Datasoft, a mid-sized IT company, was planning to migrate its data and applications to the cloud, and this created a vendor selection problem.
They found that although large international providers offer a wide range of features and functionality, their services are expensive. In addition, the data will be stored overseas and must be paid in US dollars.
On the other hand, local cloud providers offer affordable packages and add-ons, such as domestic storage and payment in local currency.
However, over the years, choosing a local provider has proven to be a wise decision for companies that can take advantage of cloud services and save money in the process. In addition, they did not encounter any security issues.
For medium and large businesses, cloud computing (sometimes referred to simply as the cloud) has become a ubiquitous term when it comes to working with data. Following trends in other parts of the world, cloud storage is gaining popularity in Bangladesh as a secure and affordable way to store and manage data and applications.
In Bangladesh, the market is occupied by foreign cloud giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle. But over the past few years, some on-premises cloud service providers have emerged as cheaper alternatives that offer simplicity.
In layman’s terms, a cloud is a virtual space (storage) where people and companies store files or run software and applications. The cloud mainly consists of servers located in data centers around the world.
In the cloud, “computing” and “storage” take place on servers in the data center, which means that cloud services and software run on the Internet rather than on a local computer or hard drive. This allows users to access files and applications from any device.
Some examples of consumer solutions include Google Drive, Dropbox, and Canva, software that regular users like you and me are familiar with.
Cloud computing is more advanced; is a web-based computing/IT solution delivery model where data or resources are retrieved from the cloud using web-based tools and applications. These services include storage, servers, databases, analytics, networking, and more.
It includes a network of remote servers hosted in the cloud to store, manage and process data rather than on a local hard drive or personal computer. But cloud computing is more than just data storage. Instead, like your personal computer’s RAM and processor, cloud computing provides “virtual” RAM and processors that enable you to better process your company’s vast amounts of data for purposes like data analysis.
Cloud transformation efforts in Bangladesh have come a long way over the past few years. Local companies have joined forces with cloud applications to accelerate innovation and business transformation in industries including manufacturing, telecommunications and financial institutions.
But according to Saroshah Islam, director of marketing for Flora Web Services, the cloud computing space is largely untapped in Bangladesh.
“There is a huge opportunity for local providers to explore as more and more companies start moving to the cloud. Our services are on par with international providers. But because our operating costs are lower than those of international providers, we can provide more affordable solutions. This is the biggest the advantage of local suppliers,” she said.
She added that over the next few years, Bangladeshi companies will play a larger role in cloud computing as more businesses begin to trust local providers.
“There are some unfounded concerns about the security and reliability of local providers, but everyone we’ve worked with has been happy. The reasons are mostly psychological. For example, the names Google or Amazon are famous in the tech world. We must compete. with them because of brand value, but that is slowly changing,” explains Sarosha Islam.
While hard numbers are not available, some industry experts predict that the domestic cloud storage market could grow to $50 million by 2025 from its current $20 million estimate. But Bangladesh’s cloud computing market remains small compared to neighboring India’s $5 billion market.
“Business has grown well over the past few years and the future is promising. Mir Cloud provides services such as servers, storage, autoscaling, data security,” said Toufik Ehsan, Head of Mir Cloud Business Standard.
As the cloud market expands, so does the share of foreign vendors, he said, hurting the government during an economic crisis like the current one.
“Purchasing cloud services from overseas vendors requires customers to use foreign currencies,” he said.
Local providers can make huge profits if governments develop policies to store data within national borders. However, there are currently no clear instructions for companies on where to find their data warehouses.
In addition, Tufik said if regulations are passed requiring banks and other government entities to store their data in the cloud, it will be a huge boost to the business of the local cloud computing industry.
More than half of the market is occupied by foreign Tier 1 providers such as Huawei, Google Cloud, Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle. About 40% of the market is controlled by foreign low-cost carriers such as Cloudflare, Liquid Web, DigitalOcean. The remaining 10% belongs to local players.
Regarding their operations, Tanvir Ahmed, Senior Media Manager at Huawei, said, “Huawei is the fastest growing cloud service provider in Asia Pacific, achieving this status in just four years of development. The company has contributed to this by assisting the Government of Bangladesh with 30 departments and 50 projects using the BCC [Computer Council of Bangladesh] cloud.”
He added that for Bangladesh, the cloud could be a golden tool to address national challenges such as illiteracy through virtual learning, poverty through digital skills, and cost-effective disaster recovery [data recovery] solutions. critical issues such as traffic management, transportation crises, food preparation and distribution management.
“Unlike companies that control their small data warehouses, cloud storage avoids data loss because hosting companies use mirroring technology to store data across multiple servers,” said Mustakim Himel, CIO of enterprise organizations. This is the main reason his company keeps all of its data in the cloud.
“Cloud storage eliminates the need to purchase storage hardware, pay for storage space and reduce management costs. As a result, businesses and organizations are increasingly turning to cloud services, which gives customers the added benefit of not needing additional investments into equipment as their business expands,” he said.
His company is subscribed to the cloud services of Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud service provider. Asked why they chose foreign service providers over local ones, he said: “Amazon is one of the oldest players in the market. When we started with the cloud, there were no cloud companies in Bangladesh. At least there is no big name that we can trust that our data is safe. In addition, Amazon provides some additional analytics tools that are state-of-the-art.”
However, Himel added that there are now several viable names in the local cloud computing field that can be compared to foreign players.
“In the future, our company may consider switching to local suppliers,” he added.
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Post time: Mar-22-2023