Industry heavies form Asian cloud computing organisation

Stuart Corner
Friday, 12 November 2010 06:11

IT Industry - Strategy

Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, EMC, Microsoft, NetApp, Nokia Siemens Networks, PLDT/Smart, Rackspace, Reach, Telenor and Verizon have formed the Asia Cloud Computing Association to address regional issues and challenges to the adoption of cloud computing in Asia.

The organisation will focus on privacy and security concerns, compliance and regulatory mandates, licensing models, service levels and other market risks. It is inviting other computing service, hardware and software providers, end users, and government/policy, research/academic organisations to join its ranks. A prospectus has been posted on its web site, www.asiacloud.org.

IDC estimates that the market for cloud computing in Asia outside Japan will grow to around $US1.3 billion this year and at about 40 percent a year until 2014. In Japan alone the market is estimated to be worth $US29.2b by 2015. However, according to the alliance, "security concerns, data storage regulations, low penetration of bandwidth in some countries, and government policies oriented to traditional computing models are inhibiting market growth."

Asia Cloud chairman and Reach chief information officer, Sundi Balu, said: "Cloud adoption in the Asia Pacific region has yet to reach its full potential. The regulatory landscape and varying market maturity levels have fragmented the adoption of cloud computing in the region.

"Organisations in Asia have voiced several concerns, particularly around security, service levels, and regulatory positions. There is a strong sense of urgency to have these concerns resolved by an open industry collaboration focused on the actual market realities and conditions in Asia. With Asia Cloud as a platform, key stakeholders can collaborate on issues specific to Asia and enable faster and more efficient adoption of cloud computing."

The organisation says it will evaluate global cloud standards produced by other industry associations and determine which can be adapted or advocated regionally. A number of working groups will be established, initially to focus on public policy and regulatory issues, security, taxonomy, and carrier-grade applications.

By 2011 the organisation expects to produce a set of best practices, a cloud-readiness index, development of a taxonomy, and the establishment of formal relationships with other organisations in cloud computing.