By Chris Cheadle
After more than a decade of rapid growth in the major economies across Asia Pacific, in parallel with massive investments in IT and mobile infrastructure, people in the region are really benefitting from advances in business productivity and enhanced communications.
Much of this transformation is being enabled by the flexibility of cloud computing coupled with mobile access to IT services ? and these same changes are opening up new job opportunities for the connected, tech-literate population.
IT analyst Gartner predicts APAC investment in public cloud services will reach $7.4 billion in 2015, up more than 14 percent from 2014. By 2018, total cloud spending across APAC is predicted to reach $11.5 billion.
But what is driving this investment and why is it happening now? There?s no single answer to this question. Instead, there are a number of factors converging to make the APAC cloud story so exciting right now: infrastructure development, economic growth, innovation, new business skills, and changing consumer behaviors.
Investment in the cloud
Cloud computing is empowering enterprises by providing IT infrastructure, software, and services through an Internet-based delivery model on a pay-as-you-go basis. Instead of maintaining their own equipment and IT assets, companies can concentrate on creating business value for their customers.
The pressing need for agility in the developing APAC economies creates a compelling environment for further cloud expansion as companies seek more sophisticated, flexible, and accessible applications to support their growth plans.
Entrepreneurs in APAC have learned from the experience of established businesses in western economies that have frequently become mired in cumbersome legacy IT systems. They want to avoid being slowed down by complex on-premises IT systems and are starting their planning in the cloud. And now they have plenty of choice, as cloud can be provided in different layers.
Hardware (computers, servers, storage, and network connectivity) can be made available as an infrastructure base (infrastructure as a service – IaaS). The more visible software applications occupying the upper layer can also be delivered as a service (Software as a service ? SaaS).
The most advanced cloud companies such as Oracle complete the offering with a platform (Platform as a Service ? PaaS), which provides ready access to tools to rapidly develop and run applications and tailor them for mobile connectivity. This enables innovative companies to swiftly unleash their ideas, capitalize on disruptive business models, and deliver the services their customers really value.
The mobile revolution
APAC countries have leapfrogged technology levels in telecoms as well as computing infrastructure, skipping the clutter of generations of legacy fixed-phone lines and embracing mobile as the starting point for much of their infrastructure planning.
From the hotbeds of mobile innovation in South Korea and Japan, to the huge growth in mobile across China, India, and many other rapidly growing markets, the mobile revolution has taken hold.
As a result, customers can access cloud services and applications though the internet and on their mobile devices, wherever they are. The power of always-on, easily available IT services is changing the business and social landscape across APAC, raising customer expectations at the same time. Digitally savvy consumers also force a high rate of innovation and push companies to develop more novel offerings within tighter timeframes.
Only cloud will support the rapid deployment of new online products and services to meet these demands and high expectations of consumers across the region. This is as true for airlines as it is for governments looking to engage and keep informed some of the world?s biggest populations.
Platforms for career growth
Oracle has enjoyed a presence in the APAC region for the past 20 years and over that time the business has grown quickly. We are a major player in the cloud in APAC, and in fact are the only cloud company that provides a complete range of business applications, platform software, and infrastructure in the cloud ? SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
The last few years have been exciting for Oracle as businesses across APAC embrace the potential, power, and flexibility of the cloud, and it has been very rewarding being at the forefront and witnessing increasing demand for private cloud deployments and subscriptions for software delivered in the cloud. We now have 80,000 customers, and more than 45,000 employees.
Oracle is responding to the continued transformation of the business landscape by ramping up hiring of new sales talent to support customer growth. Careers in the cloud provide great job opportunities for the new generation of digital enthusiasts who will help drive these innovations forward in the APAC region.
The cloud and mobile revolutions that have benefitted businesses have also helped create a community of highly tech-literate people, and as a major employer here we?re proud to be an integral part of the development of the workforce in APAC.
The author is the general manager and senior vice president of Oracle Asia Pacific
