, MANILA, Philippines – When chief information officers (CIOs) say “it's up in the clouds,” it may be a figure of speech or it's the literal meaning: that their IT infrastructure is being upgraded to utilize cloud computing.
For the last two years, cloud computing has been gaining momentum in the Philippines, along with other new terminologies, particularly virtualization. The realization of cloud computing also comes at a time when some companies, especially large enterprises, are in the process of upgrading their IT infrastructure, which makes cloud computing a viable inclusion in their IT budgets.
The word “cloud” is a metaphor for the Internet and instead of just a repository of information; this cloud has also becoming a process requirement when using multiple server farms across physically remote areas. Cloud computing is a combination of hardware and software that utilize each others’ processes to improve overall operations.
In other words, separate servers are connected by the Internet and their computing power utilized to provide new types of services. There are no idle processing assets.
These new services include mostly web services such as software as a service (SaaS), managed services, and virtualization.
Just recently, CIO forum organized by local software firm Global Gateway Innovation Exchange (G2iX), was attended by several CIOs and chief technology officers of Manila and Cebu-based enterprises. Several topics were discussed, mostly borne out of the need to cut down costs, sustain business operations, and increase profits.
As such, interest increased for cloud computing and all other technologies that come with it.
“Cost savings, reduced time to market, and rapid ROI -- these are three key factors that IT and business executives alike cite when asked about the value of cloud computing,” says Winston Damarillo, chief executive officer for G2iX, in reference to the results of the CIO forums.
Strong market
If there is one segment that sees cloud computing as a viable source, it is the government. While government expenses in IT vary, one benchmark is the Commission in Information and Communications Technology (CICT), which manages the e-Government Fund and is used primarily to help develop the IT infrastructure of public agencies.
Along with this, the Philippine government is also spending on several projects, one of which is the election computerization. A report by Springboard Research showed that public IT spending is expected to reach $580 million by 2011.
Michael Barnes, Springboard Research Vice President for Software and said this growth in IT expenditure has been happening in the past two years. With it, government institutions are also starting to look at cloud computing and virtualization to improve the performance and capabilities of their IT infrastructure.
“If there are points that can be expected to show some stronger presence and spur further IT growth in the Philippines, that would be increased broadband penetration ,cloud computing, service-oriented architecture, and the growing offshore outsourcing industry,” Barnes said.
Cloud technology
Intel Philippines Business Development Manager Jermyn Wong said enterprise executives have wisened up when it comes to their IT investments, especially with the effects of previous the global economic recession that forced companies to cut down on costs without compromising operational capacity.
In most cases, businesses are trying to outweigh the benefits of investing in cloud computing infrastructure.
In the case of Intel, the company has lined up several products that utilize cloud computing, particularly its Xeon 5500 server processors. He said the total cost of ownership from using a cloud computing-ready equipment is much lower. Power consumption is also lower as servers running on the new Xeon processors only use energy on active computing processes.
“Hardware manufacturers are also designing their products to make cloud computing happen and to make it better. Philippine companies are already taking notice so hardware companies have to be prepared for increased demand,” Wong said.