A GROUP supported by members Globe Telecom Inc. (GTI) and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) announced the Philippines passed Thailand in a cloud-readiness index for this year.
However, the country fell two ranks each for international connectivity (from 7th to equal 9th) and broadband quality (from 12th to 14th). “The drop in international connectivity may reflect the struggle to expand international bandwidth rapidly enough to keep up with the tremendous growth in the number of users,” the report by the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) Inc. said. The Singapore-headquartered society, which has GTI and PLDT as among its 24 members, focus on cloud-computing technology and standards in the Asia-Pacific region.
The study exposes the need for the Philippines “to close the gap with its peers on international connectivity if it seeks to improve its cloud-business competitiveness.” There it is tied with Malaysia but falls behind its other peers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Singapore and Thailand.
The 14-market Asia Pacific-focused study by the ACCA saw the Philippines and Malaysia sharing the same CRI in terms of international connectivity, at 3.3. Malaysia, however, has a better ranking in terms of broadband quality at 7.6 compared to the Philippines’s 5.5, which is the bottom of the top 10 countries in overall CRI. To compare, Singapore was given 6.4 and 9.4 score in terms of international connectivity and broadband quality, respectively.
The study, which measures the cloud readiness of economies along 10 parameters, sees some upsets in the Asia-Pacific rankings, the ACCA said in a statement. Hong Kong claims the top position, climbing four spots and toppling two-time leading country Japan, which dropped four places to No. 5.
For the first time in four years, Japan is no longer the most attractive cloud-computing market in Asia Pacific, the latest ACCA CRI revealed. The fourth iteration of the ACCA’s CRI shows Japan has dropped four places since 2011, when it was first ranked as the most cloud-ready market in the region. Countries that fell in the rankings include New Zealand (No. 3), Australia (No. 4), South Korea (No.7), Thailand (No. 10) and mainland China (No.13). Holding steady are Malaysia (No. 8) and Vietnam (No. 14).
According to the ACCA, the Philippines “has been making consistent progress up the CRI rankings.”
The country “rose two ranks for power grid and green policy [from 10th to equal 8th], and three spots in data center risk [from 13th to 10th].” According to the ACCA, the Philippines also improved other “soft” aspects of cloud readiness, including government regulatory environment and usage (from equal 13th to equal 10th); business sophistication (13th to equal 10th); and freedom of information (from 5th to 3rd).
“The Philippines should continue to climb in the rankings by improving on all aspects of their cloud readiness,” the ACCA said. “As the number of users continues to grow from the 37 percent of the population currently using the Internet, significant efforts will be needed to both develop domestic broadband quality and international connectivity.”
According to the fourth iteration of the ACCA study, the Philippines “also does reasonably well on addressing privacy—especially when compared with business-process outsourcing rival India.” Despite the positive trend, however, the ACCA notes “there are signs of an emerging intraregional digital divide.”
“The gap in cloud readiness between the top performers—from Hong Kong to Malaysia—and the bottom six—from the Philippines to Vietnam—is widening, even as the cloud computing becomes a mainstream technology across the region,” the ACCA said.
Likewise, the country’s “vulnerability to hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters make it a risky destination for data centres.” According to the ACCA, this explains why the archipelago ranks poorly on the metrics of “Data Center Risk.”
1 comment
International connectivity and broadband quality are subordinate to cost and speed of internet service. The local Telcom broadband providers should aspire and take action to make local internet cost and speed competitive with the rest of Asia.