Cloud Computing Leader Looks to Thailand
Red Hat, which is the largest pure-play open-source software company in the world, has decided 2015 will be the year it pushes its cloud computing efforts throughout the Southeast Asian region.
The United States-based company is changing its long-term strategy and moving away from a client-server model to being an open-source cloud computer provider as well as moving into the mobile computing market. Red Hat is primarily noted for being the creators of the Linux operating system.
The company is now using the successful Linux model to promote its flagship OpenStack software, a program specifically designed for cloud computing. The company believes OpenStack could play an important long-term role in the future of open-source cloud computing.
While OpenStack is its primary open-source cloud computing software platform, Red Hat has a suite of cloud computing products designed to cover the cloud computing requirements of businesses across the spectrum.
Red Hat earns the bulk of its revenues from subscriptions and providing consulting services. The company expects to realize market opportunities worth up to US$58.9 billion by 2017. This figure includes the new business models Red Hat is adding to its overall product portfolio with the expansion of its product categories.
While Red Hat currently has offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, the company recognizes the rapid adoption of cloud computing within Thailand, especially within banks, state agencies and telecoms. A spokesperson for the company said Red Hat may well open an office in Thailand before the middle of 2016 if their business proves successful within the local marketplace.
Many Thai companies are beginning to recognize cloud computing as a good way of reducing the costs of infrastructure as well as enhancing overall efficiency.
Mobile operators in Thailand are embracing cloud computing as they realize it can help reduce complexity as well as allow operators to capitalize on new sources of revenue.
Mobile technology represents an enormous growth sector, but this also brings with it reduced security as employees take their mobile products into work and enterprise data is therefore more easily compromised.
Red Hat realizes it needs to provide ways of offering secure cloud computing to major and minor companies alike, and recently signed a deal to acquire the privately owned provider of enterprise mobile application platforms, Feed Henry, for the equivalent of 2.62 billion baht.
The IDC Corporation, a global research company, has predicted an compound annual growth rate in the worldwide market for mobile application platforms of 38.7 percent. By 2017 IDC believes this marketplace will be worth around US$4.8 billion.
