Cloud computing investment 'to hit $1b'

China spent $286 million on cloud-computing infrastructure last year, and the amount will increase to more than $1 billion in 2016, the research company IDC said on Tuesday.

China, where cloud computing is one the fastest-growing industries, accounted for around 10 percent of global cloud-computing investment last year, which totaled $28 billion, according to IDC.

Kitty Fok, vice-president of IDC Asia-Pacific, said that China's IT market is expected to have a volume of $163.2 billion this year, accounting for 7.6 percent of the global total.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, along with other national departments, announced outlines on developing the country's cloud-computing services through pilot and demonstration cities and regions last year.

China already has five pilot cloud-computing cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Wuxi, said Wu Lianfeng, associate vice-president at IDC China.

Most public cloud projects will be promoted by the Chinese government.

A National Cloud Computing Industry Development Plan was recently approved by the central government and will be released soon.

China's first health-related cloud was established in March last year by Shanghai's Shibei Hospital, while the Qingdao municipal government built its first cloud-computing platform for e-government affairs with the software company Inspur Corp.

According to the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), cloud computing will be a chief driver of the IT industry and the development of e-government in China.

Wu said that apart from the five pilot cities, 8 provinces and cities have also announced cloud computing strategies and plans. If all of these plans are implemented, China will have more than 10 million cloud-computing servers worth a total investment of $270 billion.

However, industry experts are concerned that excessive construction and the lack of a solid plan for the application of cloud-computing technology may result in a massive waste of resources.

According to IDC's latest survey, only about 30 percent of companies and organizations could provide detailed plans of what kind of applications they will put in clouds.

"Governments and enterprises should avoid over-investment and have detailed plans before they spend money," said Thomas Zhou, a senior research manager at IDC China.

tuoyannan@chinadaily.com.cn