Virtualization and cloud computing now a reality for PHL

Virtualization and cloud computing have at last become a reality for Philippine companies, as digital information continues to expand exponentially and businesses' need to manage "big data" grows apace. “This year, we actually saw companies accelerate adoption of both virtualization and cloud computing and we think the trend will continue in 2013,” observed Ronnie Latinazo, country manager of IT transformation services provider EMC Philippines. “We see a lot of them in telecom, utilities and in the government sector, starting to realize they can turn mere data into assets so they can compete and change the way they do business with customers,” he said. BYOD The increasing number of employees turning to portable smart devices—from smartphones to tablets—to use at work is forcing companies to find more effective ways not just to create, consume and share large amounts of data at high speeds but also to manage the information. Overall, IT consumerization and the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) trend are fueling demand for technologies that are more responsive and offer access to an array of devices anytime, anywhere in a reliable, scalable and secure manner. All of these developments—virtualization, cloud computing, mobile technologies and the emergence of big data applications—are dramatically altering how organizations create, deliver, manage and secure information. Jobs Latinazo expects that 2013 will be a promising year for big data scientists, as businesses turn to analytics to uncover greater business insights and derive value for that competitive edge. In fact, technology research firm Gartner and IT market intelligence provider International Data Corporation (IDC) report that the growing use of these data solutions will result in a shortage of data scientists, foreseeing a demand of one million big data jobs in the global top 1,000 companies by 2015, with only one-third of those jobs being filled. And the jobs will be necessary, as research firm Nucleus calculates that public and private sector organizations that leverage technology to examine large and complex data sets will see a return on investment of 241 per cent. APac region to lead Shifting business demands are driving IT spending upward; research firm Canalys reports that US$128 billion will be spent on global data center transformation in 2012, a 6-percent rise from 2011. In five years, the Asia-Pacific region will account for a full quarter of the world's data center investments. By 2016, the region will also generate the most cloud traffic – 1.5 zettabytes (1.5 billion terabytes) annually. With businesses in Asia beginning to invest heavily in building resilient infrastructures, Canalys predicts total IT investment to grow 5 percent per year on average to reach US$152 billion by 2016. IDC also forecasts cloud storage spending will reach $22.6 billion by 2015. Hence, 2013 will pave the way for a more mature IT environment, with transforming applications, infrastructure and backup capabilities becoming critical for businesses moving in an era of mobility and business intelligence. — BM, GMA News