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Thailand Baits SMEs to Cloud with Funds |
| Source: |
futuregov.asia |
| Source Date: |
Thursday, January 27, 2011 |
| Focus: |
Electronic and Mobile Government, Citizen Engagement, Internet Governance
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| Country: |
Thailand |
| Created: |
Jan 31, 2011 |
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Small and Medium Enterprises in Thailand can look forward to funds worth 200,000 to 400,000 baht (US$6500 to US$13,000) to adopt cloud computing, according to the Deputy Director General and CIO, Department of Industrial Promotion.
Veerapol Srilert, Deputy Director General and CIO, Department of Industrial Promotion (DIP), Ministry of Industry (MOI), said to FutureGov Asia Pacific: “We want to promote the use of cloud computing to them because it helps solve many problems.”
“With cloud computing, the IT investment cost is low because there is no need to invest in a server and the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions or applications can all be hosted on the cloud.”
While the ECIT has been around since 1999, this scheme to encourage cloud adoption only started in 2010, said Srilert.
“The funds come from a government budget. Each year, we have 40 million baht and that supports 150 enterprises.”
When a company has successfully applied for this cloud fund, the Department of Industrial Promotion, under the MOI, enters into a Memorandum of Understanding with the company and the vendor.
“That makes the vendor answerable for all issues like security, IT management, and disaster management,” said Srilert.
Srilert said that the DIP previously tried to pilot projects that used standalone computing in management and each SME will use one data server for their ERP.
“But they suffered from the hardware and maintenance cost. SMEs need cloud computing because they have a shortage of working capital and finances,” he said.
Thailand currently has about 2.8 million SMEs, and ECIT intends to help these organisations improve their cost effectiveness, efficiencies and process.
“In the next four years, the economies in Asia will be taking flight,” Srilert said. “With technology in the picture, all frontiers will be taken away—there will free competition between all countries with no geographical barriers.
“We need to prepare our country’s SMEs for that competition and adoption of technology is one of the ways.”
The funds that DIP dispenses only covers cloud computing costs for one year. The vendor engaged by the DIP, Telephone Organisation of Thailand (TOT), has its servers in the country itself, solving the issue of data sovereignty.
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Thailand Baits SMEs to Cloud with Funds Small and Medium Enterprises in Thailand can look forward to funds worth 200,000 to 400,000 baht US$6500 to US$13,000 to adopt cloud computing according to the Deputy Director General and CIO Department of Industrial Promotion
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