Four in five HK firms use cloud computing

Want to gain competitive edge and cut Capex.

A survey by U.S. IT hosting company Rackspace, Inc. shows that 62% of Hong Kong companies deploy cloud services to reduce capital expenditures; 54% do so to gain competitive advantage around scalability while 51% want IT savings.

It shows that general cloud adoption in Hong Kong stands at 84% compared to 79% in India and 73% in Singapore. The most popular uses for the cloud are relatively basic applications such as databases (71%), email (65%), back-up (63%), servers (62%) and storage (56%).

Only a minority of those surveyed use cloud computing for strategic or more complex purposes such as application testing (29%), collaboration solutions (29%), disaster recovery (27%), and supply chain (19%).

Most senior management in Hong Kong firms are worried about a cloud’s security (67%). A lack of understanding about how cloud works was a concern of 51% of respondents and 41% worried about costs of implementation.

In total, 82% of the Hong Kong respondents who aren't currently using cloud said they are planning to do so. Of these, 51% are considering a transition within the next 12 months, and another 45% within one to two years.

The independent survey commissioned by Rackspace involved 712 IT decision-makers across Hong Kong, Singapore and India.