A recent study by research firm IDC Manufacturing Insights revealed that IT managers in the manufacturing sector of Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), especially among small businesses do not see any compelling reason to move to the Cloud at present. However, they believe the future of cloud is promising.

Security is the biggest barrier of cloud adoption

The report titled: “Manufacturing and Cloud Computing: A View from Asia Pacific excluding Japan” noted that speedy deployment and IT staff reduction are some of the key drivers of cloud adoption. However, at present only 16 percent IT managers, mostly from small and medium business enterprise show a high level of interest in this technology and also acknowledge these key drivers for the adoption of cloud computing.

The IDC Manufacturing Insights survey findings further revealed that over 50 percent of the respondents are refraining from the adoption of cloud-based solutions owing to their concern about last mile connection and speed-related problems. However, most IT managers also agreed that these concerns are short-lived since there has been a rapid progress in the field of telecommunications network infrastructure in most parts of Asia.

Dr. William Lee, Senior Research Manager for IDC Manufacturing Insights Asia Pacific said the primary focus of the Asia Pacific region is to keep the cost low. He added that as most of the benefits of cloud computing has not yet translated to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) as against traditional on-site IT deployments, the adoption has still been slow. Until now, less than 10 percent of the manufacturing firms across APEJ have adopted the technology.

Dr. Lee also said that there is however reasons for SMEs in the manufacturing sector to cheer because the volatile market conditions in the manufacturing sector have currently ignited new interest in cloud, as an increased number of organisations are currently looking for shorter term return on investments (ROI).

Security continues to be the biggest barrier of cloud adoption for manufacturing companies in the APEJ.

Lee pointed out that even though the cloud is often perceived as less secure compared to retaining data in-house, most security breaches are internal, as shown in a recent IDC security survey. Therefore, having data residing in the cloud does not necessary make it more vulnerable to security risks.

Besides their security concern about data breaches of sensitive information, APEJ manufacturers are also anxious about the consequent loss of time and expenditure of resources to reproduce the data.