Sunny outlook for cloud computing

SEATTLE - Microsoft will host the 2011 Global Mobile and Cloud Conference on Saturday, giving IT professionals insight into what's next for the Chinese market.

Representatives from Northwest-based companies such as Amazon, T-Mobile, HTC, Boeing, Microsoft and Airbiquity will be presenting. The event is co-organized by Chinese Microsoft Employee Network (CHIME) and North America China Council (NACC), and supported by Microsoft and the city of Bellevue, located in the state of Washington.

Keynote speakers will include Terry Myerson, Microsoft's corporate vice-president of Windows Phone Engineering; Quentin Clark, corporate vice-president of Microsoft's Database Systems Group; and Conrad Lee, deputy mayor of Bellevue.

Major IT players in China's cloud computing market, including Shanda, Huawei, ZTE and Inspur Group, will introduce their new strategies and innovations for China.

The worldwide cloud market is poised for strong growth through 2014, when cloud services revenue is projected to reach $148.8 billion, according to Gartner Inc, an international technology research and advisory company.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's second-largest network equipment maker, aims to expand its enterprise business aggressively in coming years, targeting contract sales worth $15 billion to $20 billion by 2015, according to William Xu, president of Huawei's enterprise business group division.

"Cloud computing is a revolution in the IT sector and gives information and communications technology suppliers, such as Huawei, new opportunities to get into the enterprise sector," the Shenzhen-based executive said earlier last month.

Inspur, one of the largest manufacturers of cloud computing core equipment and suppliers of IT solutions in China, has been aggressive in seeking to gain shares in the server market and has recently cooperated with the government of Jinan, in Shandong province, to develop and design cloud computing-based products and technologies.

"Chinese companies like Inspur will contribute inspiring perspectives about the future of the Chinese market," said Yushi Shen, chairman of CHIME and also a Microsoft software development engineer.

Early this year, Microsoft announced it would spend 90 percent of its $9.6 billion research and development budget on cloud strategy, showing Microsoft is "all in". In August, Microsoft signed a partnership with China Standard Software to develop and market cloud computing products in China, proving its commitment to China's emerging market.

The conference is believed to again reflect the company's commitment to give Chinese customers the ability to deliver applications and create business value in Microsoft's cloud environment.

"To contribute to these efforts, CHIME, with the support of over 3,000 Chinese talents at Microsoft, plays an important role," Harry Shum, corporate vice-president at Microsoft and the executive adviser to CHIME, told China Daily.

A product of the evolutionary computing standard, Shen said that cloud computing is not necessarily a completely new technical term. However, insiders believe that it will no doubt bring many new ideas and changes to the IT industry and to customers.

"This conference will not be a pure tech event, but a unique opportunity to connect dots in the mobile and cloud computing industry with these new ideas and changes, by combining 'local innovation' and 'global collaboration'," Shen added.

CHIME was founded in the early 1990s by a group of Chinese employees of Microsoft. It is endorsed by Microsoft Human Resources as an official employee network group.