The Hanoitimes -  A forum was held this week by EMC, a leading provider of storage solutions, focusing o­n cloud computing, the latest wave of innovation in information technology, and how it was poised to change the IT industry in Vietnam

At the forum, Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Minh Hong expressed appreciation for the new solutions being introduced by leading global IT companies to assist Vietnamese businesses and government agencies to apply cloud computing technology.

Hong urged Vietnamese businesses to invest more in technological infrastructure and human resources training in order to be positioned to apply this advanced technology.

Nguyen Duc Toan, sales director of EMC Vietnam, said a combination between private and public clouds was the latest trend, a model that combined flexibility, easy access, and low cost. In the future, private clouds would become fully-automated infrastructure operating in partnership with businesses, he said. Most enterprises would connect their private cloud to public clouds, creating a hybrid cloud, combining what each IT organisation does best with what partners can do.

Such a system would allow businesses to take full and effective advantage of hardware resources, while still keeping effective management of their information, Toan said.

With cloud computing, enterprises can virtualise many important applications by moving existing applications to a virtualised infrastructure without interruption. In so doing, they can reduce hardware costs, he said.

Toan pointed to the example of the New York Stock Exchange, which was building infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service for the financial services industry with scalability and compliance for financial services built in.

Hong said that his ministry was considering the applications of cloud computing in State agencies through outsourcing, with investment to come in the form of public-private partnerships. Many State entities have already applied cloud computing, he noted, including the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Finance.

However, Hong acknowledged that inadequate human resources, low level of awareness in businesses and organisations, and concerns about security and privacy remained as barriers to the application of cloud computing in Vietnam.