China holds enormous potential for global cloud providers seeking to expand their footprint, but entering a closeted market like China is a challenge for foreign players due in part to cost sensitivities, a vibrant local cloud scene and government restrictions, said panelists at RSA Conference 2014 held in San Francisco.
China’s domestic cloud landscape is an active and burgeoning one, said Terry Graham, a research affiliate at Hong Kong University.
Key players in China include Alibaba, a local e-commerce giant that offers cloud services for domestic banks and security firms, and China Telecom, which launched its own public services cloud platform of and is in the midst of building one of the world’s largest cloud campuses in Inner Mongolia. Meanwhile, web giants Baidu and Tencent also offer consumer cloud services and PaaS aimed at third party mobile app developers.
The county’s cloud market has plenty of room for more players, and the likes of Amazon Web Services, IBM and SAP have announced their intention of deploying their cloud platforms in China in tandem with local partners.
Graham listed mobility, big data and social networking as the main drivers behind the cloud computing demand in China. He added major cities in the country have also invested heavily in smart city projects, which require local cloud deployments in the areas of healthcare, education and transport.
“The Chinese government has also stepped up its game by injecting more transparency and administration into the cloud market,” said Graham. A China Cloud Computing Planning and Policy forum was formed last fall, headed by the country’s Minister for Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which is in charge of issuing trusted cloud certificates.