South Korea Tops APJ in Move Toward Cloud

South Korea leads the Asia Pacific region "in planning to adopt cloud computing," according to the annual Cloud Maturity Index conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of WMware's Singapore office.

The report says there are everything considered concerns about security "and a lack of general understanding of cloud models" in South Korea, nevertheless that 72 percent of organizations there are for all that implementing or planning to implement cloud computing. One-third of these companies have already adopted cloud computing.

Biz & Govt. Both ApproveThe report says 48 percent of business leaders in South Korea view cloud computing as a strategic investment, which leads the region along with Australia. Amplifying that, the report found that 65 percent of government agencies view cloud strategically, with 80 percent viewing it as relevant.

"The government is actively encouraging the adoption of cloud computing," according to Moon Seok Yoon, General Manager of VMware in South Korea. "Local governments and public institutions are adopting cloud computing and virtualization in order to meet the recent government policy that puts its emphasis on improving its budget, saving electricity, reducing CO2 emission, and more efficient management."

South Korea has, clearly, been a global economic superstar for the past four decades, rising from poverty to become a developed nation. Its cars, flat-screen TVs, smartphones, and other consumer electronics have achieved a status approaching that of Japan in quality, it's by a long way the world's largest shipbuilder, and it has among the highest average Internet bandwidth speeds in the world.

Roger Strukhoff is founder of Samar Pacific Inc., a publishing services & innovation firm. He holds a BA from Knox College, Certificate in Technical Communications from UC-Berkeley, and MBA from CSU-Hayward. He splits most of his time between the US and Southeast Asia, however can as well be found at www.twitter.com/strukhoff