The Cloud Readiness Index, conducted by the Asia Cloud Computing Association, looked at 10 attributes for each of the markets, with each individual category drawn from third party research from organisations such as the Business Software Alliance, Oxford University, the ITU, TeleGeography and the World Economic Forum. The 10 categories were given an equal weighting of 10 points, cumulating in a total possible score of 100. Australia scored 78 in the Index, behind Japan (85), Hong Kong (83) and Korea and Singapore (both 82). It scored full marks, or 10 points, for its regulatory condition and absence of Internet filtering and was among the three leaders with a score of 8.0 for exposure to global risk, such as natural disasters, pandemics and political instability. But it scored poorly in some other categories including a mere 6.0 for international connectivity, and 5.3 for broadband quality. (Korea topped the latter category with a 9.0, followed by Japan on 8.0 “Australia’s strong policy environment provides a predictable environment for cloud services. The rollout of the National Broadband Network and the release of the Federal Government’s Digital Economy Strategy and Cloud Computing strategic direction paper demonstrates a strong encouragement for the uptake of cloud services by both the public and private sector,” the report said. “The challenges for Australia remain the quality of the international connectivity to become a global cloud service hub, as well as regulatory constraints limiting the off-shoring of data for certain sectors, such as financial services.” Worldwide spending on cloud services is expected to reach US$150 billion by 2014 and is predicted comprise 30-40 percent of IT budgets by 2013. OZ Businesses Spending Less on R&D
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