19% of retailers in Asia/Pacific evaluate adoption of cloud computing services

Infotech Lead India: 19 percent of retailers across key markets in Asia/Pacific are evaluating the adoption of some form of cloud computing services.
Cloud deployment is on their priority list. 32 percent of the respondents are considering implementing cloud in the next two to five years.
“Retailers in Asia/Pacific are taking a cautious approach to cloud. The majority of them recognizes that the cloud would bring efficiency to their IT systems and improve operational backend issues. However, the plan to move into virtual platforms does not appear to be immediate and would take between two to five years,” said Kumar Gs Das, research manager for IDC Retail Insights Asia/Pacific.
Retail industry is hesitant when it comes to new technology. Adoption of retail-specific technology in Asia/Pacific is less when compared to the other regions as the industry is still developing.
IDC Retail Insight believes that the positive economic outlook in Asia will drive the future adoption of cloud among retailers in this region.
Retail growth in Asia/Pacific has slowed with the Chinese economy experiencing a slow-down in its services and manufacturing sectors, and the Indian economy weakening as a result of rising inflation and falling rupee.
However, as compared to the developed markets in the U.S. and Europe, the economic outlook in Asia is still much better. As such, investors will continue to shift their focus to Asia and businesses will be looking to improve operational efficiency and IT productivity in order to keep up with growing consumer demand.
Data security, firewall concerns and integration into internal IT systems are the three main barriers to cloud adoption among Asia/Pacific retailers. For cloud to gain traction, there must be greater investment in backend infrastructure to improve connectivity.
editor@infotechlead.com