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More APAC firms adopting cloud, but internal resistance remains

Some 73 percent of businesses in Asia-Pacific have adopted or are planning to deploy cloud computing in the next 12 months, but internal resistance to change is hindering the rollout of such services, reveals survey.
Written by Eileen Yu, Senior Contributing Editor

Most organizations in the Asia-Pacific region have adopted or are planning to deploy cloud computing in the next 12 months, but internal resistance to change is hindering the rollout of such services. 

Cloud computing
However, 53 percent said their organization had concerns about deploying mission-critical or strategic applications on public cloud.

Some 73 percent of businesses in the region had already deployed cloud or were planning to do in the next 12 months, according to VMware's Cloud Index 2013 released Thursday. Conducted by Forrester Consulting, the Cloud Index polled 2,785 senior IT professionals in 12 Asia-Pacific economies including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.  

Across the region, 65 percent agreed cloud or "as-a-service" approaches helped their organization compete more effectively, with 30 percent describing cloud computing as a top priority for their organization and to significantly impact business transformation. Another 84 percent said it enabled their business to optimize their existing IT efficiency and effectiveness.

Another 77 percent agreed the cloud model helped the company reduce IT costs, while only 5 percent disagreed.

Noting that cloud adoption had reached maturity, VMware said the region was ready to transition to the next phase that extends cloud computing to the mobile space. It also noted a "marked change" in the perception of IT, with 78 percent of respondents noting that IT was viewed as a change enabler and source of business value for their organization.  

Some 80 percent of respondents said IT departments must provide services more quickly and cost-effectively or risk being marginalized. 

"The Asia-Pacific region is showing signals that it's ready to enter the new era of IT and drive business transformation through IT transformation," Sanjay Mirchandani, VMware's Asia-Pacific and Japan senior vice president and general manager, said in the report. "The next era in Asia-Pacific will be defined by a mobile-cloud and software-defined approach that is tightly connected to delivering business value."

Respondents, though, were apprehensive about the public cloud model, with 53 percent saying their organization had concerns about deploying mission-critical or strategic applications on this platform. About 14 percent did not believe their organizations had such concerns. Another 61 percent said data residency and compliance requirements had significant impact on their organization.

Asked which cloud environment--public, private, or hybrid--would they choose to deploy their IT priorities, such as improving IT operational efficiency, delivering data analytics, and enhancing IT agility, most respondents--ranging 33 to 43 percent--opted for a private cloud model. Some 26 to 35 percent chose the hybrid cloud model, while 13 to 18 percent chose the public cloud platform. 

In addition, 50 percent said internal resistance to change was hindering their company's cloud deployment. 

Across the board, 67 percent of IT professionals said software-defined approaches in implementing and managing datacenter resources--encompassing servers, storage and network--would have significant impact on how they support change in their organizations over the next two to three years. 

Mirchandani added: "The software-defined data center is the IT architecture for the mobile cloud era, and can help IT realign and help drive business transformation across the region."

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