SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) will continue to embrace the new opportunities that cloud technologies can offer. These companies in the Asia-Pacific (excl. Japan) (APAC) region will invest US$11.4 billion into cloud computing solutions, according to the latest research conducted by AMI-Partners.
AMI predicts the market for cloud solutions will grow at more than twice the rate of traditional ICT technologies in 2011 in these markets. In addition, this region is expected to lead worldwide expansion of cloud computing markets thereby providing ICT vendors with a strong, sustainable growth potential.
In 2011, the majority of the APAC region’s cloud investments are estimated to come from SMBs in Korea, China, and Australia. While the strongest growth among APAC economies is expected to take place in China and India with annual growth rates beyond 20%, AMI expects the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market to be the next fastest growing sub-region. “With increasingly favorable economic and infrastructural conditions, ASEAN markets such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia provide strong annual growth potential,” says Singapore-based Stefan Haas, Consulting Director Asia-Pacific at AMI. “The proliferation of broadband internet and high-speed mobile networks provides these SMBs with an increasing number of options to access cloud solutions. This allows a completely new segment of SMBs to adopt ICT functionality for the first time especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities,” Haas continues.
“SMBs in the APAC region have clearly realized the strategic advantages of transitioning into the cloud. While MBs can take advantage of cloud technologies to further optimize their IT budgets and overall cost structure, SBs can deploy for the first time new Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and SaaS capabilities that previously would have required significant upfront and maintenance investments,” says Haas. “Our findings also show that once a company has started its journey into the cloud and has deployed the first-use case successfully, they are very likely to explore broader use of additional cloud infrastructure and application solutions.”
Compared to traditional ICT technologies, APAC SMBs will purchase a relatively small portion of their planned cloud solutions directly from an ICT vendor in 2011. “ICT vendors that want to take advantage of the overall cloud potential in the APAC markets have to ensure that they establish a broad ecosystem of Channel and Communications Partners. Besides high-touch service orientation and local proximity to the end-customer, the ability to articulate the strategic value of cloud solutions and provide integrated value-added services bundles will become a critical differentiation criteria for a successful partner in this region,” according to Haas.
AMI concludes that there is a confluence of factors that will continue to drive the broad adoption of cloud services in the Asia-Pacific markets. “Asia-Pacific SMBs are ready for the cloud. ICT vendors will be most successful if they succeed in establishing an adaptive channel partner network that enables SMBs to align their IT-requirements with their overall growth strategy through an intelligent cloud solution and services portfolio,” says Haas.
About the Study
AMI’s 2011 SMB Cloud Overview and Tactical Guides examine the SMB Cloud opportunity in 30+ countries, including SMB preference for Cloud-based application bundle, price sensitivity and purchase channel preferences. These studies also provide comprehensive coverage of SMB adoption of Cloud-based applications, managed services, and supporting infrastructure, including platforms and devices. These studies will provide a roadmap for successful Cloud go-to-market strategies and tactics. The reports provide an overview of the growing impact of cloud services on the SMB market from the following perspectives:
| • | Cloud mindset and economic influence | |||||||
| • | Cloud enabling platforms, infrastructure and devices | |||||||
| • | SaaS, unified communications (UC) and remotely managed IT services (RMITS) | |||||||
| • | Current and planned adoption and deployment of cloud solutions | |||||||
| • | Cloud usage behavior, decision making and purchase channels |
For more information about this research or AMI’s strategic cloud services consulting services, please call +65 6220-5535 ext. 123, or e-mail shaas@amipartners.com or visit our web site at www.ami-partners.com.
About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence — with a strong focus on global small and medium businesses (SMBs), and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and “go-to-market” solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets.
AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.