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Mapping Cloud Computing’s Future Success in the Asia Pacific Market

Analysts expect IP cloud services worldwide to at least double in the next five years. This comes after staggering growth in the industry in the last five years. In fact, growth in the cloud computing industry tripled in the period from 2007 to 2012 and it shows no signs of slowing down. This is because the technology brings fundamental changes which are responsible for breaking ground in areas previously unexplored.

The financial crisis had an enormous, positive impact on the cloud services industry

While many businesses suffered greatly from the worldwide financial crisis, cloud services providers actually saw benefits to their proposed business model. This is because what those providers offer businesses is a way to cut costs while also maintaining their current quality of service. A slower economy makes such cost cutting measures especially attractive to companies. How can costs be reduced with cloud computing? This is done by a different type of model where users only pay for resources that are actually consumed. In this way they can ensure that no resources are wasted.

Looking at newer offerings in the cloud computing market

Due to its great potential, some of the world’s foremost technology companies have started to jump into the cloud services business. In recent years, we have observed some of the biggest names start to offer cloud solutions, including Amazon, Microsoft, Dell, and Apple. This is because cloud computing is not only an emerging technology, it is a prime business opportunity. This is especially true in the Asian market, which traditionally has always had a higher than normal demand for new technologies.

What does cloud computing have to offer to future businesses? It is ideal for businesses that require servers that are custom made, optimized, and that operate on a large scale. This applies both to hardware and software. Combining both means that businesses can have access to optimized hardware and software solutions, optimizing their IT infrastructure to suit their specific needs. This allows businesses to save by only acquiring the services and features that they need.

The Asian market is aware of the potential of cloud computing

The cloud services industry today is poised on the edge of a key developmental point. IaaS and SaaS services are at a point where there is an ideal balance between quality, security, and affordability. This is especially ideal for small and medium businesses in the Asian market, particularly in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines. In fact, small businesses in Asia are aware of the potential of cloud computing and many are evaluating the use of this technology in their business. Surveys have shown that a high percentage of companies in the region have already adopted, or plan on adopting cloud technology for their IT operations in the next year.

The combination of rapid growth in this technology, the emergence of new companies providing cloud services in the region, and the increased demand point to a scenario where the Asia Pacific region could quickly develop an IT market with a level of growth and competition never seen before. This is especially true because the advance in cloud computing is not only driven by cloud technology advances and specific products, there is a combination of market forces that has led to this positive situation:

1. Businesses are searching for the funds needed for growth in market segments that are very important for cloud technology service providers.
2. There are entrenched problems associated with finding these funds and carrying out growth in the traditional manner. However, the shortcomings associated with the traditional approach are not enough to dissuade established businesses from adopting them.
3. There is pressure from competitors that have adopted the new technology because they have very little to lose and almost everything to gain by adopting it.

The combination of these market forces has meant that cloud computing will drive the market for the next decades, especially in the Asian market. This is especially true because the growth of cloud technology is not driven by product fads, or passing phenomena; it is driven by a real economic need in the market for these kinds of services.

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Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

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.

This Week in the Cloud [March 8, 2013]

In case you missed it, here are a few notable stories posted on our GMO Cloud blog over this past week, ending March 8th, 2013, highlighting a few topics we focus on here at GMO Cloud. As always, you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or sign up for our newsletter updates here.

Is Asia Ready for Cloud Computing?

For cloud-services providers and businesses interested in integrating cloud technology into their business practices, it is necessary to understand if the required environment for cloud technology is available in their t …

Read more

A Cloud Computing Architecture for E-learning

The Asian market seems to be tailor-made for cloud-based e-learning businesses. This is because of the huge availability of affordable computers in the region, the higher-than normal average broadband Internet speeds, an …

Read more

How Progressive is the Gaming Industry When it Comes to the Cloud?

While cloud computing has revolutionized the IT segment as a whole, the gaming industry specifically has reaped enormous benefits from innovative cloud technology. High scalability and low latency are the two important r …

Read more

Why Game Development is Better in a Hybrid Environment

Game development is a complex process. The life cycle of a game can extend for years and some may go on for decades. Some of the game development processes can be easily moved to the cloud whereas others seem to hit a ro …

Read more

Cloud Computing and Big Data – Predicting Pregnancy in Customers!

When you collect big data, there can really be a number of of ethical issues involved with its management. While these are not related to the technical aspects of handling big data, these ethical issues can be even more …

Read more

What Factors Determine if Asia is Ready for Cloud Computing?

