Gov’t reveals plan to boost nation’s cloud industry

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Gov’t reveals plan to boost nation’s cloud industry

Korea’s cloud industry is still small in size, but the government announced a grand plan to boost domestic use of cloud systems to 30 percent by 2018.

Currently, just 3 percent of the nation’s companies and citizens utilizes the data storage systems.

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning finalized the plan at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday as part of its ambition to develop the local cloud industry into a 4.5 trillion won ($3.9 billion) market by 2018.

The government hopes to meet the goal by transforming 60 percent of the government and state-run institutions’ electronic systems, which are still largely installed software-based, into its own cloud, called the “G-Cloud,” by 2018.

The government will also operate its own data centers.

Through the plan, the cloud technologies are expected to reduce the government’s budget by as much as 370 billion won over the next three years by lessening necessary investments in the purchase and maintenance of hardware and software.

The technologies will also help young people establish start-ups with a smaller budget by lessening expenditures on hardware and software.

“Korea’s cloud industry is still at an early stage, about five years behind those of advanced nations,” said ICT Minister Choi Yang-hee. “We hope to become a leading country by 2021.”

The plan is based on the “Cloud First” programs that have been ongoing in the United States and United Kingdom since 2010.

The initiatives enabled the countries to boost the cloud usage rate to 40 percent in just five years.


BY KIM JI-YOON [[email protected]]
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