What Is Better, Global or Local Cloud Provider?

2020/04/06 10:03

Choosing between a local or global cloud provider is a dilemma for many companies.

The number of businesses opting for cloud migration is increasing, and it is a trend of the 4.0 era. The advantages of cloud computing compared to traditional servers are undeniable, such as cost savings, stable operation, and easy customization.

Currently, the market share of cloud computing services in Vietnam remains largely in the hands of local providers. This is quite surprising because cloud computing is still considered a cross-border service.

Global providers

The top names in this field are Microsoft's Azure, Amazon's AWS, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud in China. These four names account for 62% of the global cloud services market, while the remaining providers make up only 38%.

AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud have abundant resources. They have modern infrastructure with great financial resources, quality services with a large team of engineers. Therefore, the competition for smaller providers is very tough.

However, in Vietnam, there are many specific reasons that make foreign cloud computing providers unable to dominate the market.

Firstly, the infrastructure of providers like AWS or Azure is located abroad, so customers using their services have to run on servers located in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, etc., which have a far geographic distance, leading to slower access speed.

International Internet connection disruptions occur quite frequently in Vietnam due to the continuous problems happened to the underseas Internet cables throughout the year. Thus it's difficult for global cloud services to ensure seamlessness, which may affect the businesses operation and customer experience. Meanwhile, businesses will avoid these issues if using cloud services.

Cost is also an important factor in choosing between global or local cloud computing providers. Global providers may offer attractive initial prices, but they charge additional fees such as internet usage fees and internal bandwidth fees. This leads to a higher monthly service cost than local providers.

The third reason is customer understanding. Although they have a large support team, there are "unique" situations that only Vietnamese providers can advise on.

For example, Vietnamese businesses are mostly small and medium-sized, with small to no IT teams and often completely entrusted to providers when migrating to cloud. If there is a problem, local providers will definitely provide more detailed and faster support than a global provider who can only provide basic support through pre-packaged instructions.

Local providers

Despite the above advantages, the number of local cloud computing service providers is still small, only around 10 brands. This shows that cloud computing is not a piece of cake.

Currently, there are not many "real" cloud service providers, as this requires a very large and strategic investment in infrastructure and personnel. In addition, research, development, and maintenance of a professional technical workforce, and 24/7 service operation for customers are also major challenges that only enterprises with huge financial potential can provide.

The difference between "real" cloud service providers and other providers is that the former designs their solutions on the cloud platform. Their software is encoded to function as a complete storage solution and operates on hundreds of servers, with multiple levels of data redundancy in their own cloud environment.

Meanwhile, some providers tell customers that their software also runs on the "cloud". However, these providers typically do not store, manage, or maintain actual "clouds". Instead, they pass responsibility to a value-added retail agent (VAR) or other service provider. This is very similar to how application service providers (ASPs) operated more than 20 years ago.

VNG Cloud's cloud computing service has the advantage of being a "real cloud" platform, meaning it is fully automated. VNG Cloud's solutions are also very flexible, focusing on the core issues, key services of business customers to save costs, optimize efficiency and revenue.

Besides, VNG's great advantage is our cloud development team of over highly experienced 300 engineers, always ready to support businesses. Therefore, customers always receive the quickest and most efficient assistance to ensure the smooth operation of their business.