By Kim Tong-hyung and Kim Yoo-chul
Cloud computing has been doing the rounds as an information technology “buzzword” for many years and KT is out to assure that it finally goes mainstream.
The Korean telecommunications giant is betting heavily that its next significant growth spurt will depend on its ability to deliver on the massive expectations for online computing and update life in the cubicle to match the latest advancements of the digital age.
This has the company taking a central role in the Korea’s so-called ``smart work’’ initiative, which is aimed at taking advantage of ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections and Web-based computing power to better monitor and manage remote workers. The country aims to have around 30 percent of public employees working from home or nearby ``smart-work’’ centers by 2015 with smartphones, laptops and other mobile Internet devices, ultimately boosting productivity and minimizing carbon emissions.
KT, with its ``triple strength’’ in fixed-line, cellular and portable Internet networks, will shoulder the most crucial role in driving the country’s transition to a cloud-meditated working environment, Suk Ho-ick, KT vice chairman, told The Korea Times in a recent interview.
In enabling people to access networks and conduct tasks from anywhere, at anytime and using any device, Suk believes that cloud-enabled smart work may even provide a solution for one of the country’s most glaring underachievements ― tapping into the potential of its well-educated women.
``The current Korean working systems and culture prevent the majority of women from working for long and also puts them at a great disadvantage in competing with men. This has been a massive loss for a country that needs a larger wealth of quality working talent,’’ said Suk during a conversation at his office in downtown Seoul.
``Cloud computing and the corresponding smart-work solutions will allow better ways for female professionals to balance work and family life. Without a commitment to pushing the transition forward, the country will have no use in talking extensively about low birth rates.’’
Suk, a former policymaker at the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), which was absorbed under the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) at the start of the Lee Myung-bak government, joined KT in June last year as a key lieutenant to company Chairman Lee Suk-chae, himself a former MIC minister.
Cloud computing describes a new era of Internet usage when most activities and data storage are provided online and accessed from personal computers and a wide range of mobile devices.
Instead of spending to build their own information-technology (IT) infrastructure to host databases and software, companies can have cloud service providers host them in their farm of servers to reduce cost and improve efficiency.
The transition means that IT becomes more like a utility along the lines of electricity and water, with customers using as much or as little as they want and paying only for what they consume.
KT declares itself as fully onboard the cloud computing bandwagon. The company will spend 120 billion won (about $108 million) through 2012 to develop cloud computing products for business customers, whether they are government, large corporations or small- and medium-sized companies.
KT is developing a package of services in ``IaaS’’ (Infra Structure as a Service), ``DaaS’’ (Database as a Service) and ``PaaS’’ (Platform as a Service) as rental models for its IT resources.
To boost its Web-based computing capacity, KT has completed a new data center in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and will continue to expand its farm of servers.
Another product KT is dangling to business users is fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) services, which allow subscribers to switch between fixed-lines and mobile networks on a single handset, using Wi-Fi networks for calls at home or in the office and cellular networks on the move to reduce costs.
The new type of Internet telephony services is a critical part of KT's strategies for the corporate market, dubbed as ``SMART (save cost, maximize profit),'' aimed at providing cost-effective business solutions for companies and government organizations here and abroad. KT hopes to generate 5 trillion won in revenue from its SMART products by 2012.
``KT is the only telecommunications operator in the world that truly provides an overall strength in the `3Ws’ networks in cellular WCDMA, Wi-Fi and WiBro portable broadband Internet. This will be an important base for our cloud computing and smart-work-related services that will truly revolutionize the way people live and do work here and provide us with a powerful new revenue model,’’ Suk said.
``We already have a massive and dense network of Internet data centers and telephone stations that we could use as a foundation to provide smart-work services nationwide. The country sees more than 3.5 million workers employed under smart-work environments by 2015 and KT expects to provide the technologies to at least 1.15 million of them.
``We are continuing to invest to advance our networks, recently completing the providing of WiBro at major highways and inner-city car roads, and have been working closely with world-leading companies like IBM to develop and customize cloud solutions,’’ he said.
KT, the country’s largest telephone and Internet company, has been successfully leveraging its dominance to the wireless sector since completing its merger of its mobile telephony unit, KTF, last year.
A turning point has been the company’s decision to bring in the Apple iPhones, of which KT managed to sell more than 1 million since the release in November last year.
Rival mobile operator SK Telecom has responded with a slew of devices powered by the Google-backed Android operating system, and this has ignited a long-muted mobile Internet explosion that is finally allowing the carriers to get meaningful returns for their massive investments on third-generation (3G) cellular networks.
Suk believes that KT’s undisputed advantage in wireless Internet coverage, including Wi-Fi and WiBro, a portable high-speed Internet service that is the local variant of mobile WiMAX, will become its core strength from here now on.
The company is hoping that the mobile Internet boom will be fueled further by the arrival of tablet computers, like the Apple iPad. KT is planning to provide the 3G-connected iPads to Korean consumers soon at monthly data plans similar to what is charged for iPhone users.
The company is also investing to foster a developers’ network that will improve its content ecosystem for mobile devices and also its Internet protocol television (IPTV) services.
``The explosion of the mobile Internet and the transition toward cloud computing are clearly making our fixed-line services relevant as business models once again,’’ Suk said.