IBM & China Telecom Partner for SMB Cloud Services
Industry analysts mention that China is surprisingly lagging in cloud adaptations compared with other countries within the Asian Pacific region such as Japan and Australia. Cloud experts note that China cloud be the “Wild West of Cloud Computing” since there aren’t nearly as many cloud services available in this part of the world versus the rest. Gartner mentions Chinese Cloud services will be worth $131 billion by 2017.
With China Telecom’s latest announcement that they are partnering with IBM to deliver cloud solutions, its clear that this telecommunications giant is leading the way in Chinese cloud computing. China Telecom released a statement mentioning that they have entered into a 3 year agreement with IBM. In this agreement, the two parties mentioned that they would focus on cloud solutions that delivered SAP applications to small and medium sized businesses.
China Telecom offers this service as a way to cut costs for companies that already use SAP software or company that wanted to implement the software but haven’t. The deal specifically says that China Telecom would be responsible for managing infrastructure such as networking, mobile and cloud. IBM would actually take on the service integration role by installing the software and hardware necessary to create an environment that will host the SAP applications. IBM also assumes the role of end-to-end support with this offering. There is no official word if IBM’s role will also provide SoftLayer services.
The press release specifically mentions that, “Working with China Telecom, IBM will provide integrated and seamless management across all SAP architectures and delivery models. Clients can migrate and integrate new applications on the cloud, while maintaining and operating current applications.”
D.C. Chien, the General Manager with IBM’s Great China Group, applauded the press release and said, “Today’s announcement represents an important step in the Chinese cloud computing market that will provide one of the fastest growing segments within China greater access to cloud resources.”
