The Cloud has Become Mainstream in the Asia Pacific Region
Recent research from Cisco predicts that in the next three years the global cloud computing market will nearly triple in size. These estimates predict that a very large portion of this growth will occur in the Asia-Pacific region, which has reached maturity in only a few years. By 2016, more than half of businesses in the region will have the majority of IT infrastructure in a data center owned and operated by a third party, and nearly two thirds of businesses will use cloud storage and other cloud-based services as a part of their every day business.
These predictions reflect the prominence that cloud computing has gained in this particular market. In this article we take a look at how cloud computing has, for all intents and purposes, has gone mainstream in Asia.
No company can afford to not have a cloud strategy
Only a few years ago, the only cloud available in the Asia Pacific market was the public cloud. Today, there are numerous variants of public, private, and hybrid cloud services. The cloud is a part of everyday business, and no business can really afford to ignore it. Of course, the main benefits that the cloud brings to businesses is a reduction in technology investments, reduced costs, and improvement in a company’s responsiveness and agility. With these benefits, they now focus more on data and information management rather than on just maintaining a physical IT infrastructure.
A new inflection point in cloud technology adoption
Cloud providers that have been offering their services in the region for years have noticed an important shift in the market’s perception of this technology in recent years. This is because businesses are not only using the cloud for their operations, but it’s also serving as a way to extend and expand. The cloud allows companies to reach markets that were previously unreachable. As the cloud becomes an integral part in any growth strategy in the region, its transformative power gives businesses an important advantage over competitors. The high demand for cloud strategies for businesses has given rise to ‘Managed Service Providers’, who are specialized in providing services that can be implemented rapidly and with fewer expenses.
Companies are gradually gaining a more in-depth understanding of the different aspects of cloud computing. This means that they are gradually moving away from general, simplistic cloud strategies towards an approach that is more precise. In fact, the term “cloud” is much too vague for many clients. Because of this, it is recommended that cloud service providers in the Asia Pacific region (a market that has become much more mature in its use of cloud technology) use more specific terms when referring to the services they can provide for their clients. Rather than focusing on getting ‘the cloud’ for their company, managers are more interested in different pricing models and services. In a sense, this is similar to the widespread move to offshore workforces that occurred a decade ago — but now data and workloads are moving to a virtual location.
The concern for security versus the public cloud
Even though cloud technology brings reduced costs in the long term, making the move can be difficult for small businesses that may not have the means to support the short term expense. Because of this, it has been observed that the supposed concern for security often comes from small businesses that are not particularly eager to move to the cloud just yet. As cloud security continues to increase, the hybrid cloud will become more prevalent model among companies. In the end, the cloud model that is adopted will be related to the ownership and cost models rather than determined by the actual security of the cloud. In fact, most security concerns are not related to actual data safety as much as they are concerned with data ownership and government regulation.
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About the Guest Author:
Nida Rasheed is a freelance writer and owner of an outsourcing company, Nida often finds herself wanting to write about the subjects that are closest to her heart. She lives in Islamabad, Pakistan and can be found on Twitter @nidarasheed.
