Cloud computing has reached its second decade and despite being a mature technology, we’re barely scratching the surface of cloud solutions’ full potential to enable digital transformation. With hybrid and multi-cloud architectures providing organisations greater flexibility and a sharper competitive edge, now is the time for them to assess what they need to win in a digital economy.
And, in making that assessment, there are crucial differences among the various cloud providers that businesses should consider, particularly for organisations in Asia feeling caught between the US and China technology tug-of-war.
Asia currently holds the title as the world’s largest regional economy with its GDP overtaking the combined GDP of the world for the first time since the 19th century. As Asia leapfrogs the world digitally, it is increasingly looking within for solutions rather than relying on the other regions.
This is especially true for areas where it leads the world like the Smart City initiatives of Singapore and AI advancements of Japan. Being in pole position to lead the 5G revolution, all eyes will be on APAC – giving the region the perfect opportunity to be a trailblazer in dealing with the new problems and behaviours 5G will bring. For Asia to continue its momentum, there’s a strong need for it to innovate.
Home of GDPR and known for being at the forefront of data sovereignty, Europe is slowly disrupting the American-Chinese duopoly because of the values the region is built on. Here are three reasons why the alternative cloud from Europe can help the rapidly developing APAC region innovate freely.
Your data, your property, only yours
Over the past decade, cloud computing’s massive demand gave rise to the numerous providers which form the American-Chinese duopoly that exists today. Because of this, organisations have been limited to operate under either US or Chinese regulations on data storage and protection.
Being in the heart of a digital revolution, it is important to set the standard that data should never be viewed as an extra-territorial asset. Organisations deserve the utmost privacy for their data and should have the freedom to do whatever they want with it. Cloud providers should strive to meet such standards.
Working with pure cloud players with their own infrastructure and which manage their own value chain is another assurance of data privacy. On top of better efficiency and performance, such an end-to-end approach reduces the risk of unauthorised access and provides customers with maximum privacy for their data.
At the same time, the reversible and interoperability aspect of European alternative cloud solutions allow organisations to have a path back from the cloud with no repercussions. Such capabilities will play a major role in the success of fast-growing businesses in the APAC region looking to expand abroad especially when there’s a need to migrate workloads into the cloud with new providers.
While this may seems counterproductive for cloud providers, we must not forget that such data belongs to customers and no one else, which is why the European model does not have any lock-in period – enabling organisations to come or go so as to best meet their business needs.
Transparency like none other
At a time where organisations are increasingly storing sensitive data on the cloud, the secret to earning their trust is for cloud providers to simply be transparent. There’s really no other way around and the more transparent a provider is, the more comfortable organisations will be putting their trust in the cloud.
Due to the cloud’s scalability, organisations sometimes end up getting a shock by a hike in cost due to traffic surges. Scenarios like this are common in APAC being home to the world’s most engaged mobile internet users in the world.
To avoid such situations, the European model offers clear communication of usage and predictable pricing. Only resources and services consumed are invoiced on a granular level and often in local currency.
Most importantly, organisations using the European model will be able to control where their data is stored and how it is being used – giving them the peace of mind to focus purely on achieving business goals.
Push for an open ecosystem
With increasing volatility and changes in the digital world, the need for an open ecosystem has never been stronger. Success can only come from working together, and therein the importance of partners working together as an open ecosystem, encouraging collaboration, innovation and contribution within the community.
Rather than having just one cloud provider, a global ecosystem offers freedom of choice and open solutions to organisations. European cloud providers recognise the need for organisations to be supported by open ecosystems powered by an open cloud and offer organisations total freedom to manage their data – giving them the flexibility to modify cloud deployments to the best of their business, especially at a time DevOps is increasingly being used to develop scalable cloud-based applications with the public cloud.
Supported by open-source technologies, organisations are also free to use whatever solution that best suits them including existing ones on this open cloud. Having an open ecosystem is an integral part of the development and with it, Asia will experience great leaps of innovation forward and eventually, shape the digital world on a global level.
The growth spurt that cloud computing is currently experiencing is the first of many to come with new variations that we can’t even imagine yet. For APAC to remain ahead, organisations here must keep up with the cloud’s evolution.
The top organisations are those that constantly optimise the way the cloud works for them and have been given full liberty by their provider partners to utilise it in a manner that best suits them. This is how APAC organisations can innovate for freedom and win in a digital economy.
