SINGAPORE, 8 DECEMBER 2009 — Cloud computing has yet to gain acceptance in the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan (APEJ), according to a recent Springboard Research report.
Titled ‘Cloud Computing in Asia Pacific – Market Evolution and Implications’, the report by the IT market research and advisory firm said only 46 per cent of the respondents in the region showed familiarity with the concept.
When it comes to relevance in business and IT strategies, two-thirds of organisations across the region find cloud computing—a collection of IT-enabled resources and capabilities that can be delivered via the Internet as a service—as “not-relevant”.
Moreover, 78 per cent of the organisations that are aware of the concept have not jumped into the cloud-based applications deployment.
More familiar with SaaS
While only less than half of the organisations knew cloud computing, 95 per cent showed familiarity with software-as-a-service (SaaS), the Springboard report indicated. It is noted that SaaS-based CRM and ERP, storage, Web conferencing and e-mail are the most popular applications among cloud users and constitute a bulk of cloud-related spending.
Also examined in the report are platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).
Despite the low awareness displayed by respondents, the report predicted that cloud computing will push the demand for SaaS and also stretch the types of service offered through the on-demand model.
“Cloud computing is the next phase in the delivery and consumption of IT-enabled services and a major evolutionary step in the maturing of the IT industry,” said Michael Barnes, Springboard vice president for software research.
Organisations adopting cloud computing are predicted to outpace competitors in the region, drive greater standardisation at the IT infrastructure level, and lower the resources required to take advantage of the technology solutions for business benefits, Barnes said.
For the cloud vendors to succeed, “trust” was singled out as crucial to market growth.
“In fact, delivering strong support is even more important in the still nascent cloud computing market as it is needed to overcome the early scepticism, uncertainty and doubts that characterise this market,” Barnes emphasised.
