Companies need to assess the risk of migrating applications into the cloud. Businesses that use legacy infrastructure find it difficult to identify challenges that arise with this migration. Moreover, costs involved in the transition can be huge.
However, the flexibility offered by automatic scaling features of cloud-based services enables companies to improve agility and efficacy in business performance while at the same time reducing costs. A problem with migrating to the cloud is that the integration of existing infrastructure into the cloud changes the responsibility of IT staff. People are not happy with this change in job roles. So some companies have adopted a wait and see attitude toward integration.
Security
Data management and security is another aspect that prevents companies from migrating to the cloud. While giving control over critical data to cloud computing companies is risky, transmission of data over the Internet is another area of concern. Moreover, data is stored in multiple locations and resources are shared between multiple clients. This shared data infrastructure is believed to create data security issues. However, businesses that have already migrated to the cloud felt that there is an increased security with cloud-based storage solutions. The reason is simple: A single organization cannot spend huge amounts on their data security measures.
But cloud computing companies can afford to implement higher levels of security measures to protect large volumes of critical data. In addition, existing disaster management solutions identify the source of a data crash to eliminate subsequent data disasters. For instance, GMO Cloud has a multi-level security strategy that ensures the protection of data and operations in the cloud. The future seems to be bright for the IT industry in the Asia Pacific region as more and more companies are expected to embrace the cloud in 2013.
GMO Cloud offers highly scalable data management solutions that answer these concerns. While cutting edge technologies used in business processes leverage available resources, data privacy, and security is highly prioritized. To experience the full extent of the power of cloud computing technology, purchase a trial package for your business. Take your company to the next level.
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About the Guest Author:
Kaushik Das is an engineer, research analyst and a technical writer in the areas wireless, IT, enterprise software, next-generation hosting, storage and renewable energy. He specializes in competitive analysis, market research, industry insights, white paper and actionable web content development.
