Afternoon Highlight (27/12/11/213/471) ICT sector expected to spend RM31.5b next year

ICT sector expected to spend RM31.5b next year

MALAYSIA’S information, communications and telecommunications (ICT) sector is expected to spend RM31.5 billion in 2012.This will be a 6.1 per cent expansion over 2011, riding on the region’s recovery from natural disasters and high usage of personal devices such as laptops and smart phones.
In a statement, Cisco managing director for Malaysia Yuri Wahab said amid the looming global uncertainties, ICT sector in Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region is expected to stay upbeat, with the latter’s enterprise ICT spending to grow 8 per cent, exceeding US$367 billion (RM1.2 trillion), next year.
“Last year was a difficult year for our community as we struggled with the economic recovery from the previous years and in our region the wrath of nature in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines,” he added.
Yuri said the focus in the next 12 months would be on personal devices, cloud computing and network security. As a result, 2012 will be a year where decision-makers need to balance innovation with business reality.
He added that by 2013, there will be 566 million knowledge workers around the world, of which half will be from Asia Pacific, which will push businesses to start implementing solutions. In a Cisco survey entitled “Connected World Technology Report 2011” which analyses behaviour and expectations of the world’s next generation of 3,000 workers, one out of three believed the Internet is as important as air, water, food and shelter.
Yuri said the consumerisation of ICT had resulted in a record number of personal devices at the workplace.Three out of four employees own multiple ICT devices and more than half of employees surveyed want access information over corporate network using their home computers and personal mobile devices.Due to this, businesses need to manage these devices on the corporate network, providing secure access and remote control in the case of a device loss.

Source : New Straits Times
Date : 27 December 2011
Afternoon Highlight (27/12/11/213/471)