Vietnam is ideally positioned to trigger cloud computing boom: Expert

The webinar “Benefits of Using Cloud Computing for AI and Business Resilience” is co-held by the Vietnam Internet Association (VIA), Google and the Vietnam Cloud Computing and Data Centre Club (VNCDC). (Photo courtesy of VIA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is in the best period to trigger the boom of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing as the country now owns all the basic elements for it to happen, VNG-Cloud Director-General Vu Minh Tri told a webinar in Hanoi on July 9.
 
The webinar “Benefits of Using Cloud Computing for AI and Business Resilience” was co-held by the Vietnam Internet Association (VIA), Google and the Vietnam Cloud Computing and Data Centre Club (VNCDC) to provide information about AI and Cloud, AI application trends in business operation and other applications to support business activities.
 
The amount of data Vietnam has built is sufficient to analyse future trends, said Tri, who is also head of the VNCDC. The readiness of cloud computing can facilitate data processing based on programmed models, he outlined; finally, the readiness of the IT workforce in the field of AI which has been developed by both foreign and Vietnamese corporations in recent years.
 
2020 will be the year of cloud computing as most of the data has been digitised, said VIA Chairman Vu Hoang Lien. Cloud computing is not only a data centre but also a centre of control and operation for organisations, especially businesses, he noted.
 
Insiders forecast that cloud computing will be booming in Vietnam in the next 2 – 3 years, becoming a vital factor driving the fourth Industrial Revolution.
 
Tran Minh Khoi from Viettel IDC said revenues from AI-based apps and platforms to develop AI-based apps are likely to grow 33 – 35 percent annually to reach up to 120 million USD in 2025.
 
Though the future is promising, knowledge and understanding of AI and cloud computing in Vietnam has been limited.
 
The global growth rate of the cloud computing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) industry last year was 27.5 percent, according to a report released by Viettel IDC in 2018.
 

Illustrative photo. (Source: techradar)

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) estimated that the market for Vietnam’s cloud computing was valued at 200 million USD and has steadily grown at a 30-percent rate annually. However, Vietnamese firms only account for 20 percent of the market share, a rather modest figure compared to foreign competitors.
 
Tri said once local firms finished building Vietnam-based infrastructure, they would not have to rely on outside suppliers.
 
Firms should also be able to offer better support to Vietnamese firms, train more Vietnamese engineers and perform on-site training for customers more frequently, he said. Local firms, therefore, should gain major competitive advantages over foreign competitors and help spur the development of cloud computing services in Vietnam.
 
Vietnamese telecom firms run a total of 27 data centres with 270,000 servers across the country, which can readily service all customers at affordable prices, said a MIC source. The local open-source community has also seen fast growth along with its global counterparts.
 
The Viettel IDC report also found that level of spending on cloud computing in Vietnam is still very low, only about 1.7 USD in 2016, 100 times lower than Singapore, 6.5 times lower than Malaysia and 2.4 times lower than Thailand, which indicates that domestic firms were reluctant to apply AI.
 
Khoi said that the biggest challenge to developing AI services is a lack of skilled personnel in the sector, accessibility to data and costly investment for AI.
 
Speakers at the webinar also shared a common view that since resources of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remain limited, cloud computing and AI services providers should introduce packages of solutions that suit SMEs the best.
 
For example, VNG Cloud has developed specific solutions for different industries, Tri said, adding that its AI-powered solutions address real problems for each industry. Meanwhile, Viettel IDC offers AI services for various stages of digital transformation in businesses.
 
AI services should start from the smallest things to become popularised and gather even more data, Tri added./.