The fixed-line network unit of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong has teamed up with technology giant Oracle, consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and other major carriers in a consortium that aims to accelerate adoption of 'cloud computing' by businesses across Asia.
Launched yesterday in Hong Kong, the Asia-Pacific Cloud Alliance offers a combined cloud-computing infrastructure from its founding providers that could rank among the world's largest.
'For the first time, we have all the elements ready to roll out this alliance and readily available solutions to enterprises,' said Steve Au-yeung, executive vice-president at Oracle and managing director of the company's Asia-Pacific operations.
'Our focus sectors will be government, education, health care, retail, manufacturing and financial services,' he added.
Cloud computing enables companies and consumers to buy, lease, sell or distribute over the internet as well as private networks a vast range of software, business systems, data and other digital resources, including storage, as an on-demand service, like electricity from a power grid.
Such resources are hosted in so-called data centres. 'Cloud' refers to the internet, which is depicted in that form in computer network diagrams.