Thailand urged to reach for the cloud

       Analyst are warning policymakers they need to pay attention and ensure Thailand doesn't miss out on the potential of cloud computing, which must become part of each country's ICT industry policy.
       Dr Steve Hodgkinson, Research Director at Ovum, said after recent discussions with a range of public sector ICT policy executives across the Asia-Pacific region, it is apparent that cloud computing is on their radar - and that it is viewed by many as more of a threat than an opportunity.
       In the past, governments have benefited symbiotically from the growth of global ICT companies,driving e-government innovations and establishing vibrant domestic ICT industries of channel and services partners.
       However, cloud computing creates the potential for more complete encapsulation and offshoring of ICT soft-ware, platforms and infrastructure than has previously been possible. This could encourage an unprecedented vortex of ICT services into North American-based global cloud providers.
       Cloud computing is a scale game bigger is better, and first movers become biggest first. Scale is required to provide the cloud with value proposition of ubiquitous access, seamless elastic capacity,competitive pricing and continuous investment in functionality and security.
       The cloud is also a "build it and they will come" gamble, similar to a motorway. You need to have built excess capacity in the infrastructure up front to offer scalable and pay-as-you-go cloud services. The capacity to fund this upfront investment is a prerequisite for cloud leadership.
       This is a challenging policy conundrum for governments. Leave it to the free market and risk local-market ICT jobs getting sucked offshore into a global cloud, or take proactive policy action. It won't be possible to close the borders or put import tariffs on the cloud.
       A necessary self-defence
       ICT policy executives should be considering the risks and opportunities cloud computing presents. Cloud computing may lead to undesirable offshoring of data, as well as jobs. The fact that the cloud is global while legal systems are national creates unavoidable data security and privacy tensions.
       The creation of national cloud computing entities can address both issues.National clouds will provide onshore opportunities for the local ICT industry and promote the trustworthiness of cloud computing by enabling data to stay within governance arrangements that are compliant with national legislation.
       However, who in a small or mediumsized country can compete with the likes of Amazon, Google, IBM or Microsoft?
       Govt, national telcos form G-cloud
       In practice, leadership of the strategy for a country's participation in cloud computing must come from the government, using two main levers: industry policy and the government's own internal ICT spend. Governments need to decide how they should add momentum to the development of onshore clouds.
       Investment requirements mean that there are not too many other players in a country's domestic market with the motivation and resources required to build cloud computing infrastructure in competition with the global ICT giants.
       The largest national telcos are perhaps the best candidates to partner with governments, as they at least have some of the required resources and are similarly focused on a largely national, as opposed to global, market.
       Governments need to think ahead on this one rather than risk the disappearance of their local ICT industry.