Although it is not — at least not yet — the leading cloud adopter in the region, the Philippines registered the only positive mark in the 2012 ?Cloud Readiness Index?, which covered 14 Asian countries.
The survey was conducted by AsiaCloudOrg and released in October of last year, according software colossus Oracle which cited the study in a recent press briefing in Makati City.
In the study, the Philippines was the only country that got a positive grade in the use of the cloud. In the Asean market, Singapore and Malaysia were tagged as the countries with the most pervasive cloud implementations but their level of adoption on an annual basis remained static.
One of the major drivers of cloud computing in the Philippine is the government?s cloud computing strategy, according to Chandru Relwani, senior director for CRM applications product management at Oracle Asia Pacific and Japan.
Called ?GovCloud?, the cloud framework was formally launched in June 2013 as part of the Integrated Government Philippines (iGovPhil) Project of the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) of the Department of Science and Technology.
The program, Relwani said, appeared to have spurred the uptake of cloud solutions in the public sector. The vigorous push from local cloud providers may have also contributed in the adoption in the SME (small and medium enterprises sector), he said.
The booming local market, according to Relwani, is the reason why Oracle is putting an extra focus on the Philippines for the company?s cloud solutions.
With mega-trends driving the cloud adoption such as Big Data, mobility, and social media, the Oracle executive said businesses willing to hop on the cloud should be careful to pick a platform that will address their needs and is cost-effective.
?At Oracle, our cloud strategy is that anything on premise can be on the cloud,? said Relwani, adding that the company now offers the most comprehensive cloud solutions in the Asia Pacific region.
As for criticisms that Oracle?s heritage as a traditional software maker renders it unsuitable to offer cloud solutions, Relwani said this fact actually works to Oracle?s advantage since it can offer the full breadth of solutions ? from on-premise to the cloud.
?The truth of the matter is that not all enterprises are ready to go to the public cloud. The dominant model that will emerge will be the hybrid type, in which companies will put their sensitive data in their own IT infrastructure while using the public cloud for some other information and processes,? Relwani said.
