| Maninder Kaur/Adam Koh Waggener Edstrom Worldwide +65 303 8465 / +65 6303 8460 mkaur@waggeneredstrom.com adamk@waggeneredstrom.com |
–or– | Mylinh Cheung Regional PR Director, Asia Pacific Akamai Technologies (Singapore) +65 6593 8724 mylinh.cheung@akamai.com |
Survey findings show a need for improvement in Web infrastructures
SINGAPORE – November 11, 2010 – Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM, news, filings) has sponsored the IDC Asia-Pacific Web Application Survey 2010 in which it discusses the trends driving demand for Web applications. The survey http://www.akamai.com/dl/akamai/idc_cloud_mobility_wp.pdf revealed businesses have become reliant on the Internet for their daily operations, and outlines the challenges IT departments face as they strive to improve application performance and the end-user experience. And given the rise in the number of Web applications accessed in the cloud, IT departments are under pressure to rethink their Web delivery strategy.
According to the survey published in the Akamai-sponsored IDC white paper entitled “Prepare to Scale Your Web Infrastructure to Meet Imminent Growth in Cloud and Mobility,” the proportion of Web applications delivered over the cloud will surge 40% over the next 12 months and drive IT managers to further improve the performance of their Web infrastructures. 26% of the organizations polled have experienced productivity issues due to poor access to Web applications.
Philip Chua, Country Manager for Singapore and Malaysia, said, “Most organizations are embracing key IT innovations as they move their businesses online. In view of this, it’s imperative IT departments have in place a proper IT infrastructure to support this shift towards working in the cloud. Failing to do so will have an adverse effect on the company’s overall productivity and bottom-line.”
Organizations were asked about their business expansion plans as well as utilization of the Internet and cloud-based computing for business functions. Initial findings show incredible growth in the Asia-Pacific region – about 32% of the 423 organizations polled across Asia-Pacific (Australia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan) plan to set up branch offices over the next 12 months, with India and Hong Kong leading with aggressive business expansion plans. Such business expansion will change the nature and complexion of the workforce. With increased mobility and business agility, companies are able to expand their operations quickly and cost-effectively, allowing them to respond more efficiently to changes in the business environment.
According to Adrian Dominic Ho, principal for IDC’s Asia-Pacific Practice Group covering Communications and Service research, and author of the IDC white paper, growth in extended enterprises will also contribute to the rise of the borderless world, resulting in a surge in Web application adoption. One of the most challenging tasks IT managers will face is ensuring they deliver acceptable levels of application performance, and improve user experience and performance of Web applications.
More than 50% of organizations currently conduct online transactions; the big growth areas over the next 12 months will be mobile access and streaming video. For mobile access, organizations in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia are leading the region, with up to 86% of those in Malaysia expected to have mobile access to Web applications over the next 12 months. In view of this, 20% of organizations across the region plan to give employees mobile access and support bandwidth-heavy streaming video applications over the same period.
One of the key reasons organizations invest heavily in Web applications is to empower their employees and build an extended enterprise. Increased mobility means organizations have to think about providing employees easy access to corporate applications, regardless of their location. Greater workforce mobility; growing adoption of mobile technology for business use; and recent improvements in centralized visibility, management, and control of mobile costs have rendered mobility an inexpensive, but important strategic asset for many organizations.
One of the key factors driving the growth in enterprise mobility is the proliferation of smart devices, which give employees ubiquitous access to business applications. In the region, IDC expects smartphone penetration to reach 100% by 2015 in the mature markets, while emerging markets will require a further two to three years.
Cloud services have been one of the most-discussed technologies over the last 12 to 24 months. The number of applications that will be delivered via the cloud is expected to increase by 40% over the next 12 months, albeit from a low base. ANZ and Singapore are leading with having corporate applications delivered over the cloud today, while, countries like India and Taiwan are expected to experience doubled cloud adoption rates, over the next 12 months.
Top Issues Faced by Organizations
Across the region, security concerns continue to dominate with more than 22% of respondents citing this as their top concern, as more data-sensitive applications are made available online. More importantly, security teams often find it challenging to keep up with the increase in security vulnerability, as more applications are added onto the Web. Other top concerns across the region were over Web application performance, an inability to access rich media applications, and delays in rolling out rich content applications.
Future Outlook
According to IDC, the application delivery market will experience another year of innovation and market expansion. Organizations in the Asia-Pacific rely heavily on Web applications to drive day-to-day operations and to support their employees, customers, and the entire ecosystem of partners and suppliers. To meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities, organizations must be prepared with a strategy and commitment to deliver higher levels of application performance to the expanding branch offices and growing pool of mobile or remote workers.
With the era of the pervasive cloud upon us, organizations also need to acknowledge that further adoption of cloud services, mobility, video, and social media will place greater pressure on Web infrastructures. However, there is no better time than now to have a concrete, strategic plan and road map for Web application delivery.
About Akamai Technologies
Akamai® provides market-leading, cloud-based services for optimizing Web and mobile content and applications, online HD video, and secure e-commerce. Combining highly-distributed, energy-efficient computing with intelligent software, Akamai’s global platform is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. To learn how the world’s leading enterprises are optimizing their business in the cloud, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai_APAC and @Akamai on Twitter.
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