The “cloud” (in French, cloud computing or cloud computing) [1] [2] is currently a strong trend in the computer industry that should emerge as a major architectural choice in 2010. Several countries, led by the United States [3], but also the United Kingdom [4], Japan [5], China [6], Singapore [7] or South Korea [8], therefore very interested about these technologies, either for their own purposes or for market share in this new market. Taiwan is no exception and a series of recent announcements indicate that he would even become a major player in the sector.

The major U.S. companies investing in the ICT sector in the cloud Taiwan

For two years, a series of ads shows the growing interest of American champions of information technology for the development of cloud computing in Taiwan. Indeed:
- Since January 2008, Google announced a cooperation with the National Taiwan University (NTU) and National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) for the implementation of a distributed computing network [9]. The U.S. giant also provides courses on the subject in these two universities.
- In December 2009, Dell announced the strengthening of its R & D in Taiwan and its shift to cloud computing technologies [10]
- Also in December 2009, IBM and the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has announced the creation of a collaboratory for the development of preventive medicine based mainly on the technology of cloud computing. The Institute of Industrial Technology Research (ITRI), Institute for Information Industry (III), National Taiwan University (NTU), National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), University National Chiao Tung (NCTU) and Chang Gung University (CGU) are also associated with the project [11].
- Microsoft, which has partnered with Taiwanese telecom operator Chunghwa Telecom for the historical cloud the end of 2009, also announced the imminent establishment, in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), a research center dedicated these technologies [12].

Taiwanese companies also

The development of cloud computing involves a change of balance in the computer industry and in particular between client devices and servers. With cloud computing, connectivity and performance of the client are communicating vessels: the larger the connectivity increases (continuity of service, bandwidth, response time), needs more in terms of performance of the client machine are low. Thus, the rapid development of new generations of network access (optical fiber, 4G/WiMax) [13] will result in lower requirements in terms of performance and storage capacity for laptops, mobile internet devices (MID) or other phones. As these facilities are now often designed and manufactured in Taiwan, the model of cloud computing may be seen as a threat to the Taiwanese industry as forwards in terms of performance requirements from client to server. Even the server market is dominated by overseas giants Pacific: HP, IBM, Dell, Sun (now Oracle) and Japanese Fujitsu, even though they are most often called for the MDGs [14] / OEM [15] Taiwan as Inventec, Acer, ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, Quanta or Tyan.

Examples of Quanta

Beyond the recent ads, companies like Quanta [16], one of the leading manufacturers of laptops, but unknown to the public, had already anticipated this paradigm shift. On the software side, Quanta has partnered since 2005 at the prestigious Computer Lab and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) at MIT through the T-Party [17], whose second phase project will focus on cloud computing . In terms of hardware, including Quanta has invested heavily in the U.S. start-up Tilera [18], specializing in multi-core processors used in scalable infrastructure telecom and cloud computing. These processors are also used in servers built by Quanta future for cloud computing market.

Trend Micro

Cloud computing, as each new change in the computing world, raises many fears and questions about the safety aspects. Thus, the company Trend Micro [19] [20], publisher of computer security software, founded by the Taiwanese Steve Chang, Jenny Chang and Eva Chen has long been integrated into its cloud computing strategy. The company has particularly invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development on the subject, and even set up a subsidiary in February in Taipei, TCloud Computing [21], which specializes in solutions IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) [ 22]. With his expertise, Trend Micro will offer courses in this field for students of the renowned Faculty of Electrical Engineering (EE) from the National Taiwan University (NTU) [23].

And finally, government

The government quickly realized that the huge migration of their IT infrastructures into cloud computing could enable them to make considerable savings [24] [25]. So in Taiwan, information systems combined with more than 4000 public schools could be brought together in only two or three centers, cloud computing, for example installed in each of the three major science parks on the island [26].

In addition, although aware of an important market that will represent the cloud quickly and strategic interest it represents for the island, the authorities decided to release significant amounts (24 billion new Taiwan dollars in five years or 580 million euros) [27] so that Taiwan become a major player in the field.

However, Taiwan has not only advantages in this new battle is being played: in fact, that champion in the field of computers and electronic equipment, the island has not really shined in the software component (making Apart from exceptions such as Cyberlink and Trend Micro). However, cloud computing makes use of technologies requiring a high level of expertise in order to ensure reliability of service that is essential here. Furthermore, although the amounts released by the government are impressive, Taiwan could come a little later on the market.

Creating a consortium across the island

Finally, in order to coordinate efforts in the public sector: the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the Institute of Industrial Technology Research (ITRI), the Institute of Information Industry (III), the Manufacturers Association of Electrical and Electronic Industry Association for Information Services, incumbent Chunghwa Telecom and a fifty companies announced on April 7 last creation of the Consortium of Taiwan for the cloud (Taiwan Cloud Computing Consortium) [28].

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[1] Could Computing: Model and easy access “on demand” in a pool of shared computing resources (networks, servers, storage, applications or services) can be expanded quickly and transparently. The main features of the model are:
- Self-service application
- Connectivity
- The pooling of resources: bandwidth, storage, computing capacity, etc..
- The elasticity of the system
- A service measured
Source: U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

[14] An ODM, or original design manufacturer, is a company that manufactures a product which bears the mark of another company when its sale.

[15] An OEM or manufacturer of original equipment, is a company that manufactures hardware for another manufacturer.

[22] IaaS: providing a computer infrastructure (typically virtualised) as a service.