Japan Tops the World in Cloud Computing
A recent study made a detailed analysis of cloud computing and state of IT infrastructure in 24 countries that together account for 80% of global IT expenditure. Not surprisingly, Japan is at the top of the list with a total score of 84.1 points. But in many other aspects the findings of the study were unexpected. It looked at seven different parameters of cloud readiness and assigned a score to work out the relative positions.
The seven parameters were:
(i) Data privacy
(ii) Security
(iii) Cybercrime
(iv) Intellectual property rights
(v) Support for standards
(vi) Promotion of free trade
(vii) Broadband deployment and ICT readiness
Singapore jumps to 5th from its rank of 10th last year. The country has made major improvements to its privacy laws, as well as user protection and innovation. Malaysia has made major gains over the last year in reducing cybercrime and improving intellectual property rights protection.
As for Brazil, last year’s report noted that the country lacks cybercrime laws. This was amazing considering that cybercrime in Brazil accounted for nearly $8 billion worth in losses in 2012. Disappointingly, the country was last in the list of 24 last year. But government appears to have taken steps to remedy this, as the country has moved up two places this year, overtaking Vietnam and Thailand.
There are six countries from the EU on the list. Every one of them slid in the rankings this year compared to their position last year, even though Poland, the UK and Germany improved their total score by a small margin. Could this have something to do with the slowdown in Europe?
For countries to really benefit from the cloud, they need to understand the full meaning behind each of the seven parameters listed above. Concerted efforts need to be made to improve on each in order to facilitate greater economic growth. Let’s elaborate on these points:
Privacy – Users must have faith that the information they store in the cloud will not be disclosed or misused. While privacy is critical, data should be portable so that the owner can move it around at will.
Security – Users need to be confident that the data they store in the cloud is secure and cloud service providers must be able to demonstrate that they have implemented state-of-the-art security mechanisms. For an example, visit GMO Cloud’s Security page and see how they prioritize this aspect through their multi-level security strategy.
Handling cybercrime – Just as in the real world, in cyberspace too, the law must be firmly established and strictly enforced.
IPR protection – Intellectual property has to be protected so that innovation can continue without worry or loss.
Support for standards – This ensures there is no lock-in and users can port their data and applications to the location that suits them best.
Promotion of free trade – A number of nations are implementing legislation that forces companies to keep their data within national borders. This goes against the grain of cloud computing.
National IT infrastructure – Cloud computing relies on cheap and reliable broadband access. National policies have to support this.
And finally the report card – here are the top 10 places:
|
Rank |
Country |
Marks |
|
1 |
Japan |
84.1 |
|
2 |
Australia |
79.9 |
|
3 |
USA |
79.7 |
|
4 |
Germany |
79.1 |
|
5 |
Singapore |
78.5 |
|
6 |
France |
78.3 |
|
7 |
UK |
76.9 |
|
8 |
South Korea |
76.2 |
|
9 |
Canada |
75.8 |
|
10 |
Italy |
75.5 |
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About the Guest Author:
Sanjay Srivastava has been active in computing infrastructure and has participated in major projects on cloud computing, networking, VoIP and in creation of applications running over distributed databases. Due to a military background, his focus has always been on stability and availability of infrastructure. Sanjay was the Director of Information Technology in a major enterprise and managed the transition from legacy software to fully networked operations using private cloud infrastructure. He now writes extensively on cloud computing and networking and is about to move to his farm in Central India where he plans to use cloud computing and modern technology to improve the lives of rural folk in India.
