You won't believe how much cloud services will be worth by 2014

Cloud computing is here and SMEs in Singapore need to embrace it. The transition to public or private clouds is gaining pace as companies in Singapore realize the potential for transforming business capabilities and driving new innovative services. Cloud computing in Singapore is expected to grow 43 per cent over the next five years, exceeding the forecast of 29 per cent in the region.

According to IDC, Singapore’s cloud services are expected to be worth US$177 million by 2014. Cloud services in the Asia – Pacific excluding Japan is projected to hit US$4.59 billion in 2014, bringing new opportunities for regional providers.

Cloud computing is all about creating a solution that delivers a new class of distinctive services and business value while keeping IT investments costs at a minimum. SMEs that embrace cloud computing have access to a massive amount of computing resources including storage, applications and data. These capabilities were previously too costly for small and mid-size companies to implement on premise, but the cloud now provides the opportunity to access affordable yet sophisticated business management software and create new business connections.
Before making a commitment, SMEs need to establish a road map to implementing cloud-based solutions and addressing important areas such as data integrity, data consistency, rigorous compliance, and unifying business processes across the company.

For technology providers such as SAP, enabling new technology adoption has been a key value driver for its customers. With both private and public clouds, companies are turning to SAP to help them deploy applications on cloud-based infrastructures or help them take their existing infrastructure to the cloud.

A Comprehensive, Flexible Approach

Cloud computing represents a fundamental shift in how applications and services are developed, sold, maintained and consumed. That is why it is imperative for vendors and IT service providers to take a comprehensive, flexible approach to help their customers drive greater innovation, integration and collaboration across three essential areas of cloud computing: Software as a Service (SaaS); Platform as a Service (PaaS); and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

SaaS enables companies to access applications on demand to meet their broad requirements, while PaaS provides an integrated business process platform with open and flexible deployment capabilities to help companies build and run applications on premise. On the IaaS side of the equation, while consumers do not manage or control the underlying infrastructure in this case, they do have control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications and some networking components. Instead of having to invest in the actual infrastructure, companies are being billed on a consumption basis.

Cloud adoption is expected to accelerate at a rapid pace over the next decade. As such, the prevailing belief is that the best way to help companies prepare and successfully exploit the cloud is to provide a comprehensive portfolio of on-demand and on-premise solutions, as well as significant innovations and benefits from partner ecosystems.

In addition to accessing the public cloud, companies can also opt to virtualize their own data centers and run their systems on a private infrastructure cloud. Virtualization has become an established opportunity to reduce TCO through increased operational efficiencies. However, companies choosing this path require reliable and easy-to-use cloud management technologies and services in order to best virtualize and manage their on-premise systems.

Cloud Benefits
Regardless of their location, SMEs that quickly embrace the cloud will have a significant advantage over their competitors.
Cloud adopters will have immediate access to a huge pool of diverse computing resources. This capability not only provides companies with the ability to respond quickly to shifting business conditions but also the opportunity to drive new innovations at a reduced cost and faster time to market.

The scale and distributed nature of the cloud also provides unprecedented opportunities for new connections between people, businesses and experiences that were previously constrained by traditional applications and communications. With a well-defined road map and a partnership with a trusted technology provider, SMEs can start reaping the benefits of cloud computing today, and are well positioned to pass up the competition tomorrow.

Kowshik Sriman, Managing Director, SAP Singapore