Hong Kong is losing its competitive edge some critics say, but Rackspace Hosting made no hesitation in choosing Hong Kong over Singapore as the site for its first hybrid cloud service for local Internet users.迷你倉 Wong Joon San reports. Seated on a black leather sofa on the 100th floor of the International Commerce Centre (ICC) building, Ajit Melarkode, managing director of Rackspace Asia Pacific, was talking about big changes in IT. He was talking about the move from operations to strategic partnerships, with business seeking greater flexibility by looking up to the cloud for access to an even greater range of computing resources. There’s been a lot of hype about the cloud, and questions still abound. Cloud computing is a lot like grid computing, which harnesses unused processing cycles of network computers to address issues too complex for standalone machines. A useful good analogy is the way people use electricity in their homes, taking what they need from a massive, shared power grid. That’s what cloud computing is like. Cloud adoption A cloud service has three distinct characteristics distinct from traditional website hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it allows the user to use as much or as little as he wants, with services acquired through personal computer or smartphone or similar device. People who use email services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Hotmail already have some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on a computer, users login to their e-mail remotely, on the Web. The software and storage aren’t on the computer — but in the cloud. A survey by Gartner, Inc, predicted the global market for public cloud services would grow 18.5 percent in 2013 to $131 billion, an increase of $20 billion over 2012. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), including cloud computing, storage and print services, held its place as the fastest growing segment of the market. But IaaS’ growth percentage is still very low compared with the overall global market expansion as it is still at an infant stage of growth. Cloud advertising continues to be the largest component of the cloud services market, comprising 48 percent of the total in 2012. Gartner predicts that from 2013 through 2016, $677 billion will be spent on cloud services worldwide, $310 billion of which will be spent on cloud advertising. “The adoption of cloud is strong, but large companies are also concerned about their existing investments in licenses and dedicated hosting equipment. Companies which can combine existing licensing and equipment with new offers in public cloud or offer the ability to extend from a client dedicated environment to a cloud environment managed by a vendor will be well positioned,” Melarkode says. “The continued growth of the cloud services market will result from the adoption of cloud solutions for production systems in addition to the kind of development and testing that have led public cloud services to date,” Gartner contends. In the present day, organizations have to buy computers and also software licenses for their staff. Whenever there is a new hire, the organization has to buy more software or ensure its current software license allows another user. In the not too distant future, companies will be able to install one web-based service providing access to all staff — rather than having to provide an individual software suite for each work station. Machinery operated by a service provider at a remote location would run everything from e-mail, to word processing, to complex data analysis programs. That’s life in the clouds and that how the entire IT industry is expected to change. In Hong Kong, a Rackspace commissioned survey shows that 62 percent of local companies are deploying cloud services to reduce the capital expense cost to buy new equipment, known as CAPEX. Cloud computing is scalable, meaning a user only has to utilize the amount of online computing resources he actually wants. Just as people are used to drawing as much or as little electricity as they need from the power grid, so anybody can now obtain as mmini storageny or as few computing resources from the cloud as they require at any particular point in time. Cloud computing is also said to be device-independent because cloud resources can be accessed using any type of computer, smart phone or device no matter what operating system it uses. All it needs is an Internet connection and a web browser. Cloud computing is also based on objectives determined by the US related to specific task. No additional equipment is needed to be added to a computer to access cloud computing resources. Based on an independent survey of 712 IT decision-makers from Hong Kong, Singapore and India commissioned by Rackspace, 54 percent of companies said they gained competitive advantage around the cloud’s scalability option which allows them to pay only for time used. The respondents say that as they did not have to invest in the resources used, the cloud option saved their companies up to 51 percent of their IT costs. The survey shows that although general cloud adoption in Hong Kong stands at 84 percent (compared with 79 percent in India and 73 percent in Singapore), the most popular uses among the respondents are basic applications, such as databases (71 percent), email (65 percent), back-up (63 percent), servers (62 percent) and storage (56 percent). “The results show the potential for businesses to expand cloud usage, particularly through hybrid cloud solutions,” Melarkode stresses. Hybrid solutions “We are seeing a substantial number of organizations in Hong Kong deploying basic cloud solutions,” Melarkode contends, “but there is a huge opportunity for organizations to tap into hybrid cloud solutions in particular, to save costs, and increase flexibility and security, across a much broader spectrum of services. Melarkode explains that when people talk about cloud computing, normally they are referring to “public cloud computing.” Clients of public cloud services, like Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) share servers, storage, networking and platform services that are immediately available, and with prices based on hourly usage. Although Rackspace’s services provided via its hybrid cloud include the public cloud, the company differentiates itself with a combination of dedicated and private cloud services as well. “For example, an organization may choose to hold large, sensitive databases as a combination of (their data pool) in their premises and on Rackspace premises, while some applications over which they require control are deployed in a private cloud environment on their premises. Applications testing can be undertaken on the public cloud,” says Melarkode. The evolutionary change in the industry means ultimately that the user will have greater control over what resources he requires and how much he will have to pay for those resources based on usage. Contact the writer at joonsan@chinadailyhk.com Companies clinging to traditional strategies of bare metal ownership will find themselves increasingly stuck in the woods as they balance cost, support, and the maintenance of expertise against fragile IT budgets.” Ajit Melarkode Managing Director for Rackspace Asia Pacific We are seeing a substantial number of organizations in Hong Kong deploying basic cloud solutions, but there is a huge opportunity for organizations to tap into hybrid cloud solutions in particular to save costs, increase flexibility and security across a much broader spectrum of services.” Snapshot Ajit Melarkode, managing director of Rackspace Asia Pacific, oversees Rackspace Hosting and Fanatical Support in APAC while managing sales, marketing, channel and data center operations. Melarkode joined Rackspace following 20 years in the IT industry, starting as an equities analyst, before investing in IT companies as a fund manager. He then held management roles in multiple Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and applications development companies including EDS, iPSL and Synechron. Melarkode holds a BA in Economics from University of Madras as well as an MBA (Finance & Technology) from London Business School. 儲存
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