Microsoft Vietnam late last week hosted a summit featuring over 300 IT decision-makers and business leaders in HCMC to help them understand the role and impact of cloud computing, and introduce Microsoft’s vision for technology.

Errol Rasit from analyst firm Gartner shares information about cloud computing at a summit in HCMC late last week

At the workshop, Microsoft executives and partners shared and discussed trends and insights into the realities, challenges and opportunities of the cloud with the local IT community and media.

“The Vietnam Government has identified ICT as a key driver of its economy, and we believe the cloud can accelerate this,” said Andrew Pickup, chief marketing officer of Microsoft Asia Pacific.

“We look forward to enabling Vietnam’s businesses, government and consumers to adopt the cloud in line with their business needs. Some Vietnamese businesses will want on-premise solutions, others to be completely in the cloud whilst others would prefer a combination of the two.”

The Vietnamese Government is looking to have a strong advanced IT industry by 2020. The industry is expected to account for 20% of the country’s gross domestic product by then.

FPT, an IT company in Vietnam, and Microsoft signed in May 2010 a partnership to work together to develop cloud computing services in Vietnam.

With the recent launch of Windows Phone 7 and more generally the increased penetration of Smartphones in Vietnam, there are a lot of opportunities for innovative developers in Vietnam to develop mobile applications, according to the two companies.

Analyst firm Gartner said the main priorities CIOs faced in 2010 were shifting away from enterprise applications towards virtualization and cloud computing. This enables businesses to worry less about managing the IT infrastructure and focus more on driving business growth.

Gartner said that by 2012, 80% of Fortune 1000 Enterprises will be using some form of cloud or off-premises computing services, 20% of businesses will own no IT assets.

Another analyst firm IDC also believes enterprises will be using private clouds as a way to phase in broader use of cloud services and computing in the future. However, companies remain most concerned about security, performance and control of data when considering cloud adoption.

Source: SGT