Cloud interest soaring in APAC: Study

BANGALORE, INDIA: A survey of more than 100 global multinational corporations (MNCs) across Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe reveals that adoption of cloud services is picking up pace among large organisations, especially in Asia Pacific.

The study conducted by Ovum for Cable&Wireless Worldwide shows that 63 per cent of MNCs in Asia-Pacific reporting the uptake of at least one of the cloud services categories; networking, communications, applications, corporate IT systems, as well as data management, security and back-up.

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The research also points to telecoms providers being well positioned to take advantage of cloud services adoption, which is up by 61 per cent worldwide from April 2010, with 45 per cent of MNCs already using cloud sourcing for at least some elements of key IT services.

Across the globe, enterprises have already moved significant resources to the cloud and are ready to move more application services. The dominant areas of cloud services uptake are in data backup and storage, at 51 per cent of respondents, with an additional 33 per cent reporting their intention to procure cloud data backup and storage services in the next 24 months. 

Cloud uptake is permeating all sectors. Finance and insurance multinationals have adopted cloud services for some elements of corporate IT systems (56 per cent), whereas manufacturing is embracing cloud components for networking and data management (63 per cent and 59 per cent, respectively). Sectors are also placing different applications in cloud environments. Professional services single out Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (50 per cent) while finance and insurance places strong emphasis on document management (50 per cent). Manufacturing places most value on messaging (41 per cent) and CRM (41 per cent).

Evan Kirchheimer, practice leader, Enterprise Services, at Ovum, says: “It’s interesting to see Asia-Pacific MNCs reporting such interest in cloud services. This may be because many companies in the region are relatively new and take up the latest technology more readily. We believe, however, that the majority of MNCs are currently between ‘early’ and 'adolescent' adoption phases of cloud-based services, with broader and deeper adoption being contemplated."

Seventy five per cent of MNCs rate scalability of capacity and matching capacity to fluctuating demand as the main benefits from the use of cloud services, with increased speed of provisioning coming in a close third (72 per cent). Cost transparency is regarded as least important with only (24 per cent) citing this as a major benefit.

Retail respondents topped the poll in viewing scalability and matching capacity to demand as major benefits (50 per cent), while finance and insurance came out top in seeing improved employee productivity as a major attraction (50 per cent). Manufacturing views cost transparency as far more important than other verticals (38 per cent vs average of 24 per cent).

"Greater adoption is dependent on the resolution of security, governance and reliability and once these concerns are addressed through standardised, tested offers from service providers, more large enterprises will feel comfortable positioning cloud as a preferred procurement option,” he adds.

Charles Kennaway, VP, Enterprise Sales, Asia Pacific at C&W Worldwide, said: “This research confirms our confidence in the market potential of cloud computing. We are encouraged to see that most enterprises in Asia Pacific have shown such great interest in adopting cloud services.'

"One of the key elements of the research indicates that telecommunication providers are emerging as trusted partners and credible suppliers for cloud services, increasing from 37 per cent in 2010 to 49 per cent in 2011, which is a good indicator for us,” he added.