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Smith and Kumar: We are still building our respective organizations in Hong Kong as part of our joint venture activities and it is relatively premature to talk about jobs, skillsets or positions available.

Kris Kumar: Hong Kong has had a high demand for data center services from the financial sector and traditionally, providers have had difficulty with the geography and high cost of real estate, due to competing development interests. This has led to sub-optimal data center environments and inefficient IT services infrastructure platforms due to short-term planning necessitated by the conditions faced.

Hong Kong has now embarked on a strategy to attract data center, IT and cloud services and as a result, has been more focused on creating the environment required for companies such as Digital Realty and Savvis to make substantial investments and meet the needs of our customers in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Recent data center activities by many large players are also testimony to this fact.

Mark Smith: As companies adjust to and recover from the global recession, business leaders are no longer interested in just keeping their IT operations running smoothly. They are now seeking to implement the appropriate solutions that will help them adapt and grow. 

Companies in Hong Kong, as well as many other parts of Asia, are increasingly focused on outsourcing infrastructure. This allows them to focus on their core business while ensuring the quality of their IT systems and operation. The many other benefits of outsourcing IT include lower costs, the ability to scale up and down, access to specialized services, increased competitive edge and staffing flexibility.

Many Hong Kong companies generally lack legacy IT systems, so there's a significant desire to outsource IT as quickly as they can. Hong Kong is catching up with the mature markets, such as the US and Australia.