Australia has Potential to Become a Global Cloud Computing Hub

A report by the IT Industry Innovation Council released on Friday said that Australia has the potential to become a global cloud computing hub.

"We are a safe, secure destination for hosting Cloud data applications, and offer political stability, and a stable and transparent regulatory environment," Innovation Minister Kim Carr said in a statement.

The report said that based on the report, which provides different expert insights on local Cloud market growth, the opportunities are real and provide a clearly addressable potential for local ICT providers.

However, Ms Carr and the report pushed for the local industry to first address several issues such as risk management, sovereignty, data security, privacy and service quality.

The report also recommended a strong pull from non-ICT sectors particularly in the area of understanding the fundamental business benefits of shifting to Cloud computing such as operational efficiencies, higher reach into markets, cost cutting, lower risk of IT investments due to pay-as-you-go pricing and more flexibility to handle changes in business conditions.

The report forecasts Cloud-related ICT spending in Australia would grow to 7.1 per cent of total ICT spending in 2015, up from 2.8 per cent in 2011 or about $4.3 billion.

As of September, 20.6 per cent of Australian business surveyed already use Cloud computing, 38.2 per cent are actively testing or planning to shift to Cloud computing in the next six to 12 months and 41.2 per cent plan to implement Cloud computing services by 2013.

It pushed for self-regulation because a legislative approach to regulation could be too slow and unable to continuously adapt to the fast technological changes that characterises the IT industry.

At an executive breakfast in Sydney on Friday organised by tech firm Digital Armour, the firm's chief executive officer, Maria Padisetti, told not-for-profit organisations that it could benefit for productivity and systems of Cloud computing.

"Cloud computing is still provider-centric and it is not yet customer-centric, so the terms and conditions favour providers. This situation will improve in time though," Pro Bono News quoted Ms Padisetti.