85% of PH businesses readying for Cloud revolution
THE landscape of Philippine business is undergoing a transformative shift towards the Cloud. This was revealed by a survey titled “The Next-Generation Cloud Strategy In Asia,” conducted by Alibaba Cloud, and presented in a media conference recently.
The survey uncovered that a substantial 85 percent of local businesses are gearing up for a comprehensive Cloud migration within two years. Moreover, a remarkable 91 percent of these businesses are poised to increase their investments in Cloud solutions throughout 2023.
The survey, encompassing insights from 1,000 organizations spanning diverse industries, including finance, IT, manufacturing, media, telecommunications, and retail across eight Asian markets, including the Philippines, illuminated the driving forces behind this Cloud momentum. The rapid expansion of the local data center market (78 percent) and the Philippine government’s resolute digitalization agenda (79 percent) emerged as the principal catalysts propelling businesses towards the Cloud.
Security (85 percent), availability (74 percent), and expertise (62 percent) were identified as the pivotal factors influencing Philippine businesses’ selection of Cloud vendors. Security emerged as a standout concern, with the Philippines leading its Asian counterparts in prioritizing this aspect, followed by Indonesia (82 percent) and Thailand (78 percent), especially in the fields of finance, education and
Alibaba Cloud, recognizing this accelerating trend, is aligning its strategies to meet the needs of the evolving Philippine market. Country Manager for the Philippines, Allen Guo, affirmed his company’s commitment in offering innovative and reliable Cloud solutions to Philippine businesses, in line with the rising tide of Cloud adoption.
A key revelation from the survey was the importance of training and education in Cloud technology for employees, identified as a top barrier to Cloud adoption by the majority of surveyed businesses. In response, Alibaba Cloud has formed partnerships with local educational institutions, including Asia Pacific College, to enhance the Cloud computing competencies of students and educators, fostering a pool of digital talent.
“The future landscape of Cloud computing lies in the hands of the next generation, and as educators, it is our duty to foster and nurture their digital talents,” Rhea-Luz Valbuena, Executive Director, School of Computing and Information Technologies, Asia Pacific College said.
“Our recent collaboration with Alibaba Cloud has been instrumental in accelerating our mission to equip students with the essential tools to thrive in the current scenario, especially with the rising demand for cloud computing in local businesses,” Valbuena stated
To address the increasing emphasis on environmental sustainability, Alibaba Cloud introduced its sustainability solution, Energy Expert, which measures and manages carbon emissions while providing actionable insights for businesses to achieve their carbon emission goals.
Alibaba Cloud’s collaboration with Philippine telecommunications leader Globe Business exemplifies its commitment to localized solutions for digital transformation needs. This strategic partnership aims to offer tailor-made Cloud solutions catering to the unique requirements of Philippine enterprises.
“Alibaba Cloud’s Financial Services solutions, comprising over 70 products designed to help financial services institutions (FSIs) of all sizes across banking, insurance, securities, and FinTech digitalize their operations. These solutions are designed to support every stage of a FSI’s digital journey and provide easy access to cutting-edge cloud-native technology. For example, the Digital onboarding and servicing leverages various Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and hybrid cloud deployments to support mobile and digital operations, remote video-based sales platforms and an electronic know-your-customer (eKYC) solution, helping FSIs verify and onboard users online anytime and from anywhere,” Guo said responding to a question from Malaya Business Insight on the versatility of the platform.
With the Philippines at the forefront of the Cloud revolution, businesses are embracing the power of Cloud technology to streamline operations, enhance security, and drive sustainability, all while nurturing the digital talents of the next generation. This requires a lot of infrastructure.
“In Southeast Asia, Alibaba Cloud has the biggest presence of local data centers in Southeast Asia among global public cloud service providers. We launched our first data center in the Philippines in 2021. Since the Philippines is an important market for Alibaba Cloud, we are committed to continuing our mission on helping more Philippine business with innovative cloud technologies. If there is any update in the future, we will share in due course. With a data center on the ground in the Philippines, businesses are enabled to advance their cloud migration and enjoy lower latency at a lower cost without the need to worry about the issue of local compliance and data sovereignty,” Guo concluded.
As the leading public Cloud service provider in the Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud stands poised to empower Philippine businesses with cutting-edge solutions that align with their evolving needs and ambitions.
