Bangkok--9 Nov--PR ONE Network
VMware-sponsored survey of nearly 7,000 senior business and IT executives in Asia Pacific shows cloud computing mindshare and adoption have soared over the last 18 months
VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced survey results showing that the proportion of Asia Pacific enterprises viewing cloud computing as relevant to their businesses doubled to 83 percent over the last 18 months, peaking at 92 percent in the mature IT market of Japan.
The September survey of 6,953 respondents, conducted by Springboard Research under VMware’s sponsorship, also indicated that cloud adoption has accelerated across seven Asia Pacific markets over the last 18 months, particularly among larger firms.
Today, 59 percent of regional firms are either using or planning cloud initiatives compared to 45 percent six months ago and 22 percent in 2009. Organisations in Japan and Australia lead in cloud adoption, with 36 percent and 31 percent respectively already running a cloud-related initiative. India and China lead the region in terms of adoption plans, with 43 percent and 39 percent of organisations respectively planning to implement cloud computing.
In ASEAN, Singapore (23 percent) is marginally ahead of Malaysia and Thailand (both 21 percent) in cloud adoption, although a larger percentage of organisations in Malaysia (39 percent) and Thailand (39 percent) have cloud plans in place versus 30 percent in Singapore.
The most IT-savvy players, such as telecommunications and technology companies, lead cloud adoption and are ahead of the pack in planning cloud adoption. Larger firms, especially those with more than 10,000 employees, lead in cloud adoption at 39 percent versus organisations with 100 to 999 employees at 20 percent.
Cloud associated with IT as a Service
The highest proportion of organisations in Japan (86 percent), Singapore (84 percent) and Thailand (74 percent) associate cloud computing primarily with IT as a Service, while in Australia, Malaysia and India, most firms (80 percent, 78 percent and 75 percent respectively) associate cloud mainly with applications-on-demand. In China, 80 percent of respondents look to cloud for on-demand provision of storage and network.
Michael Barnes, VP of Software & Asia Pacific Research, Springboard Research, said: “For most survey respondents in Asia Pacific, IT as a Service is the biggest theme of the day. These companies are looking for vendors and consultants that can help them enjoy serviced-based IT, particularly in the areas of cloud infrastructure and management.”
Most organisations (60 percent) want to adopt cloud for scalability-on-demand to meet business needs, followed by drivers such as reduced hardware infrastructure costs and simplified resource/server provisioning.
Saving cost is the immediate incentive for adopting cloud computing for 57 percent of Asia Pacific firms. Only 37 percent, many of which are large firms with more than 10,000 employees, adopted or planned to adopt cloud as a long-term strategic investment.
Hybrid clouds on the rise
Companies wanting to deploy both public and private clouds were represented by the 38 percent of respondents, while a roughly equal amount - 37 percent - said they will only consider a private cloud. Preference for private cloud is more prevalent in banking and government sectors, with public cloud continuing to meet with the greatest resistance. In fact, even Japan — the most cloud-positive country in the survey — gave rise to survey findings suggesting that no more than 15 percent of organisations want to use public clouds.
Preference for hybrid cloud is higher in ASEAN, at more than four percentage points above the Asia Pacific average.
Storage (58 percent) represents the region’s No.1 workload for private clouds, with Japan (62 percent) and China (61 percent) most likely to deploy storage in a private cloud. Cloud-based enterprise applications are the second most identified category across Asia Pacific at 49 percent.
In terms of deployment plans, 93 percent of respondents said their upcoming cloud deployments will revolve round web conferencing, IM, collaboration and email.
Andrew Dutton, SVP and GM, VMware Asia Pacific Japan, said: “It is clear that industry has great interest in the hybrid cloud model. The ability for enterprises to obtain a common cloud infrastructure platform, as well as a common management model and application services that bridge private and public clouds to deliver interoperable clouds allowing data and application portability, will be critical.”
Integration concerns now match security worries as obstacles to cloud adoption
Integration with existing systems has caught up with traditional security concerns as a barrier to cloud adoption, with 46 percent of respondents identifying them equally as obstructions.
In emerging markets, the key factor holding back cloud adoption is lack of understanding among enterprises, according to 44 percent of respondents in China, 40 percent in Malaysia and 40 percent in Thailand, compared with a regional average of 36 percent.
These results strongly suggest that use of standards-based cloud solutions and education remain as significant cloud adoption drivers across Asia Pacific.
Virtualization seen as the foundation of cloud computing
Organisations across Asia Pacific (59 percent) consistently cited virtualization infrastructure as a primary building block for cloud computing.
Explaining the link between the two technologies, Dutton said: “Virtualization lets organizations decouple critical business applications and information from underlying physical hardware, and in turn, provides a fast and cost effective way to the cloud. More and more Asia Pacific organizations are realizing this and are moving to unlock more value from their virtualization investments.”
Virtualization adoption in Asia Pacific is highest in Australia (87 percent) and Japan (82 percent). Among verticals, virtualization adoption is highest in insurance (82 percent) and banking/financial services (76 percent).
Thailand (67 percent), Singapore (65 percent) and Malaysia (65 percent) all lag Australia and Japan in current adoption, while virtualization penetration stands at about 30 percent across ASEAN.
Most Asia Pacific firms use virtualization for servers and data centres, with many organisations focused on leveraging virtualization to drive business continuity/disaster recovery initiatives.
The biggest growth opportunity for virtualization in Asia Pacific is in the end-user computing space, although most organisations rank desktop virtualization as low in their list of priorities.
However, significant advantages can be gained from a new approach to end-user computing that virtualizes the desktop by de-coupling the operating system, user persona and applications, thereby enabling great flexibility in delivering applications and data to end-users when and where they need them and regardless of access device.
Dutton said: “By enabling large-scale end-user self-service, desktop virtualization is really the final piece of the puzzle in making the modern enterprise flexible, scalable and ultimately responsive to business needs.”
For more information about VMware’s vForum and the Springboard survey, please visit VMware APJ media portal: http://www.vmwareapjmedia.com/
VMware and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/orother jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Theuse of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any othercompany.
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