Internet Thailand Plc (INet), a SET-listed company, recently announced an ambitious aim: to increase its broadband internet and data centre revenue by a substantial 50 percent during 2015.

INet management believes the target is quite achievable, especially given the fact that companies have embraced cloud-based services and the government has announced strong corporate tax incentives for those providing cloud-based services.

The Board of Investment (BoI) has an eight-year moratorium on corporate tax income for cloud service providers and the management of INet believes this could potentially make the cloud-based market worth as much as 10 billion baht by 2020.

INet company management realized the potential some time back and spent 12 months doing the due diligence required to obtain the Cisco Master Service Provider Certification for cloud and managed services.

With this certification, INet became the first cloud service provider to be certified by an international cloud security service.

The Master Service Provider Certification means INet has been recognized as having the capability to sell and deliver cloud and managed services, which helps accelerate time to market and time to revenue.

The certification also means potential INet customers should feel confident in using the company’s cloud service, as powered by Cisco technology. 

An estimated 100 billion baht a year is currently being spent by businesses across Thailand on procuring computer servers, storage and networking equipment. And that amount is only set to continue to grow into the years ahead.

Having ‘infrastructure as a service’ is considered by many to be an efficient way for companies, whether large, medium or even small, to reduce their spending on IT infrastructure and services as well as cutting the costs up-front investment in IT. 

INet management believes the so-called hybrid cloud was another area into which they could glean a decent slice of market share. The hybrid technology is able to provide very large savings on IT investment infrastructure costs while at the same time increasing data storage capacity.

Hybrid cloud computing is basically a combination of the public cloud (the Internet in general) and the private cloud, which is the storage operated by a company. Hybrid cloud computing is perfect for e-commerce.

In 2014, INet’s total revenue amounted to 520 million baht. Of this, cloud revenue amounted to 156 million baht, or 30 percent of their overall business.

For this year, INet is looking to rapidly increase overall revenues, reaching at least 700 million baht. Of this, the company expects cloud revenue will amount to around 300 million baht, or around 42 percent of the entire business.