Cloud Relevant to 90% of Thai Companies, VMware Survey Finds
December 19, 2011
I reported a couple of weeks ago on The Cloud Maturity Index, a study being conducted by VMware’s Singapore office and Forrester Research.
Initial findings covered Malaysia, where 64 percent of respondents said they have deployed or are actively planning cloud initiatives.
Now the companies have released survey results about Thailand. The study (now in its second year) found that 90 percent of Thai organizations surveyed believe cloud computing is relevant to their company, and 32 percent already have cloud initiatives in place – up from 21 percent a year ago.
An additional 40 percent of organizations said they are actively planning cloud initiatives – one of the highest rates amongst the eight Asia Pacific countries studied, according to VMware…
In addition to Thailand and Malaysia, the Cloud Maturity Index surveyed Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Additional country results are expected to be released soon. The index was compiled through interviews with 6,141 senior business and IT decisionmakers throughout the region, in a variety of industries, with company size ranging from fewer than 100 employees to more than 10,000.
Virtualization is Critical
In Thailand, 74 percent of organizations said they strongly consider virtualization to be critical to enabling cloud computing, while citing their interest in virtualization for server and datacenter capabilities (84 percent) and potential to support business continuity and disaster recovery (76 percent).
Primary drivers of the latter included the ability to share IT resources more effectively (89 percent); pay for IT resources that are actually consumed (89 percent); and become more flexible (86 percent). Cost savings also ranked high on the agenda of 74 percent of Thai respondents, which was ahead of the regional average of 55 percent.
"The results from the Annual Cloud Maturity Index show that Thai organizations are increasingly looking to virtualization and cloud computing with a deeper appreciation of related business benefits," said Dr. Chawapol Jariyawiroj, country manager of VMware in Thailand. Referring specifically to a recent elephant in the room, he added, "The recent impact of the floods on business operations and employee mobility also demonstrates the viability of virtualization-based business continuity and disaster recovery solution, and this is an upward trend that we expect to continue."
Shy About Public Cloud
Most companies in Thailand indicated a greater likelihood to use or consider a combination of public and private clouds (39 percent) or private clouds (44 percent). The exclusive use of public clouds was the least popular (seven percent), due to concerns over the security of corporate data and applications, according to VMware.
"Serious concerns over data privacy and security have led local respondents to show a strong preference for a hybrid cloud model," said Dr. Chawapol, adding that Vmware’s position is "that seamless federation of information between public, private and hybrid clouds is critical to realizing the true benefits of cloud computing."
Cloud Readiness
These results can be viewed in context with research earlier this year by Asia Cloud, a non-profit based in Hong Kong. This organization’s Cloud Readiness Index, which considered more than a dozen factors, ranked Thailand near the bottom, exceeding only Vietnam and the Philippines in the region. Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea led this index.
Tau Index Ranking
My own Tau Index research finds Thailand trailing only Malaysia in the region within their income group ($3,000 to $7,000 per capita).
Looking at things this way, Singapore (with a higher income) and Vietnam (with a lower income) both exceed Thailand when it comes to the dynamism of their IT environment.