Hitachi Data Systems has joined with Microsoft (Thailand) to introduce private cloud-computing solutions, to enter the market officially in the fourth quarter of the year.

Watcharasit Santisuknirun, Thailand country manager of Hitachi

Data Systems, said the first in a portfolio of converged data-centre solutions built on Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track and integrated with Microsoft Exchange 2010 would enable organisations to have virtualised, automated and optimised environments.

The system is designed to help organisations adopt cloud-computing at their own pace. The new solutions also combine innovation and expertise to optimise storage and networking as well as provide ready-to-deploy information technology for running multiple applications that simplify management and reduce cost and floor space.

The firm will make available new private-cloud solutions in the fourth quarter, focusing on service providers and large enterprises such as financial and hospitality businesses. In the next step, the company will cooperate with service providers to provide cloud solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.

"I think Thailand is starting up in the cloud-computing market. It will help businesses increase their productivity and invest in technology infrastructure in terms of pay-per-use or on demand and outsourcing," Watcharasit said.

Panjaporn Vittayalerdpun, senior product manager for server and application platforms of Microsoft (Thailand), said the new solutions would help an organisation virtualise their data centres and reduce costs by about 50 per cent, reduce risk, reduce down time and add flexibility of scale.

Research firm International Data Corp reported that the cloud-services market, including hardware and software, in Thailand would be worth about US$16 million (Bt478 million) by the end of the year and triple to $48 million in the next three years.