Global telecommunications, IT, and Internet products and services are undergoing vast changes with the increased adoption of cloud-based services. Often called Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)), cloud computing is also sometimes referred to as everything as a service (EaaS). It can include the servers, databases, software, or any combination of them. There are several key characteristics of cloud computing. These include the fact that the customer doesn't have to know (and buy) the full capacity they might need at a peak time. Customers pay only for what they use. The cloud will automatically (or, in some services, with semi-manual operations) allocate and de-allocate CPU, storage, and network bandwidth on demand. Finally, because the data centers that run the services are huge and share resources among a large group of users, the infrastructure costs are lower (electricity, buildings, and so on). Thus, the costs that are passed on to the customer are smaller.

The latest research conducted by AMI-Partners has shown that in 2012, up to two-thirds of the total cloud investment is estimated to come from SMBs in Korea, China, and India, investing up to US$11B in cloud-related technologies. This number is significant because it means that worldwide cloud predictions and projections are indeed coming to fruition. Moreover, cloud computing infrastructure does differ from traditional hosting services because of scalability and pay-as-you-go pricing. A start-up company might be very interested in getting the scalability, and in not paying for the time they're not using the service. It is convenient, especially if a company is trying to grow the traffic on its Web application but doesn’t know how soon, or how well, it will succeed.

According to Stefan Haas, Consulting Director Asia-Pacific at AMI-Partners, “Many organizations and CIOs today reap the benefits of the cloud in the form of speed to provisioning, ubiquitous availability to end-users and variable costs. Yet the instant availability of new business and technology capabilities is among the main factors for APAC SMBs to evaluate cloud solutions. In addition, increasing maturity of cloud offerings as well as rising customer demand for mobile business scenarios supported by increasing tablet and smartphone penetration will continue to drive demand and investment levels for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions among these SMBs in APAC over 2012.”  New technologies and capabilities may result in a further evolution of the cloud computing model. But it’s obvious that the explosion in mobile computing worldwide will go hand-in-hand with the 24/7 accessibility and ease of use that the cloud currently offers.

For SMBs in the Asian-Pacific region, the cloud represents a means for reaching a truly competitive level with much larger companies and enterprises. The benefits of cloud computing to these smaller companies cannot be understated. In addition, experts expect the strongest growth among Asia-Pacific economies to take place in China, and AMI-Partners expect the ASEAN markets to be the next fastest growing sub-region, with an annual growth potential of over 20 percent. According to Haas, “These SMBs will continuously extend their focus from basic computing and connectivity to new technologies that will enable them to drive further profitable growth in more digitized and networked business environments. Therefore, cloud technologies in combination with mobile technologies will play a key role for SMBs to build a scalable adaptive technology platform for future business growth and innovation.”

It has already gained significant adoptions from small to mid-sized that have chosen to create their data centers in the cloud, capitalizing on scalability. Cloud features, such as scalability and on-demand resource allocation, are fundamental to why an increasing number of small companies and large enterprises are incorporating the cloud into their business. In addition, user demand for access to cloud-based content and apps via dedicated and mobile devices is constantly on the increase. A confluence of factors will continue to drive broad adoption of cloud services among Asia-Pacific SMBs, further increasing their cloud-based market share.