Taiwanese hardware giant Asus has confirmed it’s eyeing expansion for its burgeoning enterprise cloud services business to China and Japan in 2013, The Register reports.
The firm has been offering cloud services since 2008 under its Asus Cloud business and it now has datacentres in the U.S., China and Taiwan – providing secure web storage and file sharing for individuals alongside services for developers.
However, it only began offering private clouds to businesses in its home country earlier this year.
“The company is eyeing business opportunities in China, where efforts are being made to build more internet-connected infrastructure in big cities, and in in Japan as companies there are seeking productivity applications,” Asus Cloud CEO Peter Wu said.
Gartner research director Tracy Tsai told The Reg that the firm has been most successful in Taiwan rolling out smallish private clouds for customers including hospitals, government agencies and universities, and it would likely repeat that strategy internationally.
“It’s really starting out from zero so whatever it gets is a bonus,” she said. “Its success in the longer term will depend on the quality of its support in terms of after-sales service.”
“In this respect Asus' offering will have a particular advantage in China, which shares a common language with Taiwan,” she added.
Tsai argued that Asus’ cloud play could position it well to take advantage of the BYOD trend whilst ensuring its revenues are not over-reliant on the consumer device side of the business.
