BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - BRUNEI can meet requirements to provide intermediate cloud-computing services but might face bottlenecks in latency, upload and download speeds in order to provide advance cloud services, according to a report.
Based on the report, Brunei is one of the 61 economies that meet at least all of the proposed minimum requirements for basic cloud services.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report on Information Economy Report 2013 looked at “Cloud Economy”, which centered around services and products provided in cloud computing and adoption rates in different countries.
According to UNCTAD, cloud computing enables users, through the Internet or other digital networks “to access a scalable and elastic pool of data storage and computing resources, as and when required”.
“Some predict that cloud technology will be among the most significant disruptive technologies over the next two decades, with major implications for markets, economies and societies,” said UNCTAD. “Against this background, the Information Economy Report 2013 provides an objective analysis of the possible implications for developing countries of the evolving cloud economy,” according to the report.
The report explained in depth about the cloud computing and the different areas and services that drives the “cloud economy” as well as suggests policy adoptions countries can take to move forwards.
In the report, it presented a ‘crude assessment’ of country performances in the area of being able to provide cloud computing services, and used data concerning some 138 economies to illustrate whether they are able to meet the Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarks proposed by Cisco Systems Inc, an industry leader in networking systems.
The benchmark for basic level asked for was 750 kbps (kilobits per second) download speed, 250 kbps upload speed and latency of 160 ms (milliseconds).
For ‘Advance’ level of QoS to provide cloud computing, the benchmark from Cisco asked for download speeds greater than 2,500 kbps, upload speeds over 1,500 kbps and latency of under 100 ms.
Advanced cloud services include 3D video streaming, High Definition video conferencing, super HD video streaming, connected education/medicine, Group video calling and virtual offices.
According to data from Cisco based on analysis from 2012, Brunei’s download speed for fixed lines was at 1,699 kbps, upload speed was at 646 kbps and latency was at 136 ms.
Mobile download speed was at 1,451 kbps, upload speed is at 678 kbps and latency was at 211 ms. These numbers meet QoS benchmark for ‘Intermediate’ cloud services, which include high-definition video streaming, video conferencing and enterprise resource planning.
Forty-three economies meet all minimum benchmarks for advance cloud services, said the report. Seven were from developing Asia and Oceania and six were from transitional economies. Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are in this group.
“It includes nine developed economies and seven transitional economies, in addition to six from Africa, 18 from Asia and Oceania and 20 from Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the report.
The main bottleneck impeding these economies from graduating to the next level (Advance) was the benchmark for upload speeds – which more than 90 per cent of the economies failed to meet, followed by latency.
The final group comprises 34 economies that failed to meet at least one of the QoS benchmarks proposed for basic cloud services. Latency is the most critical bottleneck for this group, faced by all but three of the economies listed.
According to UNCTAD, “There is good reason for governments to take a proactive role in the development of the cloud economy ecosystem,” they said.
The report noted that although “there is, as yet, no statistical analysis of the relationship between the cloud economy and economic growth, it seems likely that by generating cost savings, leveraging new opportunities and participating in learning processes, enterprises that are early adopters of cloud computing can gain a competitive advantage”.
However, they also note that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that governments can apply to benefit from the cloud. “Governments should therefore start by carefully assessing the current situation in their countries, to identify how best to make countries “ready” to leverage the opportunities offered by the cloud and to address concerns associated with increased cloud adoption”, said the report.
The Brunei Times
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