Fujitsu reviews: US$1.2b investment in cloud-biz in 2011
Richard Wern, Senior Director, Regional Cloud Computing, Fujitsu Asia
In the fiscal year of 2011,
Fujitsu invested US$1.2 billion in the cloud computing business and committed to train 5,000 specialists globally by 2012. According to Richard Wern (pictured), Fujitsu Asia’s senior director of regional cloud computing, cloud-related services will account for 30% of Fujitsu’s new business by 2015.
Fujitsu launched three cloud computing solutions in June this year -- Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform, Fujitsu Local Cloud Platform and Fujitsu Cloud Professional Services, and plans to roll out other cloud offerings in the next two years.
According to Wern, Fujitsu developed its cloud services together with customers including
Singapore Technologies (ST) Electronics,
National Institute of Education and
SingPost. “These offerings are part of Fujitsu’s commitment to invest US$40 million in Singapore to develop its cloud offerings here. Fujitsu’s cloud investments in Singapore will help realize the country’s
iN2015 master plan and accelerate the adoption of cloud computing for all organizations to build a more human-centric Singapore, one that is reliable and has superior growth prospects,” Wern said.
In the following interview with
Asia Cloud Forum, Wern talks about the deployment of cloud storage for
National Institute of Education (NIE) Singapore, how CIOs/IT should present the business case of cloud computing, the most impressive cloud technology found in 2011, the key lessons learnt, and his predictions about cloud computing trends in 2012.
Asia Cloud Forum: Describe one of your company's most successful customer deployments of cloud service in 2011.
"Overall Fujitsu was able to see the cost investment reduced 41% whereas NIE’s original target was 30%." -- Richard Wern, senior director, regional cloud computing, Fujitsu Asia |
Richard Wern:
NIE’s Research is one of the three major thrusts in preparing the Singapore Teacher for the 21st century. The
National Institute of Education (NIE) Singapore is a university-based teacher education institute 2003.The data center at NIE is one of the critical resources supporting the Institute to reach the destination 2012 as mapped out by its Strategic Plan for the 21st Century Teacher Education.
NIE needed significant ICT infrastructure support for their ongoing research projects. At the same time, with the data center operating at near full capacity, there was no way it could meet the new demands generating from the 30% growth anticipated for the three years leading to 2012. A solution was required to allow for flexibility in deployment, greater end user experience, shorter turnaround time, better project costs and utilization, and without compromising security. NIE wanted to
leverage on the consumption and delivery model of cloud to reduce costs, consolidate ICT assets, and improve service levels.
Fujitsu deployed the
Cloud Professional Services and through a consultancy study at NIE’s data center, Fujitsu identified one of the major areas for improvement by consolidating all storage systems to substantially reduce its total cost of ownership and increase operation efficiency.
Overall Fujitsu was able to see the cost investment reduced 41% whereas NIE’s original target was 30%. Power consumption was only half as before and saving amounted to approximately US$46,000 per year. This has surpassed NIE’s expectation of only 30%.
At the same time, three-quarters of the original floor space became available for further expansion far beyond 2012. Environmental costs such as power, cooling and floor space were reduced by consolidation of information in a unified storage infrastructure. The transformed data center enjoys higher operation efficiency and resiliency requires less manpower to run since it is much easier to manage.
More importantly, Fujitsu provides its customers with the flexibility as customers will not be “locked-in” as each block is easily replace with another best of breed products that served the same function. This signifies that NIE has the control, power and final say to change or replace any block that the vendor’s support is not satisfactory.
How will you help IT/CIOs establish their business case for cloud computing/services deployment to their senior management?
Wern: Cloud computing remains as a game-changing development and IT/CIOs should reinforce to the senior management that as markets mature, cloud computing is not just about technology, but about business activities and the processes that their operations depend on.
We are moving into a period of economic uncertainties and it is crucial that enterprises align their technology infrastructure with their business goals to increase cost and operational efficiency. IT/CIOs should justify that the cloud computing investment will transform their ICT systems, reduce costs, and create a flexible business process adjustable to changing management policies.
Other than your company's, what do you see as the most impressive cloud solution or product or deployment found in the market in 2011?
"[The Apple iCloud] gives the end users a quick appreciation of what the cloud infrastructure can do and the opportunities it presents for storage and sharing" -- Richard Wern, senior director, regional cloud computing, Fujitsu Asia |
Wern: One impressive cloud product that was introduced to the market in October is the
Apple iCloud. Besides allowing the user to do a backup and restoration of one’s data, it also acts as a synchronizing service -- that is, it keeps the calendar, address book and documents updated and identical across the various Apple gadgets. In my opinion, this is a breakthrough for consumers not only in terms of the convenience, but more importantly, it gives the end users a quick appreciation of what the cloud infrastructure can do and the opportunities it presents for storage and sharing.
At its infancy stage, the Apple iCloud certainly brings about many benefits for its consumers. This would mean that users will have to take greater ownership and responsibility towards managing the security risks that comes with the added convenience. There are certain security features that should necessarily be introduced in order for end users to be more appreciative of and increase adoption of this cloud offering.
What were your three most important lessons learnt about cloud computing in 2011?
Wern: In 2011, we saw an increase in cloud conversations within the region. Indeed, based on the results achieved from the
Gartner Executive Programs CIO Agenda survey, cloud computing came in as a top priority for CIOs in Asia. This is testament that the increased focus in education is bearing fruits. Additionally, organizations are also
asking more in-depth questions on the benefits that they can reap in jumping onto the cloud computing wagon and are quicker in the adoption of cloud offerings.
Disaster recovery has also become a significant area of discussion, especially in light of the recent natural disasters in
Thailand, New Zealand and
Japan, which further placed emphasis on the need for a human-centric cloud ecosystem. We see the potential of leveraging on cloud computing for disaster relief in the community, as it can quickly help our neighboring countries to rebuild the necessary infrastructure on the road to recovery.
The year 2011 could also be aptly coined as the year of APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) attacks from a security perspective, and this has heightened awareness amongst organizations for the need to better manage their information risks and limit potential damages. These concerns become even more pertinent with the increasing trend of moving services into the cloud. Fujitsu will continue working closely with our partners on issues like intrusion, detection security, data security in response to enterprises’ concerns.
Where will cloud computing head towards in 2012?
Wern: Despite the looming economic uncertainties, we are forecasting a positive outlook for cloud computing moving into 2012. The Singapore government’s decision to embark on the G-Cloud initiative as well as tax incentives for cloud will certainly send a strong signal to enterprises and individuals alike of its technology direction, and this will facilitate the adoption of cloud computing, particularly for the small and medium enterprises.
"[Fujitsu Asia] anticipates a paradigm shift in IT, from the network-centric computing phase that we are currently in to human-centric cloud computing." -- Richard Wern, senior director, regional cloud computing, Fujitsu Asia |
Security will no doubt continue to be of top concerns and drive conversations amongst organizations. Education thus becomes a focus, and we foresee that business leaders will adopt a more integrated approach across all business environments, from physical facilities such as data centers to data security management.
Lastly, we also anticipate a paradigm shift in IT, from the network-centric computing phase that we are currently in to human-centric cloud computing. IT will become more in tune and interwoven into human activities, where we put humans at the center of the system and look at everything from a human perspective. This translates to a more collaborative approach across multiple platforms moving into the next phase of cloud computing, as we endeavour to synchronize the physical and digital world.
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