Thailand's information technology (IT) spending will enjoy double-digit growth next year as businesses continue to reduce IT costs and and drive productivity, says VMware Inc, a California-based virtualisation software firm.
Five major technology trends are influencing the overall business landscape today — virtualised data centres, open-cloud technology, converged infrastructure, data storage and networking virtualisation.
Three main reasons for IT investment are to ensure business continuity, reduce IT costs and ensure information security and data protection, said Chawapol Jariyawiroj, VMware's chief for Thailand and Indochina.
"We expect further high growth this year thanks to the growing awareness of the advantages of virtualisation technology among large corporations in Thailand," he said.
A VMware survey of 897 companies with IT managers in Thailand found 30% perceived themselves to be 30-60% virtualised, while 35% expected their organisation to be 60-90% virtualised by 2016.
The survey also found the two main purposes to adopt virtualised or software-defined data centres (SDDCs) were to optimise resource utilsation and improve operational efficiency.
Mr Chawapol said SDDC, the latest platform and emerging technology, was shifting data centres to a modern facility, giving data centre administrators the power to incorporate security seamlessly.
Virtualisation and the cloud revolution have brought unprecedented levels of flexibility and automation to IT infrastructure and data centres around the globe.
As a result, the changing nature of data centre architecture — moving from physical to virtual — requires a shift in various IT roles within organisations.
IDC's Data Center Economies Index, commissioned by VMware, showed Thai companies could slash costs by US$1.39 billion from 2003-20 by leveraging a software-defined approach.
Mr Chawapol said demand for enterprise data centres was skyrocketing, powered by intense competition and an increasing level of awareness.
The implementation of virtualisation technology is extending from computer servers to computer networks.
VMware provides virtualisation software mainly for telecoms and financial institutions.
Thailand's IT software market is expected to surpass 3 billion baht in value this year.