In 2019, Southeast Asia’s (SEA) Internet economy hit US$100 billion (RM406.6 billion) for the first time. The region shows no signs of slowing down, with Indonesia and Vietnam recording growth rates in excess of 40% a year.
The cloud will similarly see explosive growth here. According to a report by global business analytics company Adroit Market Research, the cloud computing market revenue in SEA is estimated to reach US$30.32 billion (RM123.3 billion) by 2025, driven by increasing demand for cloud among emerging small and midsize businesses (SMEs).
But what exactly will be shaping the cloud business in this coming year?
Shaping business towards cloud
Business cloud adoption
It’s hard to get figures on how companies are adopting cloud services although the market is clearly growing rapidly. This can enable businesses to move faster but also can create security risks if the use of apps is not managed.
Adoption will also vary by application: cloud-based email — is much easier to adopt than a new finance system for example. Research by Spiceworks suggests that companies are planning to invest in cloud-based communications and collaboration tools and back-up and disaster recovery, but are less likely to be investing in supply chain management.
Business cloud price wars
The cost of cloud services — particularly virtual machines — has been falling steadily thanks to continued competition between these big players. There is some evidence that the price cuts may spread to other services like storage and databases, as cloud vendors want to win the big workloads that are moving out of enterprise data centers and into the cloud. That’s likely to be good news for customers and prices could still fall further, as there remains a hefty margin in even the most commodity areas of cloud infrastructure services, like the provision of virtual machines.
Business cloud future
Cloud is still at a relatively early stage of adoption, despite its long history. Many companies are still considering which apps to move and when. However, usage is only likely to climb as organizations get more comfortable with the idea of their data being somewhere other than a server in the basement.
As a result cloud computing vendors are increasingly pushing cloud as an agent of digital transformation instead of focusing simply on cost. Moving to the cloud can help companies rethink business processes and accelerate business change, goes the argument, by helping to break down data and organisational silos.
How do you build a business case for cloud?
To build a business case for moving systems to the cloud you first need to understand what your existing infrastructure actually costs.
There’s a lot to factor in obvious things like the cost of running data centers and extras such as leased lines. The cost of physical hardware — servers and details of specifications like CPUs, cores, and RAM, plus the cost of storage.
Cloud brings numerous benefits where it ensures better collaboration, transparency, efficiency, and innovation in its solutions. Cloud also reduces barriers to communication and gives you access to a wider audience, including customers and contractors. Learn how your company can benefit from cloud experience. Explore more!
