Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing cloud markets in Southeast Asia. PIXABAY
Indonesia could add $10.7 billion to its gross domestic product (GDP) between 2021 and 2025 if the country adopted cloud computing, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study shows.
PwC’s study suggests that cloud computing would improve productivity through cost or time reductions to increase sectoral value-add and output levels. The study was adapted from a 2020 Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) study.
PwC Indonesia environmental, social, governance (ESG), government and infrastructure adviser Julian Smith said the benefits of cloud computing included creating more jobs and improving public services through efficient health care and education.
“Cloud computing plays an important role in generating economic value and can have a positive environmental impact by reducing the need to travel,” he said on February 15.
Smith added that large-scale adoption of cloud computing was also expected to save energy by consolidating computing resources from individual data centres to the cloud provider’s data centres.
The PwC study, titled “The Impact of Cloud Computing on the Indonesian Economy”, showed that 89 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) already use cloud computing while nine per cent of respondents said they were planning to use it in the near future.
As much as 84 per cent of SMEs that already use cloud computing reported that their revenue had increased 20 per cent or more. The increase varies based on the type of industry in which they operate, with the business service sector experiencing the greatest improvement.
Meanwhile, 80 per cent of large enterprises in the survey said they were already using cloud computing while the rest were planning to use the technology within the next three years.
One-third of the larger enterprises also noted that using cloud computing had enabled them to save costs by 40 per cent.
Financial Services Authority (OJK) digital finance innovation director Dino Milano Siregar said cloud computing had been integral for financial service institutions. He said the technology enabled companies to maximise data storing and processing on a large scale and simplified app development.
“On the other hand, this technology has inherent risks as cloud computing adoption gets broader,” he said. “We urge start-ups to be careful in choosing a cloud service provider. In addition, companies need to have adequate risk management strategies and conduct regular audits.”
Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing cloud markets in Southeast Asia. Global cloud computing companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud have all established a local cloud region in Indonesia over the past three years.
Ministry of Communications and Information government interoperability technology and infrastructure coordinator Ade Frihadi said cloud computing also benefitted the public sector.
“There are two main benefits. First, cloud computing can help minimise the budget, one of them being the infrastructure budget. And second, it boosts organisations’ effectiveness as a result of the collaboration between entities; the government, private sector and public sector.”
THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
