Frost & Sullivan estimates growth of cloud computing will rise from 32% this year to 50% by 2012

A lot of large firms in Bangkok, for example SCG, Michelin, and many others have temporary moved their operations to other provinces like Rayong and Chonburi, while smaller companies have allowed their employees to work either from home or remote areas to escape from the floods. Being flexible and truly “seamless” is what businesses require for such operational environment.

 

One of the mega trends indicated by Frost & Sullivan is Cloud Computing, which has emerged with profound impact on the ICT industry. It has to do with the way computing capabilities will be sold, delivered and consumed.  The ability to access the information technology (IT) resources is through a “utility” model, which delivers “IT as a service” to the end-users.

 

Dr. Monsinee Keeratikrainon, Country Manager, Frost & Sullivan Thailand states that, “So far the rate of adoption of cloud computing in Thailand has not been so rapid as other countries. The growth rate from 2010 in Thailand for cloud computing is estimated to be 32% while Asia’s regional growth is 38%. Even in ASEAN region, Thailand’s adoption and growth rate is much less than Malaysia and Singapore as both countries’ have been driven by the Government.”

 

Key barriers associated with the late adoption of businesses in Thailand are the security and privacy concerns, the quality of media (network infrastructure), and users’ attitude and readiness. However due to the recent floods, cloud-related business cases have been more frequently brought back for review and implementation because of various advantages e.g. 

 

• On-Demand – it is always available at anywhere, anytime. Businesses affected by the floods can still run the operation smoothly as if in the normal situation.

 

• Rapid Elasticity – It enables businesses to achieve scalability.  During peak period there is no needs to increase capacity. While the floods may cause damage in some computing facilities,

businesses still maintain regular flow of information without any traffic congestion  and downtime.

 

• Shared Pools –It offers a seamless integration of computing, storage and other infrastructure resources to create a Virtual resource pool.  During the floods, a company may be relocated to its plant in provincial area, while some people may work from home and others who have rescued from the floods could work from any remote locations. Regardless, the operation remains seamless as if everyone is around the same location. 

 

• Ubiquitous Access – Access is available through public or private network through any network enabled device. Access from any device, any network would make no difference in sharing information. Any flood victims who have rescued to the remote area with limited Internet access also have option to use cloud on mobile. Mobile-cloud computing  is the newly emerging way to utilize cloud and is coming its way, especially after the recent 3G roll-out in Thailand.

 

“ Frost & Sullivan estimates that the growth of cloud computing will rise from 32% this year to 50% by next year due to the needs to protect businesses from the disaster together with the improvement in mobile network infrastructure. The primary sector which drives cloud computing is still Software as a Service (SaaS), which accounts for about 90% of all cloud services, while Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) contributes 9% but it will rapidly grow in Q4 and next year especially in the storage, backup and disaster recovery services. Platform as a Service (PaaS) remains the smallest proportion, contributing only 1% of all cloud services,” she adds.