Asia SMBs vary openness towards cloud adoption
By Carol Ko 24-Apr-2012
Last week, Asia Pacific-based managed hosting provider ReadySpace announced to resell Parallels' cloud infrastructure solution to small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia currently represent ReadySpace's three biggest markets in Asia. Apart from these, it also operates in China, Philippines, India, Indonesia, as well as in Australia and the US.
In an interview with Asia Cloud Forum, ReadySpace's Executive Director and Co-founder David Loke (pictured, left) and Parallels' South East Asia Director Gurpreet Singh Ahuja (pictured, right) explain how the business environments for SMBs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia differ, and how SMBs in these locations vary in their approaches to cloud service adoption. Read excerpts below:
Asia Cloud Forum: How are the business environments in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia different? Do their business requirements vary?
"Singapore SMBs only use what the government promotes, Hong Kong SMBs are more interested in ERP applications and Malaysia SMBs are more into marketing and sales applications."
-- David Loke, ReadySpace
David Loke: Singapore is an easier market to penetrate because the government has full support on cloud services. SMBs are able to claim tax rebates for using cloud services. SMBs are also very open to try new things and explore every possible productivity improvement.
Hong Kong SMBs were interested in low cost solutions at first, but are now beginning to grasp the value of paying higher for cloud services and show interest in pursuing the options.
SMBs in Malaysia are similar to Hong Kong SMBs, but have a smaller market. Therefore Malaysia SMBs are generally more creative in the way they make use of cloud services compared to Hong Kong.
In terms of business requirements, Singapore SMBs only use what the government promotes, Hong Kong SMBs are more interested in ERP applications and Malaysia SMBs are more into marketing and sales applications.
In an earlier media statement, Parallels said it is "a different story" to deliver cloud service among SMBs in Asia. Why?
Gurpreet Singh Ahuja: The definition of "SMB" (small and medium business) varies in different countries. In the US, a typical SMB has employees less than 1,000 employees and this is how we define "SMB" too.
In Asia, especially in places like Hong Kong, a typical SMB usually has less than 100 employees. Therefore, the demand for cloud services and their delivery models can be different.
Our observation is that on-demand cloud services, with flexible pay-as-you-go charging models, create a strong appeal for SMBs in Asia.
In particular, SOHOs (small office home office) or SMBs which are with less than 10 employees, are relatively more willing to explore new cloud services options, such as utility-based services. They are keen to pay for services based on subscription mode and also have the flexibility to upscale and downscale the same.
Does ReadySpace have plans to expand into the China market? What service providers are you open to partner with?
Loke: Yes, we are already moving actively into the China market. Our main representative is in Guangdong province chroming potential wholesale partners in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Guangzhou. We are open to [work with] any independent software vendors, hosting providers, telcos and system integrators.
What is the number one challenge in cloud services deployment to Hong Kong SMBs? How does ReadySpace resolve them?
Loke: Security is a concern. The hosted IT concept in Hong Kong SMBs is still a bit weak. Many SMBs think it is not safe to host [their data and applications] on an internet data center. ReadySpace provides expert advice on security services for SMBs that don't have the budget to hire consultants.
We work with the major security companies from the US such as stopthehacker, Trustwave, Geotrust, cloudflare to offer an end-to-end security protection and peace of mind.