Global vendors and Asian operators have come together to form an industry group to push cloud computing in the region.
Cisco, Nokia Siemens, Verizon and Reach are among 11 companies that have formed the Asia Cloud Computing Association to help cut barriers to adoption and tap into a market estimated to be worth $1.3 billion in 2010.
Cloud adoption has been held back by worries over privacy and security, varying data storage regulations, a lack of meaningful bandwidth, and strict government policies, the companies said in a statement.
The other partners are Alcatel-Lucent, EMC, Microsoft, NetApp, PLDT, Rackspace and Telenor.
“Cloud adoption in the Asia Pacific region has yet to reach its full potential,” said Asia Cloud chairman and Reach CIO Sundi Balu. “The regulatory landscape and varying market maturity levels have fragmented the adoption of cloud computing in the region.”
Asia Pacific is a prime region for cloud services due to the high number of small to medium businesses, analysts say.
The Asia Cloud group has appealed to computer service, hardware and software providers to sign up, along with end-users, governments and academic outfits.