Cloud adoption has accelerated sharply across all countries in
the Asia Pacific, excluding Japan (APEJ) during the last 12 months,
says the latest “Cloud Computing in Asia Pacific 2010
– End-User Adoption Trends” report from
Springboard Research, a leading innovator in the IT Market Research
industry. Springboard revealed that 45 percent of organizations in
Asia Pacific, excluding Japan (APEJ) are either currently using or
planning cloud initiatives, up from 22 percent in 2009.
“Cloud adoption and awareness have increased rapidly
across the region, with particularly strong growth among cloud
adopters in ANZ and cloud planners in ASEAN”, said Michael
Barnes, VP of Software & Asia Pacific Research, Springboard
Research. “Nonetheless, security remains a primary
cloud-related concern across the region, outweighing concerns over
availability and performance as well as data privacy and
residency”, added Barnes.
Small and Medium Sized Businesses are
Aggressive Adopters
Springboard’s report found
that Cloud adoption varies widely by organization size. Small and
Medium sized Businesses (SMBs), particularly organizations with
100-299 employees, are the most aggressive adopters, with 54
percent currently using or actively planning to adopt cloud-based
solutions. In contrast, only 36 percent of large organizations
(more than 1000 employees) are currently using or actively planning
Cloud initiatives.
Among the vertical industries, healthcare and retail are most
bullish in terms of Cloud awareness, perceived relevance and
adoption while utilities, manufacturing and government sectors
currently lag.
Enterprise Applications are most widely
used cloud-based solutions
According to the Springboard report, enterprise applications
continue to be the most widely used Cloud-based solutions, as cited
by 36 percent of APEJ respondents. The bulk of this category is
comprised of CRM, as it is currently still the largest individual
SaaS market in APEJ.
“APEJ organizations are particularly keen to exploit the
cost saving potential of cloud solutions, with 49 percent viewing
cloud as primarily a cost-saving measure, versus only 23 percent
who mainly view as a strategic investment”, said Sanchit Vir
Gogia, Associate Research Manager, Software at Springboard
Research.
Among vendors, Google dominates in terms of both cloud mindshare
and user adoption plans, but IBM and Microsoft have both made
strong gains in cloud-related mindshare over the last 12
months.