Australia has the potential to become the next Cloud computing hub thanks to its remote location and privacy laws, a new economic paper has claimed.
Launching The Potential for Cloud Computing Services in Australia paper, federal innovation minister, Kim Carr, said early adoption of Cloud computing will be economically rewarding.
“The early adoption of Cloud computing services will offer many productivity benefits to Australian business and the Gillard Labor government is keen to promote this technology and approach,” Carr said.
“As the report identifies, Australia has many advantages particularly with our regulatory environment which is recognised as ‘world’s best’, and Australia continues to attract significant investment in data centres from Australian companies.”
The paper, written by Lateral Economics and commissioned by Macquarie Telecom, found that the Australia government has the potential to establish a profitable Cloud market, thanks to its policy on off-shore storage of data.
“The Australian government has prevented its own agencies from holding personal information offshore,” the report reads.
“...The Australian government’s prohibition of its own agencies storing personal information offshore makes it a valuable ‘anchor client’ for Australian Cloud services providers.”
Carr said that the government’s role will be crucial to the success of Cloud computing.
“The report identifies a number of areas for government focus, to which the Commonwealth will give close consideration,” he said.
The Australian Information Industry Association also welcomed the release of the study.
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