Cloud computing gaining traction in South Korea

Monday, October 18, 2010

Government and large corporation adoption is driving cloud computing closer to the mainstream in South Korea, the Korea Times recently reported.

In a recent interview, VMware’s Asia-Pacific Senior Director of Business Manish Sharma told the Korea Times a significant number of Korean companies are now utilizing VMware’s virtualization techniques for their mission-critical applications, and he expects the demand for cloud computing to be even more widespread.

As in other countries, companies in Korea are looking to cut down on expenditures and will seek to leverage opportunities provided by new communication technologies such as cloud computing, which can help them save by providing lower-cost access to software and scalable data storage services, Sharma said.

However, according to the Korea Times, many companies are concerned with the security of the cloud. The country already has a somewhat shaky security environment, as a result of a widespread distributed-denial-of-service attack that crippled over 80,000 computers last year.

The Korean government is currently working on a “smart” initiative that aims to use the cloud as well as advances of digital equipment and wireless technology to allow government employees to work from anywhere. According to the Korea Times, the goal is to have around 30 percent of public employees work from home or nearby “smart-work” centers by 2015.