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PCCW reviews: Data center networks to expand in HK and China

By Carol Ko 29-Dec-2010

George Fok, managing director, PCCW Solutions
George Fok, managing director, PCCW Solutions
PCCW Solutions, one of the leading local ICT solutions providers in Hong Kong, officially launched its cloud computing services in 2010. With 10 plus data centers in Asia and rich application development experience, PCCW now provides industry-specific cloud computing services to the retail, healthcare, banking and finance, trading and manufacturing, government, and transportation industries in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Riding on its wide network and data center coverage and large local enterprise customer base, PCCW Solutions boasts to deliver "a full spectrum of cloud computing services covering all five layers of the cloud computing stack --infrastructure, platform, software, content, and process."
"PCCW Solutions has plans to expand our data center networks in Hong Kong and mainland China in 2011 and beyond."

-- George Fok, managing director, PCCW Solutions

According to George Fok (pictured), managing director of PCCW Solutions who overseas the company's business operations worldwide, the three most important cloud offerings in 2010 were:

  1. Cloud-based Point-of-Sale solution, a Software-as-a-Service that enables retailers to quickly expand their retail chain networks without investing in IT infrastructure.
  2. Track-and-Trace platform, an EPC global standard compliant cloud-based supply chain management platform that provides global traceability capability for manufacturers, supply chain operators and retailers to track RFID- or barcode-tagged items, objects and living organisms.
  3. Enterprise private cloud service which helps enterprises virtualize their processing and storage powers for flexible allocation of IT resources.

Below is the excerpt of an interview between George Fok and Asia Cloud Forum. It outlines PCCW Solutions' marketing strategies for 2011 and how it will tap the business opportunities of cloud computing in China, including an expansion of its data center network in the mainland.

Asia Cloud Forum: What percentage of budget does your company put into the research and development of cloud products last year? How will it change in 2011?

George Fok: The development of our cloud services rides on the years of experience and investment we have made in enhancing our service platform to enable cloud service provision. Cloud computing is one of the key development areas of PCCW Solutions.

We will increase the investment in building infrastructure and R&D of cloud solutions to meet the growing needs of customers. We will also invest more resources on enabling independent software vendors (ISVs) to offer cloud services on our platform.

Any plan to build new data centers in Asia in 2011?

Fok: PCCW Solutions has plans to expand our data center networks in Hong Kong and mainland China in 2011 and beyond to meet the growing demands from customers.
"We foresee cloud computing adoption will be increasing in Asia, especially we see great potential in mainland China."

-- George Fok, PCCW Solutions

Is your company currently looking into any merger and acquisition in the cloud space?

Fok: PCCW Solutions always looks into growth opportunities in cloud space, and will partner with service providers to expand our cloud offerings to meet customers' needs.

What is the current state of cloud computing adoption in Asia?

Fok: We foresee cloud computing adoption will be increasing in Asia, especially we see great potential in mainland China. Companies are looking for flexible and cost-effective IT services to expand their businesses rapidly across the country.

What specific trends in cloud computing have you observed in the past year? 

Fok: Technological advancements have driven the maturity of cloud computing, these include the standardization of technologies, virtualization technology and the rise of Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), and most importantly, the dramatic growth in popularity and use of the Internet. IT services can now be easily delivered as contractual services over the Internet. Enterprises can get power-on services much faster than purchasing and installing IT equipments and applications. 

What specific trends in cloud computing do you foresee for the next three years? 

Fok: Cloud computing service will represent a paradigm shift for IT service delivery and there will be increasing adoptions of such service mode. Private cloud will become popular amongst large enterprises and government departments to meet customers' demand for higher cost effectiveness, better security, increased privacy and control.

A few discussions about cloud compliance and industry standards are going on in the ICT community at present. What's your take on this?

Fok: When PCCW Solutions designs our cloud computing services, we already adopt industry best practices and global standards to deliver high-quality services. For example, our Track-and-Trace platform is based on EPC global standard, which can be seamlessly integrated with other standard compliance applications to facilitate global data exchange in real-time fashion for various applications.

[Editor's note: PCCW Solutions obtained ISO 27001 for security management in its data centers.]







Tags:
2010 review, 2011 predictions, North Asia, PCCW Solutions, telco, vendor interview




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