PCCW reaches out for growth in the 'cloud'
George Fok says the city must look beyond traditional sectors and ramp up its efforts to become a regional centre for information technology
If it were up to George Fok Yiu-cheung, the managing director at PCCW Solutions, Hong Kong would take to the "cloud" and expand the local economy beyond its traditional financial services, retail and property markets.
"I believe there is a future for information technology services here in Hong Kong, one that will provide us with vibrant economic growth. The city needs to evolve and diversify the services it provides," Fok told the South China Morning Post. PCCW Solutions, the city's biggest information technology services provider and a major part of Richard Li Tzar-kai's flagship company, has committed hefty investments to develop its operations with that goal in mind, he said.
The company's strategy includes developing more high-performance data centres and fostering advanced cloud computing capabilities to support the demand of increasingly sophisticated online businesses in the city and on the mainland.
"We are advocating that Hong Kong develop into a cloud hub," Fok said. "This concept means that the city must not only have the necessary infrastructure like data centres, but also people with the right skill set to provide the managed services to support such applications as e-commerce payment gateway and internet banking. I believe Hong Kong has that skill set."
Cloud computing allows consumers and companies to buy, lease, sell or distribute software and other digital resources as a service, just like electricity from a power grid. "Cloud" refers to the internet.
Those cloud applications are hosted and managed inside data centres, which are secure, temperature-controlled facilities built to house large-capacity servers and data-storage systems, with multiple power sources and high-bandwidth internet connections.