Countries in the Asia Pacific region are leading the world when in comes to cloud readiness, including New Zealand, although it has fallen in rank.
The latest Cloud Readiness Index from the Asia Cloud Computing Association has placed Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia above markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
This is the first time that the 14-market Asia Pacific-focused study also includes a sample of six non-Asian markets for comparative analysis.
The study, which measures the cloud readiness of economies along 10 parameters, reveals some upsets in the Asia Pacific rankings.
Hong Kong claims the top position, climbing four spots and toppling two-time leading country Japan, which dropped four places to #5. Singapore climbed two ranks into second place, while Taiwan (#6), Philippines (#9), Indonesia (#11) and India (#12) also climbed the ranks.
Countries that fell in the rankings include New Zealand (#3), Australia (#4), as well as South Korea (#7), Thailand (#10), and mainland China (#13). Holding steady are Malaysia (#8) and Vietnam (#14).
New Zealand maintains lead on power and sustainability but falls behind in overall rankings
New Zealand has slipped CRI to third place as Hong Kong topped the charts to emerge as the overall most cloud ready economy in Asia, followed by Singapore at number 2.
The fourth iteration of the Asia Cloud Computing Association CRI shows that although New Zealand remains a leader in Asia Pacific when it comes to infrastructural sustainability around power, water and green policies, it has been upstaged by more aggressive rivals such as Singapore and Hong Kong who have aggressively improved their positions as investor-friendly destinations for cloud computing.
After having moved up four places on the CRI in 2014, New Zealand slipped one spot this year.
"The results put Asia in a very strong position to lead the next wave of global innovation and technology," explains Bernie Trudel, chairman of the ACCA.
"Asia Pacific is poised to outperform as they lead the world into the digital age, driven by cloud computing technologies,” he says.
Lim May-Ann, executive director of the ACCA, says the cloud has mainstreamed as a technology.
"Public sector adoption of cloud is underway, and we see that multiple gCloud accreditation schemes is the next challenge that businesses will face with governments.
"The next phase for markets is to put in place strong forward-looking policies which enable international data transfers, and address cybersecurity and privacy concerns from consumers and business,” May Anna adds.
Despite the positive trend, there are signs of an emerging intra-regional digital divide, the report shows.
This is the fourth year that the ACCA has published the CRI; comparing the cloud readiness of 14 economies over time suggests that the gap in cloud readiness may be becoming entrenched. The gap in cloud readiness between the top performers - from Hong Kong to Malaysia - and the bottom six - from Philippines to Vietnam - is widening, even as the cloud computing becomes a mainstream technology across the region.
ACCA says the top performers are now reaping the benefits of multi-year national digitisation plans, including plans for gCloud, broadband and other connectivity rollouts.