The data showed that Asian businesses favored Asian cloud providers, and hybrid was the favored approach among respondents.
Given the increasing demand for hybrid cloud solutions in Asia, Alibaba Cloud revamped its strategy and launched a program in December 2020to upgrade its product offerings to small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) to digitally transform their operations.
The current coronavirus pandemic has underscored the value of cloud-based tools while driving a shift in the priorities of customers: Before the pandemic, the ability to integrate with existing IT infrastructure was the primary concern of businesses thinking about adopting a cloud solution; now, a vendor’s security credentials has become the most important (58%), particularly among businesses in markets like the Philippines (62%).
The firm’s strategic revamp was driven in part by its survey of 1,000 respondents across Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines in November 2020 to understand the role of cloud solutions and confidence in Asian innovation among the business community.
Asians for Asians
What the firm found in the survey was that 65% of the respondents in Asia had already adopted at least one technology solution from an Asian provider, while more respondents (72%) said they believed Asian providers can offer better solutions because they understanding the Asian mindset better.
A substantial majority (84%) ‘agreed’ (to prompts) that cloud-based service providers delivered on their promises. In addition, hyperscale cloud providers were discovered to be preferred over global enterprise tech consultants, local third-party partners and in-house teams by 43% of Asian respondents.
Reinforcing these findings, 73% of businesses polled felt confident in Asia’s ability to innovate technologically, and 65% reported having already adopted a solution from a regional provider. Among the regions represented in the survey, 74% of Hong Kong companies had adopted local solutions.
User priorities are evolving
Some 85% of respondents felt that cloud-native solutions have helped them cope with the impact of the pandemic, and 69% reported that a hybrid cloud approach supported them in disaster recovery and business continuity planning. This proved especially true in regions like Indonesia, where 85% of businesses surveyed saw hybrid cloud solutions as critical to their longevity.
Said Selina Yuan, President for International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence: “It is very encouraging to see the high level of confidence in Asian innovation among businesses in the region. With digitalization so strong a trend, especially on the back of the pandemic, we believe there will be many new opportunities to build on the strong perception of the region’s cloud capabilities.”
She added that during the pandemic, she saw clients’ priorities shifting more towards operation security and cost efficiency. “Given their evolving needs, we want to ensure our solutions are going to meet their demands.”
