By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The government will spend around 200 billion won (about $172 million) next year for a number of ambitious Web-based computing projects to help the technology industry create more demand for their nascent cloud services, officials said Tuesday.
Cloud computing, the latest buzzwords in the technology sector, describes a new era of Internet usage when information and software are delivered over the Web, rather than a desktop computer.
Most activities and data will be stored online and accessed from a wider range of devices, including computers and mobile Internet gadgets, and the changes will allow companies to deliver information technology (IT) power in more efficient and cost-effective ways, Seoul policymakers say.
The world's major Internet and technology companies, including Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon, are aggressive in pushing their own version of cloud computing services.
The Korean technology community seems to have the fever too with companies like Samsung SDS and LG CNS eager to get out of the gate early.
Cloud computing solutions are also a critical part of the Korean government's green tech initiatives that focus on low-power devices for personal computers, televisions, displays and servers. Getting particular attention are low-power mobile Internet devices, light-emitting diode (LED) backlighting technology, solid-state drives (SSDs), and electric and hybrid vehicles.
The initial demand for cloud computing will be driven more by government organizations and private companies. The Korean government, nevertheless, seems intent on acquiring a leading role in making cloud computing a reality.
The plan will be jointly pushed by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the Ministry of Public Administration and the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) to reduce overlap in investment, and achieve cohesiveness in technologies and approach.
"The details of the plan will be announced in December or next year. The size of the budget has yet to be decided," said an official from the KCC.
The government has already set aside 100 billion won for the public administration ministry's project for the virtualization of hardware resources. Total spending on the cross-ministry cloud computing program will be around 200 billion won, according to sources.
About 47 billion won will be spent on integrating cloud solutions with Internet protocol television (IPTV) and wireless Internet networks.
Cloud solutions will also be connected to the government's previously announced energy-saving projects, including the plan for deploying "smart grid" systems, which use IT to improve the efficiency of electricity transmission, and the knowledge economy ministry's plans to develop power-efficient Internet data centers (IDCs).
The plan for low-power IDCs includes the "green PC bang" project, which aims to install servers at commercial computer gaming lounges for storing data and running programs, replacing the buzzing computer towers and leaving just the monitors and keyboards.
The government is also planning to invest significantly in research and development, to advance technologies in the areas of software as a service (SaaS) and smart-grid related cloud solutions.
The knowledge economy ministry is also working with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and other universities to build a test bed for Web-based computing technologies, dubbed "CII:U."
The idea is to provide cloud computing resources to universities for free and have them use the resources for training and research on next-generation computing technologies.
Despite the hype, some industry watchers believe that it will take at least several years for cloud computing to take off here.
It is still unclear whether companies will be willing to compromise their control of data, especially in a country where security remains a serious issue.
Despite touting itself as a high-tech powerhouse, the country has been exposed repeatedly for its poor security standards, as witnessed by the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the summer that crippled more than 80,000 computers.
So apparently, the idea of linking hundreds of different devices on a single, big server remains an uneasy thought for many.
There are also arguments that, despite the development over the past years, computing power and network technology have yet to reach a point where high-impact applications such as image and video editing or heavy-data crunching work well online as they do on a hard disk.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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