15 July 2009 - Remarks By Mr Andrew Khaw, Senior Director (Industry Development), The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, At Cloudforce Event and The Official Opening Of Salesforce.com Asia Pacific Data Centre Launch, Raffles Convention Centre
Remarks By Mr Andrew Khaw, Senior Director (Industry Development), The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, At Cloudforce Event and The Official Opening Of Salesforce.com Asia Pacific Data Centre Launch, 15 July 2009 Wednesday, 3:00pm, Level 4 Raffles Convention Centre
Ms Polly Sumner, President and Chief Adoption Officer
Mr Steve McWhirter, President, Asia Pacific
Mr Andrew Knott, Vice President, Marketing - Asia Pacific
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon
1. On behalf of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, let me offer my heartiest congratulations to salesforce.com on the launch of Force.com and the setting up of your data centre in Singapore. I am proud to learn that, as you were sourcing the best location for a complementary site to your U.S operations, your customers strongly vouched for Singapore and this is why we are here today.
2. Singapore is recognised in the global business community as a highly competitive trusted hub for businesses looking to offshore their operations. International agencies such as the World Economic Forum and Political and Economic Risk Consultancy consistently rank Singapore as one of the most conducive places in the world to do business. We have gained a reputation as a major global telecommunications hub in the region with 38 terabits per second of high-speed international submarine cable capacity and direct international internet capacity of over 100 gigabits per second. Our pro-business government, world-class infrastructure and skilled manpower have attracted global companies to make Singapore their regional headquarters and global IT hubs.
3. Cloud Computing has opened up new horizons for our efforts to position Singapore as an IT shared services hub. IDC predicts that worldwide spending for cloud computing over the next five years will grow almost threefold to U.S$42 billion by 2012. Today, users are accessing applications such as word processing, storage, and even compute power through Cloud Computing. IDC says that 11 per cent of Asia senior IT executives are already using cloud-based solutions and a further 41 per cent are either evaluating or piloting cloud computing.
4. IDA's role is to grow and enhance the competitiveness of Singapore's infocomm sector. We are beginning to put together a plan to develop the Cloud Computing eco-system, working in consultation with our partner agencies such as EDB. Our current efforts are focused on three areas: first, to put in place enabling infrastructure; second, to work with industry to set up innovation centres to pilot cloud-based business models in specific verticals and sectors; and, third, to build up workforce capability on cloud computing.
5. On the first area, Singapore's Next Generation National Broadband Network or Next Gen NBN, capable of ultra high-speed access up to 1 gigabit per second will accelerate the adoption of cloud computing and the development of new capabilities, products and services.
6. On the second area of innovation, IDA has identified verticals such as SMEs, digital media, finance, healthcare and mobility for deployment of pilots. In July 2008, IDA, together with Yahoo, HP and Intel, launched the Open Cirrus Cloud Computing Testbed initiative to develop local research in internet-scale data-intensive computing through working with counterpart centres of excellence and technology partners overseas.
7. On manpower capabilities, I am glad to share that we are working with our institutes of higher learning to define the Cloud Computing courseware for undergraduates.
8. When we met Polly and Andrew yesterday, we discussed exciting new areas to collaborate on that would build on today's milestone for salesforce.com. I look forward to taking these conversations further and celebrating new achievements with you.
9. Once again, my heartiest congratulations. Thank you.
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