Bangkok--26 Nov--Hill & Knowlton Thailand
CIOs view Virtualization and Cloud Computing as Top Priorities for 2010; shift from enhanced capacity towards enhanced capabilityCloud computing gaining steam with the global market poised to be worth 148.8bn by 2014
CIOs in Asia see virtualization and Cloud Computing as the top priorities for 2010. This is according to analyst firm Gartner, speaking at a Microsoft Cloud Summit event held in Bangkok today. This is in contrast to the top priorities from 2007 to 2008, which were business intelligence and enterprise applications.
Gartner and Microsoft suggest that this has come about for Asian businesses because the economic situation in the next decade is expected to be more volatile and unpredictable than the last and with many companies and industries redesigning their business model in this post-recession economy, IT-enabled changes, such as cloud computing, will be a key strategic element if they are to react to sudden threats and opportunities.
With cloud computing becoming an increasingly important business tool, Microsoft believes that Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), can benefit companies in a number of ways: through a shift from “capacity” on demand, to “capability” on demand; by reducing the cost of computing resources, not only in hardware, but also in space and power; and facilitating a shift from technology use to “value” consumption, or paying for what they use.
To demonstrate their commitment to the cloud, Microsoft recently launched Office 365, an always-up-to-date cloud service that brings together Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync. Office 365 makes it easier for employees to work together anywhere on virtually any device, while simply and securely collaborating with others inside and outside their organization. It is tailored to fit a wide-variety of customers, from independent professionals to small, mid-sized and large organizations.
Despite the huge interest in the Cloud, CIOs in Asia are cautious about which, and how many, functions to place in the Cloud, with security, regulatory and compliance issues and cost analysis all impacting decisions.
“Workloads like e-mail collaboration are moving rapidly towards the Cloud, and many organizations are choosing our business productivity online services like email and Sharepoint to help customers make that transition. We see other workloads like CRM moving fairly quickly to the Cloud, mainly because of the distributed and geographic nature of workforces today,” said Patama Chantaruck, Microsoft (Thailand) Limited. “The most important thing is that customers begin to understand how the Cloud can be used to solve their business needs. Microsoft is not saying everyone should move to the Cloud now; however, we do think that customers should evaluate the Cloud for specific workloads to see how it stacks up against other models.”
“Only 20% of companies we speak to are neither engaged or evaluating a cloud strategy, so roughly 80% of businesses worldwide are interested at some level. CIOs should consider four steps when looking at these investments,” explained Mr. Brian Prentice Research Vice President, Gartner. “First, CIOs should compare the cost of capital expenses with cloud providers; second, find three workloads with which you can experiment; third, wrap existing applications to put into the cloud; and lastly, consider cloud e-mail and collaboration.”
With the diversity of activity, maturity and growth in the Cloud Services marketplace, Microsoft’s IT as a service offering simplifies the decision-making process and allows CIOs to focus on their business while reducing cost, streamlining communications (email, telephony, meetings), and expanding the capacity of its software distribution system.
For further information, please contact:
Suphada Chaiwong
Hill & Knowlton Thailand
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