Monday, March 7, 2011

Cloud PH: Philippines' Bright Future in Cloud Computing

Speakers and panelists are all praises and bullish about state of Philippine IT and its potential in the age of the cloud computing.

At the inaugural event aptly titled, Cloud Computing Now organized by ITProsAsia held at Duhit Thani Manila last Friday - March 4, speakers and panelists all agreed that despite the fears and security issues, there is no stopping cloud computing. Cost savings aside, there are lots of opportunities that open up with the use of the cloud, one of which is innovation which in effect leads to more potential gains.

"Cloud computing not only brought technological but also economic innovations which will create more jobs" , says Michael Mudd, Regional Representative of the Open Cloud Computing Alliance.

True enough, one by one, every speaker went on to extol the virtues of cloud computing across all spectrum - from companies and developers to benefits for users.

This is not to say that the cloud is without manageable risks. Anthony Lim, Asia Pacific Advisor of (ISC)2 explains that "IT systems are moving so fast that humans can barely cope; this human element is what makes them vulnerable and remains the weakest part of security".

Cloudph

Fortunately, says Mr. Mudd, there are at least 3 things that work in the country's favor and it is clear that taking full advantage of these can thrust the Philippines to the top of the cloud computing adoption heap in Asia and even the world.

1. Language. As much as it is changing, the language of computing is still primarily English which works well for Filipinos. And with an IT skill set that ranks within the 20s, the Philippine IT workforce enjoys a good base already.

2. High interest. Unlike some countries he has been to, he has observed that majority of young Filipinos still believe in IT as a future and that this desire for learning is a strength in itself that will drive IT a long way.

3. Chaotic mentality. There are plenty of news about Vietnam getting a lot of foreign investments and they probably can become one of the top countries for IT if they put their minds to it, much like what they've done with coffee production.

Except that IT isn't just like any production industry. And the Philippines isn't like Vietnam or China that is governed by some form of authoritarianism which might help explain why Filipinos are among the best in network management and as well as hacking.

As Roger Strukhoff, the event moderator, opines, "At their core, Filipinos will always break out of rigidity; a trait that has big potential innovation values when paired with technology that levels the playing field - like cloud computing".

Mr Lim further adds, "In Asia, you go to India for software development, or Korea if you want the best gaming technology but Philippines is where you go to get those who in a good sense, hack best. In this age of the cloud, that is a good thing to have!"

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Posted on by friarminor | 1 comment

1 comments:

Elmer said...

the _cloud_ future is here