Thailand aims to be cloud service hub

Software Park Anual Conference 2011

It was very well received for the Software Park Annual Conference 2011 “Software Industry Towards ASEAN Economic Community – AEC 2015 on 13 September 2011 at Ballroom, Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. The key objective of the event was to create awareness and to provide knowledge about ASEAN Economic Community and the impacts to IT Industry. Vnohow also participated in this event.

The US and Taiwanese governments have agreed to stimulate adoption of rental cloud-based services among small and medium-sized enterprises for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to improve competitiveness. The move promotes their cloud systems in the global marketplace, as growing cloud technology is expected to be valued at US$82.9 billion by 2016. Software Park Thailand wants to promote the country as a cloud outsourcing hub in the region over the next five years to create new IT job opportunities and attract revenue.
 

Cloud computing is set to enter the mainstream in Asia-Pacific next year. Frost & Sullivan predict 30% of companies in the region will adopt the technology. Speaking at a recent seminar, Craig Allen, a representative of the International Trade Administration under the US Department of Commerce, said his country is planning to introduce cloud for both developed and developing countries.

Ming-Cheng Sheng, director-general for the IT division of the Institute for Information Industry Chinese in Taipei, said it aims to export cloud-related products and services, especially a cloud data centre.

It is also promoting domestic use of cloud among government, manufacturing, media and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Wimonkan Kosumas, deputy director-general of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion, said the Thai government needs to strengthen IT capability for its 2.9 million SMEs to compete with more companies as free trade liberalises markets, particularly the planned Asean Economic Community.

Dr Wimonkan said cloud enables companies to use technology at a lower cost through a subscription-based service, compared to traditional licence and purchasing models that require large investments upfront. Thanachart Numnonda, director of Software Park Thailand, said Thailand could use cloud to build new IT skills to develop cloud-enabled applications.

"We could become a cloud outsource centre within five years," Dr Thanachat said. To achieve that goal, Software Park is cooperating with the Association of Thai Professionals in America and Canada to train cloud developers on the global cloud platforms of Amazon EC2, Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure.

"We are preparing to form a cloud Thailand alliance by gathering all related authorities to promote cloud in the country," he said. Dr Thanachart added that in order to achieve its goal, Thailand needs a reliable high-speed broadband infrastructure nationwide plus a data privacy protection law.

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