Four Taiwanese Companies, Institutes Set Up Taiwan Cloud Computing Center

Taipei, Jan. 29, 2010 (CENS)--Four companies and institutes recently jointly founded the Taiwan Cloud Computing Center (TCCC) at an initial capitalization of NT$1 billion (US$30.8 million at US$1: NT$32.5).

The four members include telecom carrier Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (CHT), anti-virus software company Trend Micro Inc., government-sponsored technology R&D institute Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and information technology (IT) industry knowledge center Institute for Information Industry (III).

The center will be responsible for helping push six emerging industries on the island into the cloud computing field, and develop Taiwan into a global supply base of cloud-computing equipment and an application headquarters.

Taiwan's Premier Wu Den-yih said earlier that the TCCC is expected to further upgrade the development of local information and communication technology (ICT) industry and that the Executive Yuan (the Cabinet) has enlisted cloud-computing a key sector for priority development.

CHT will be responsible for the construction of cloud-computing infrastructure and future operation, while one subsidiary of Trend Micro will utilize its parent company's global resources for exploring markets. The ITRI will be devoted to hardware development, while III will be responsible for integrating related resources.

Industry sources said that Taiwan government plans to build a comprehensive supply chain integrating Internet data center, cloud-computing equipment, and cloud-computing services on the island and tap into the global market. Cloud computing-related businesses in Taiwan are expected to create US$10 billion worth of business opportunities for the island in 2014, the government said.

Targeted cloud-computing applications in Taiwan include medical-care and educational industries in the initial stage; as well as six emerging lines for the second stage, such as green energy, tourism, health-care, biotechnology, dedicated agriculture, and culture/creativity industries.

CHT has set up several Internet date centers throughout the island and further expanded the scale of "green data" telecom park project in Taipei County with targeted investment of NT$13 billion (US$399.3 million).