Is your company ready for cloud?

MANILA, Philippines - The increasing pervasiveness of cloud computing – an internet-based sharing of “processing, resources and data” to a sundry of connected devices – have made it impossible to ignore. Indeed, a growing number of businesses have crossed the Rubicon to realize and reap the benefits. But despite the strides, the folks at internet data center, telecommunications and cloud services firm Converge Data Services Inc. (IPC) believe there remains a lot of work to be done as they continue to hammer away at the perceived impediments toward even greater adoption.

So for the third time now, IPC convened the yearly Philippine Cloud Summit to teach businesses big and small how to digitally empower their workplaces to redound in better “day-to-day operations, employee engagement and bottom line.”

“The market is huge, but as far as adoption is concerned, that’s a (different) story… Internet penetration is one thing; cloud penetration another,” IPC director for product management and marketing Niño Valmonte said.

Based on IDC report, IT spending in Philippine companies is expected to rise to $7.1 billion this year from $5.95 billion in 2014, driven by cloud computing, analytics, mobility and social business.

Despite the rise, IPC president Reynaldo Huergas said “we haven’t even scratched the surface because of infrastructure availability,” while pegging the domestic cloud market at $260 million – projected to go up to $800 million in six years.

The latest edition of the Philippine Cloud Summit highlighted what its organizers termed a global shift toward a digital mindset, one “fueled by the growing use of the internet of things (IoT).”

Leading information technology research and advisory company Gartner defines IoT as “the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment,” and predicts that, by 2020, there will be some 20.8 billion connected devices – outpacing the number of mobile phone connections by three times.

“IoT will be very pervasive, and will affect how we do things,” Huergas said. When taken in the context of the ASEAN economic integration, the IPC president said that entrepreneurs can now look beyond geographical boundaries. “We need technology to do that.”

Gartner research executive King-Yew Foong said this age of IoT enables the analysis of data culled from connected devices for trends which, in turn, hopefully “leads to better decision making by enterprises.” Four key elements comprise IoT: The deployed connected device, a communications link that allows the device to send back data to the central IoT platform for processing, the applications that sit on the cloud to process and make sense of the collected data, and analytics. Overarching the entire process is a security umbrella.

Foong additionally identified key drivers that should push adoption of IoT. Enterprises are rightfully always on the lookout to improve operational efficiency and “better asset utilization” – consequences of the tighter squeeze of competition. It can also help to achieve efficiency and to realize profit margins. 

Interestingly, security issues aren’t really to blame for keeping enterprises away from the cloud. It’s sometimes plain and simple ignorance, exacerbated by a dogged obstinacy. In reply to a question from The STAR, Valmonte admitted: “To be honest, being Filipinos, we always hear ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’ (even if the cloud) is something that will help them achieve their goals faster or not… So education is still the most important here.”

More businesses need to be shown the light, as it were. “Digital transformation is not a buzzword. It’s something that needs to happen for us to be at par with everyone else in the region,” Valmonte said.

Meanwhile, Huergas added that some concerns raised by entrepreneurs show an endemic ignorance not just to the concept of cloud computing but even to IT in general. The misconception is that cloud is expensive, just as IT is expensive – without even bothering to crunch the numbers and apply logical thinking.

According to Foong, the Philippines comparatively lags four to five years behind Singapore in terms of cloud adoption. “It’s probably alongside developing markets within ASEAN,” he declared. The catalyst for making gains in this area is a “robust and reliable network infrastructure.” Barring this, cloud will not gain the traction they seek. It’s a “hygiene factor,” underlined Foong. “If you have a lousy experience, it will take some time before you dip your feet again.”