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Data privacy is now the main obstacle to cloud adoption among organizations in Asia Pacific.

The results of “Cloud Computing in Asia-Pacific: The Annual cloud Maturity Index”, a study conducted in October 2011 by Forrester Consulting on behalf of VMware showed 74% of respondents citing it as a concern, ahead last year’s top mention of security.

The problems of data residency and loss of control were top of mind in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

The survey also indicated that integration with existing systems remained high on the list of barriers to cloud adoption, with 68% expressing significant concerns. Other key concerns included lack of interoperability across clouds (57%), fear of vendor lock-in (59%) and immature cloud management features (57%). A lack of cloud knowledge and understanding is far less of a concern across the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region than last year.

Andrew Dutton, senior vice president and general manager, VMware Asia Pacific Japan, said: “Companies in Asia-Pacific and Japan are clearly more confident about cloud computing today than they were a year ago. However, some obstacles still prevent them from fully benefiting from the technology. We are aware of these concerns and have cloud computing solutions in place that will help companies address such issues.”

Businesses are increasingly seeing cloud computing as relevant to their needs, especially among larger enterprises. According to the survey, which is in its second year, cloud computing adoption has continued to accelerate in the APJ region, with close to 90% of respondents viewing cloud as relevant to their business.

The study showed that 64% of regional firms are either using or planning cloud initiatives compared with 59% a year ago. Organizations in Australia lead in cloud adoption, with 43% already running a cloud-related initiative. South Korea and China lead the region in terms of adoption plans, with 48% and 46% of organizations, respectively, expecting to implement cloud computing in the next 18 months.

The Index has also found that across the region, the decision to adopt cloud computing lies largely with the CEO opposed to just the CIO, indicating that top management is more aware of the fact that investing in new technology can result in improvements to business efficiency and productivity. 

Based on the survey results, the most IT-savvy players, such as telecommunications and technology companies, are ahead of the pack for cloud adoption while government and insurance companies lead in planning cloud adoption. Cloud adoption rates increase according to the size of organizations, with larger firms -- especially those with more than 10,000 employees -- leading in cloud adoption, at 47%.

Cost reduction remains the primary driver for cloud adoption for 55% of Asia-Pacific firms, down from 57% in 2010. However, very large organizations viewed cloud more as a strategic investment (49%) than a cost-saving measure.

Reduced hardware infrastructure costs (76%) and simplified resource/server provisioning (75%) continue to be key drivers for cloud adoption, with the need for cloud management tools highest in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.