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IDC predicts a cloudy year for Asia-Pacific

Balance of bargaining power to shift in three years

Analysts are predicting 2010 will be the year that organisations take on cloud computing, following a dormant year of IT spending.

Adoption of cloud computing across the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, will spike this year, according to research firm, IDC. So many, that customer bargaining power will reduce as demand for cloud services increases.

Early last year, analysts said Australian firms had shunned the technology, due to our “pragmatic, wait-and-see attitude”. But firms now agree that outsourcing and cloud services are on the horizon.

IDC director for services research, Chris Morris, said IT buyers will be caught off-guard by a rising need to pour more resources into supplier management than technology selection.

“Within three years we see that as externally sourced cloud or managed services are purchased by the enterprise, it will be those vendors with strong outsourcing and cloud and/or managed services capabilities that will dictate standards for applications, pricing, and sourcing of products and services that enable service delivery," Morris said in a written statement.

"[This year] will be a very big year in the continuing build-out and maturation of the cloud services delivery and consumption model.

“A unifying theme for 2010 will be the emergence of enterprise-grade cloud services — services that support the more demanding security, availability and manageability requirements of traditional IT in cloud services."

Customers will see their power in the direct relationship with suppliers diminish, according to IDC, adding enterprise customers will have more dealings with suppliers that have good engagement models.

IDC also predicted a growth in outsourcing projects in line with the rise of cloud computing, the Gershon Review and the National Broadband Network.

Forrester analyst, Tim Sheedy, said the Gershon findings will drive further competition within the IT services market this year.

“We’re going to see internal government bodies effectively emerge as quasi competitors to the traditional IT services providers,” he said.

IDC also predicts telcos will play a significant role in IT, Web 2.0 services will overhaul customer service, cloud security will be put back on the agenda and virtualisation services will grow this year.

Other IDC predictions for cloud computing include:

  • Cloud and services vendors will gain market control.
  • The cloud computing hype will calm as management tools mature.
  • The maturing cloud will result in '5 nines' service level agreements and have significant implications for telcos.

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