The cloud will help six Asia-Pacific economies take off

A new Google Cloud report predicts it will create more than 1.6 million jobs and contribute US$450 billion to global economies. It deep dives into six economies in Asia-Pacific which it believes will see the biggest boost from the cloud.

Titled ‘’Ascent to the Cloud: How Six Key APAC Economies can Lift-off’’ it found that Japan and Australia are Asia-Pacific’s largest cloud markets and also the most advanced in the use of the public cloud.

While this region is expected to see a huge boost in economic growth and job creation, there are challenges ahead – talent must be reskilled or upskilled to cater for a future in cloud.

Another issue is connectivity infrastructure, which needs to be upgraded in some countries before the public cloud can be properly effective. Data privacy concerns are another issue.

The report predicts that public cloud deployment in Singapore could contribute US$30 billion to GDP and create 22,000 jobs directly, and another 21,000 jobs indirectly.

The Google Cloud report identified six key benefits businesses in this region should experience as they embrace the cloud, including improved team productivity.

Because the cloud creates a standardized environment for back-end systems and functions, many businesses find it results in improved IT efficiencies and better collaboration.