For cloud-services providers and businesses interested in integrating cloud technology into their business practices, it is necessary to understand if the required environment for cloud technology is available in their target market, specifically, what are the Asian cloud computing factors? In this article we will take a general look at some of Asia’s biggest markets to estimate if the conditions and infrastructure exist to establish high-quality cloud services. There is no question that cloud computing has become an important development in the Asian market and, according to experts, it will be one of the most important forces driving the market in the coming years. Between now and 2020, many experts predict that the value of the cloud market will double, reaching as much as $206 billion in value.

Mapping the readiness of the region

There are already organizations out there which are measuring the readiness of the Asian Market for cloud computing. One of these, the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) publishes yearly reports on the state of this market and its potential for development. The main purpose of these surveys is to find out whether there are bottlenecks that could hinder development in the future and to work towards fixing them to prevent rising costs as well as performance and implementation problems. Often, the obstacles that could limit the adoption of cloud technology in Asia are not merely technological. Legal and commercial bottlenecks may also exist and it is also possible for specific government policies to hinder development too.

To establish an effective measurement of a region’s readiness for cloud computing technology, we need to gauge several factors:

1. Reliability of access
2. Government policies and access to legislation
3. Data and physical security
4. Availability of intellectual property law enforcement and protection

Some other issues that can effect technological costs include data portability, interoperability, and regional vendors. Trust is also a very big issue which often comes into play. Customers need to be able to trust their service provider and the security measures in place to protect their data. Likewise, service providers need to be able to trust the government as well as the network’s infrastructure.  Building that trust will be a very important part of the development of the Asian cloud market. Consider GMO Cloud for example, as a trusted hosting brand in Japan. It goes without saying that the company puts great leverage on its security and the quality of the service that it provides.

Cloud readiness by country

Although there is no question that Singapore has the infrastructure needed to support a booming cloud market, data privacy has become an issue for many investors in this region. In fact, globalization has meant that data privacy has become more important for most businesses using cloud technology. In the Asian market, South Korea has the best data privacy measures, but there is room for improvement in data sovereignty and IP protection.

The main obstacle for Australia and New Zealand and their ability to join the global cloud computing market is their limited international connectivity, which results in problems with speed and data flows. Another issue for these two island nations is the relative risk of their data centers, which are currently comparable with lower ranked countries like Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Another point of interest include Thailand’s lack of specific government regulation on incoming and outgoing data. While most countries in the region have been making great strides forward in their cloud computing regulations and infrastructure, but Thailand seems to be taking steps back in comparison.

Meanwhile, India has advanced considerably in the last year but still needs to catch up when it comes to basic infrastructure and connectivity. Hopefully, the increased scrutiny on the Asian market will enable an open discussion between cloud providers and governments in the region in order to allow investors to fully tap the region’s enormous economic potential.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

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.

A Cloud Computing Architecture for E-learning

The Asian market seems to be tailor-made for cloud-based e-learning businesses. This is because of the huge availability of affordable computers in the region, the higher-than normal average broadband Internet speeds, and the large demand for educational content, specifically in the areas of language study and higher learning. The potential for cloud computing to transform education in Asia is enormous and may necessitate a complete redesign of the region’s existing education systems. The cloud can help us solve complicated issues more effectively, resulting in improved speed and lower costs.

The benefits that cloud computing can bring to e-learning

There are several reasons why cloud computing is ideal for e-learning applications. Here we take a look at some of the main benefits that a cloud computing architecture can bring to an educational system:

1. Some important benefits associated with the use of cloud computing in e-learning is raw computing power and a phenomenal increase in storage capacity that it affords educational institutions. With the ability to store data in numerous distributed computer systems and thousands of individual clouds, educational institutions get a boost that would otherwise have required an investment in costly, impractical infrastructure. Essentially, students can have all this computing power and storage space at their fingertips by simply accessing the Internet.

2. Perhaps the biggest advantage the cloud offers e-learning is continuous availability. The integration of enormous computing power and increased storage space means that e-learning services can vastly increase the quality of their service. With an architecture in place that allows automatic detection of a failed node and its automatic exclusion, this means that the e-learning system can be available for longer periods and with fewer delays and interruptions than systems in local servers or traditional data centers. Learn more about high availability systems and see how GMO Cloud has improved this particular feature by visiting the Features page.

