Vmware's survey finds most Thais see cloud services as helping drive IT/business improvements.

The survey found that 88 percent of respondents have already adopted cloud solutions or approaches.

It announced that among major technology trends that were identified, 78 percent of Thailand respondents believe a software-defined approach to implementing and managing datacenter resources (servers, storage, networks) will have a significant impact on their organizations over the next 2-3 years.

The VMware Cloud Index is commissioned by VMware and conducted by Forrester Consulting.

It surveyed 2,785 senior IT and business decision-makers in 10 Asia Pacific countries including 174 Thai respondents. The results of the study were presented at the annual VMware Solutions Symposium (VSS) in Bangkok. 

The VMware Cloud Index 2013 revealed that cloud computing is critical for gaining a competitive business advantage for many Thai companies.

Lowering upfront procurement costs for new IT capabilities and resources (74 percent) is the most critical for improving business/IT operations.

Respondents also believed that cloud computing has the ability to optimize existing IT efficiency and effectiveness (91 percent) and 88 percent of them think that the use of cloud and ‘as-a-service’ approaches will have an impact on their businesses in the next 2-3 years.

“At VMware, our vision is centered on empowering IT to help organizations become more efficient, leaner and profitable. By embracing the benefits of cloud and enabling IT to build a radically simpler and more efficient IT infrastructure, businesses can maximize their performance and cost savings,” said Dr Chawapol Jariyawiroj, Country Manager Thailand and Indochina, VMware Thailand.

Thailand respondents rate fast provisioning and zero downtime as the highest priorities for both storage and networking, well ahead of both performance and agility, together with Philippines and Vietnam. 

The significance of cloud computing in Thailand was highlighted in the flood crisis in end 2011, in which organizations realized the need for risk management with the use of cloud technology for backup and disaster recovery.

Thai businesses also recognized that IT has a significant role to play in enabling Thai companies to not just reap the benefits of IT as a service and reducing capital expenditure but also in disaster recovery and business continuity.

According to the survey, 82 percent of respondents believe that IT is viewed as a change enabler and source of business value to the organization.

Most respondents (83 per cent) also consider the need to address rising expectations of customers and improving customer satisfaction to be a top business priority over the next 12 months – second only to improving the quality and capabilities of their products.

The survey found that 88 percent confirm that business units often go around IT in order to source technology or business applications directly. Additionally, more than half of respondents believe the perceived credibility, influence and power of the CIO is increasing while only 6percent believe it is decreasing.

While businesses in Thailand recognize the importance of cloud as a business enabler, most Thailand IT and business decision-makers (80 percent) feel that IT is too slow and that their IT organization must provision services more quickly and cost-effectively to the business or risk getting marginalized. 

“Only 24 percent of respondents believe their current IT investments are both sufficient and properly aligned, even though most of the respondents (90 percent) believe that the projects they are working on now or expect to work on in 2-3 years will be critical to the ongoing success of their companies,” said Jariyawiroj said. 

“We believe that IT has the potential to make a significant impact on the Thai economy and want to help businesses reap the benefits of cloud computing.”