The Cloud is the future of businesses in the Philippines and Asia Pacific, with regional cloud spending expected to skyrocket to US$200 billion by 2024 .
More and more, local and regional organizations turning to cloud innovations to digitalize, become faster, leaner and better at delivering results for customers, according to a new study by Cisco and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released today (August 24).
Across ASEAN, economies such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam will lead the pack in terms of cloud spending growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% by 2024, the study revealed.
Investment into the cloud is growing at a CAGR of over 20% since 2018, according to the study titled "The Future of Cloud in Asia Pacific".
Singapore is among the top three markets in Asia Pacific with the largest overall IT spend across applications, platforms, infrastructure and services.
"Looking ahead, cloud investments will continue to dominate boardroom conversations, with enterprises being the chief architects in their own cloud journey, and in shaping the future of cloud,” says Naveen Menon, President, Cisco ASEAN.
The study examined key cloud trends in the region and identified imperatives for businesses to capture today's hybrid multi-cloud market.
Findings from the study revealed how organizations in the region optimize a mix of public, private and hybrid cloud environments, based on their digital, operational, and business needs plus other factors - regulatory concerns, risk appetite, geographical expansion, and data needs.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution in the cloudification roadmap," observed Prasanna Santhanam, Managing Director and Partner, Singapore, BCG.
"Business and IT leaders need to be strategic and mindful when navigating the intricacies of cloud innovations and consider the benefits, challenges and risks associated with each strategy in the mid- to long-term," he explained.
"As the focus shifts towards rebuilding better and emerging stronger in the next normal, cloud innovations form an integral part of business continuity plans,” Santhanam added.
The report identified five archetypes of organizations based on their cloudification journey – the Digital Native, Cloud Optimizer, Cloud Pragmatist, Cautious Adopter and Cloud Onlooker.
Digital Natives are organizations born in the cloud and built from the ground up on the cloud.
Cloud is fully embedded in their business, primarily driven by digital- and cloud-first strategies.
Public cloud has always been the default choice for them, and they are agile because of their cloud capabilities.
Cloud Optimizers are organizations at the forefront of digital transformation initiatives, having moved away from outdated legacy systems to the cloud.
They have mature cloud systems in place, and typically take a public cloud first approach.
Cloud Pragmatists are organizations that embrace the cloud but generally prefer private over public cloud due to concerns over data and workloads.
Due to their priority in maintaining control over their data, risks and costs, public cloud is used to a limited extent for non-business critical workloads, while private cloud is used as a strategic asset.
Cautious Adopters took a project-based approach to cloud adoption while digital is rising on their agenda but they have no enterprise-wide cloud strategy.
Leaders have yet to fully understand and embrace the benefits of cloud offerings, resulting in a lack of strategic direction to define a cloud vision.
Cloud Onlookers are organizations that do not currently consider cloud as a strategic advantage for their business goals, but as another form of digital infrastructure.
They have no active plans to adopt cloud in their business model and strategy, but leaders could introduce isolated cloud solutions if they believe that to be beneficial to the organization.
“Each organization’s path will look different, depending on their unique needs and focus areas as they develop their post-pandemic roadmap," Menon pointed out.
While cloud service providers defined cloud as the aspiration and end goal for customers in the past, the cloud journey needs to be personalized and tailored to the business and its sector.
"As organizations navigate the hybrid cloud world and distributed workforce of the future, the challenge is ensuring this shift to cloud is managed efficiently and securely,” he cautioned.
Furthermore, the study illustrates four stages of corporate cloud adoption.
While organizations do not adhere to a standard, homogenous timeline, they typically require a ‘trigger’ to move on to the next stage.
This could come in the form of shifts in business demand or changes in the organization’s digital agenda.
In Stage 1, the organization is not actively pursuing cloud innovations, but might be implementing it on an ad-hoc basis.
Stage 2 is the experimental phase. Cloud solutions are largely experimental and on-premises, with a focus on the improvement of customer experience or leveraging analytics for better insights.
In Stage 3, cloud strategy is organization-wide and well-defined, with the use of cloud integrated in core business systems.
In the advance phase, Stage 4, cloudification occurs across the technology stack, with ongoing programs for technology lifecycle and improvement.