3. Cloud computing brings higher security to e-learning systems. It is important to note that cloud computing’s reputation of having inferior security to traditional systems is entirely undeserved. Technological advances and a specific focus on solving security issues mean that cloud computing security is on par, or even superior to traditional computing architectures. The reason why data on the cloud is more secure than normal is because of highly controlled redundancy and specific management. By enabling managers to handle data across different machines and establish security protocols, security can be guaranteed for participating institutions and individuals. This is especially true if personnel is hired to carry out real-time security monitoring on the system.

4. One of the reasons why many institutions in Asia are attracted to a cloud-based educational system is the degree of virtualization that it allows its users. With cloud computing, physical platforms and applications do not need to be related directly. Virtualized platforms allow the building up resources by sharing and distributing more effectively existing servers, storage space, and networking capabilities.

5. Thanks to the increases in efficiency that this model affords, the costs can be kept considerably lower than traditional e-learning systems. With a cloud computing model, students in remote locations or with fewer resources than normal have access to high processing power at lower costs. While the up-front investment in the technology would require a higher initial cost, the long-term benefits outweigh these expenses by far.

Cloud computing enables interactivity in e-learning

With traditional e-learning, teachers rely on assigning tasks and conducting lectures. However, a cloud computing architecture allows teachers to answer questions and address specific points directly.

Students can also create their own curriculum and schedules and decide on the best learning plan for themselves. Group projects and cooperation among students can be carried out more effectively than with traditional learning. This interactivity is one of the most important demands institutions are placing today on e-learning providers and a cloud-based architecture is the best possible model to provide institutions with the tools they need to carry it out.

There is no doubt that the rapid increase in e-learning in the Asian market will drive changes in traditional education systems, and cloud computing will be a major force in the future advancements in this field.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

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.

How Progressive is the Gaming Industry When it Comes to the Cloud?

While cloud computing has revolutionized the IT segment as a whole, the gaming industry specifically has reaped enormous benefits from innovative cloud technology. High scalability and low latency are the two important requirements for gaming. As the cloud offers highly scalable solutions with lower levels of latency, the gaming industry has quickly embraced this innovation, and the future of the sector definitely lies in the cloud.

The most recent E3 Expo, which would normally showcase innovation in gaming hardware, ended up offering nothing significant to gamers. The absence of new consoles underscores that the industry is looking at fully utilizing the resources of the cloud. Also significant in the cloud gaming segment is the acquisition of Gaikai by Sony. Gaikai has been a pioneer in the cloud gaming, and the acquisition will allow Sony to tap into that as well.

Another key player is Microsoft. And to add cloud-based power to its Xbox infrastructure, the company is recruiting some of the former staff of OnLive, one of the leading companies that made cloud gaming a reality. After Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai, many people felt that Microsoft would counter by acquiring OnLive and adding its services to its Xbox 720. However, this acquisition did not materialize.

Why is everyone moving to the cloud?

There are several advantages of cloud-based gaming services. For instance, competitive prices offered by the OnLive cloud gaming site enable users to enjoy amazing games. Users need not download 10GB of data before playing a game, but can simple save the game and access it again from another computer. They can buy daily passes or monthly subscriptions to play hundreds of titles. The automatic scaling feature augmented with low latency makes cloud games the ultimate choice for gaming lovers. All this is not possible with a traditional gaming setup.

Cloud gaming concerns

Current gaming infrastructure is not efficient enough to provide a rich gaming experience to users. However, gaming technology is changing gears. The new GeForce grid processor from Nvidia is specifically designed to improve the performance of cloud games. It combines the power of GPU virtualization and low-latency to provide the best platform for game developers.

Another important concern for the cloud gaming sector is speed. Every gamer does not have the required high speed broadband network to enjoy live streaming of audio and video. However rapid advancement in  telecommunication is sure to deliver high speed internet connections to everyone soon.

On the developer’s end – pertinent to scalability and low-latency features – they will need a reliable infrastructure partner, especially in key areas like security, fault tolerance, and support. To gain a better idea of these concepts, check out GMO Cloud’s High Availability Features section.

The amazing benefits of cloud computing technologies offer a perfect platform for game developers to unleash their creativity. With changing technologies, it is important to stay ahead of the competition.

Cloud-based gaming services are definitely the future of the gaming industry.

Be Part of Our Cloud Conversation

Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

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.