Red Hat, the world's largest pure-play open-source software firm, says it will ramp up its cloud computing efforts in Southeast Asia next year with the aim of cementing its foothold in the fast-growing cloud-based and mobile computing market.
Wong: Software cuts costs, raises efficiency
The strategic move is part of the US company's policy to shift from a client-server model to an open-source cloud computing provider.
Cloud computing is gaining widespread adoption in Thailand as a means of reducing infrastructure costs and enhancing efficiency, said Damien Wong, Red Hat's senior director and general manager for Asean.
In addition, cloud technologies have become the basis for radical business innovation and new business models, as well as significant improvements in the effectiveness of anyone using information technology.
Red Hat is delivering many versions of the cloud computing platform, including its flagship OpenStack software. The company says OpenStack could play an important role in the future of open-source cloud computing.
Red Hat is using a community-powered approach to provide the high-performance OpenStack cloud infrastructure to enterprises. The company earns revenue through subscriptions and by providing consulting service.
"We hope to bring OpenStack to the masses and repeat the success we enjoyed for our commercial enterprise operating system Linux," Mr Wong said.
Red Hat has continued to widen its product portfolio with the expansion of product categories.
He said Thailand is a key market in Asean, due to the increasing adoption of cloud computing among telecoms, banks and state agencies.
Mobile operators in Thailand are moving aggressively to adopt cloud computing as they realise competitive advantage by reducing complexity and increasing agility.
The mobile cloud also lets operators capitalise on new sources of revenue.
Mr Wong said Red Hat may set up a representative office in Thailand in the next 12-18 months if the business proves successful.
Red Hat has offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Mobile applications represent another rapidly growing sector. The downside is that with more and more people bringing mobile devices to work, the security of enterprise data is threatened.
To address this, Red Hat recently signed a deal to acquire FeedHenry, a privately held provider of enterprise mobile application platforms, for €63.5 million. The transaction is expected to close next year.
Global researcher IDC Corporation predicts a compound annual growth rate of 38.7% in the global market for mobile application platforms, rising to $4.8 billion by 2017.