VietNamNet Bridge – Viettel and MobiFone, the two biggest mobile network operators, have pioneered in using their cloud computing to cut costs and shorten the time for service development.

The information was released by Chu Tien Dung, Chair of the HCM City Informatics Association at the Vietnam ICT Outlook – VIO 2013.

In June 2013, MobiFone announced the agreement on the strategic cooperation in building mobile solutions in Vietnam on the basis of IBM’s cloud computing for MobiFone II center.

The mobile solutions on the cloud computing would help MobiFone connect its thousands of workers with mobile devices.

Viettel still has not exposed information about the scale and the initial achievements in applying cloud computing. The mobile network operator is not only a cloud computing technology user, but it is also one of the few network operators that provide Cloud VPS – a cloud computing service for public use at the fundamental level.

VDC has also joined the market which now provides Managed Backup and IaaS.

In general, the public cloud computing service providers in Vietnam remain small. Some SI and ISV have been moving ahead with their strategy on making heavy investment in the cloud computing, while combining the building up of public clouds with providing separated clouds to clients.

Of the firms, FIS, SBD, HiPT now hold big market shares in IaaS, while Lac Viet, MISA, NEO, CT-IN are the big names in SaaS (software is served as a service), while clients can rent software for use and pay fee annually.

Some new cloud computing service providers have turned up recently. However, analysts noted that they mostly have focused on niche markets. QTSC, VNTT, Prism, Exa, HostVN, MOS and BiakiCRM are some of them.

Big challenges

This is the good news for cloud computing service providers that most of the enterprises and institutions have basic knowledge about clouds and they plan to use clouds in the next two years, according to the report released at the above said VIO 2013.

The report showed that only 3 percent of institutions and enterprises said they don’t intend to use cloud computing services, 25 percent said they still need to learn more about the services, but don’t have the plans to use clouds in the near future. Eight percent of them said they plan to use clouds after six months.

Especially, 39 percent said they are using the service, while 19 percent are using and will be increasing the use in the future.

However, Dung pointed out that too many challenges still exists in Vietnam, including the problems in the infrastructure and the clients’ lack of confidence on the service providers.

In ASEAn, Vietnam has not had any initiative or program aiming to stimulate the demand or encourage enterprises and institutions to use cloud apps. Meanwhile, Malaysia has the initiatives applied to small and medium enterprises and software development firms which help improve the competitiveness and efficiency.

In Vietnam, some government agencies have been applying the cloud computing models for their projects on building new data integration centers or for the development/testing environments. These include the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, Science and Technology, Information and Communication, or the localities of HCM City, Da Nang, Ca Mau and Phu Yen.