IBM Indonesia and Google Cloud Indonesia representatives acknowledged last week that such issues prevented many companies from migrating from legacy infrastructure to cloud-based infrastructure and thus, limited cloud adoption in the country.

“Sometimes companies do sudden technology transformations. Sometimes they overinvest, leaving their teams and users unprepared to use the new technology,” said IBM Indonesia country manager Novan Adian in a press briefing on Feb. 10.

He went on to say that doubts over data transfer safety and protection system reliability left many companies reluctant to adopt cloud technology.

“Implementing cloud computing is like building Lego, you can start small, replace what you want and adjust as you go,” he advised.

Read also: IBM to break up 109-year-old company to focus on cloud growth

Cybersecurity and human capital remain among the top hurdles for Indonesian companies trying to adopt cloud services as large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) compel many companies to digitalize operations to accommodate a remote workforce and higher online demand.

Companies adopting cloud technology could add around US$36 billion to Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and create around 350,000 jobs between 2019 and 2023, according to a 2019 study by Boston Consulting Group BCG commissioned by Google Cloud.

IBM’s Novan noted that globally, including in Indonesia, cloud adoption was highest among industries with high end-user engagement such as banking, fintech and telecommunications. The retail industry is also increasingly adopting cloud technology as it invests in online marketplaces and social media marketing.

“As we can see these industries are resilient during the pandemic. Looking forward, the potential for more cloud adoption is high as consumers now prefer digital platforms. So, there is no option for businesses but to transform,” Novan said.

Google Cloud Indonesia country director Megawaty Khie echoed Novan’s statement. She said that many enterprises struggled to migrate their system applications and products (SAP) into the cloud.

“Moving SAP workloads to the cloud is anything but easy. Many IT teams from various companies have difficulties controlling the short-term costs, complexities, and risks from the migration. This makes companies hesitant to migrate their SAP to the cloud. This can be detrimental to business partners and benefits competitors who are able to adapt,” she said in a statement on Monday.

Despite the challenges, Megawaty believes that more companies are going to use cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to better serve their customers.

Meanwhile, another IBM study revealed that hybrid cloud adoption, or the implementation of public, private and on-premises cloud, will increase by 47 percent in the next three years.

Read also: Cloud service boom will continue: Oracle

Similarly, Chinese tech giant Alibaba Cloud’s data also show that 67 percent of businesses in Indonesia have adopted more cloud-based IT solutions during the pandemic.

“We are very pleased to see the strong and high demand for cloud adoption in Indonesia. In the future, we plan to introduce more technologies and hybrid cloud solutions tailored for customers in various industries to accelerate their digital transformation,” said Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Indonesia general manager Leon Chen in a press statement on Feb. 5.

Alibaba Cloud is planning to open its third cloud data center in Indonesia this year as competitors Google and Amazon also plan to expand their cloud service subsidiaries in Indonesia, which is the single largest digital economy in Southeast Asia.

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