At the conclusion of the sixth iteration of the Asia Cloud Computing Association’s Cloud Readiness Index, the CRI 2020 rankings were led by South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In this year, the CRI 2020 adds the digital insight dimension to render an indication of a market’s ability to take advantage of digital cloud computing tools and enhance the economic recovery ability from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The CRI 2020 is an index of the economy readiness for maximization of the abilities of cloud computing, to measure the cloud readiness against 10 parameters, namely, freedom of information, business sophistication, intellectual property protection, government regulatory environment, privacy regulations, cybersecurity, data center risk, power sustainability, domestic broadband quality, and international connectivity.
The CRI 2020 has three key observations. The first is that the cloud readiness is advancing in the Asia-Pacific region, but with stalled progress. The second is that the digital divide has narrowed , core abilities such as natural risk management, privacy, and cybersecurity are fragile. Several economies continue to implement data localization regulations that stymies cross-border flows. Lastly, emerging APAC markets have the risk of losing out on an economic recovery from Covid-19 by not using the next-generation technologies.
"Some of the hardest-hit economies with high infection rates are also some of the CRI2020's top scorers," noted Lim May-Ann, Executive Director of the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA). "The top-scoring group includes many economies which have done well in containing the virus' spread, and we will be keeping a close watch on which economies leverage their strong cloud computing fundamentals to effect more rapid economic recovery."
"The international comparison of cloud readiness across APAC and non-APAC economies also provides an indicator of which markets have been able to continue economic activity, albeit with some limitations," adds Eric Hui, the Chair of the ACCA. "There is no substitute for strong fundamentals in internet and cloud computing infrastructure in this respect."
"These observations are of concern to us at the ACCA," says Lim May-Ann. "They indicate that some markets may have chosen to plateau their technology and infrastructural investments, and have also decided to put in regulatory restrictions around data flows, at a time when the freedom to use cloud productivity tools is needed the most to recover from the economic fallout from Covid-19."
For more details, visit www.asiacloudcomputing.org
