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Multibillion Cloud Computing Projects Kick Off in Taiwan

2010/07/09 | By Ken Liu

Taipei, July 9, 2010 (CENS)--At a cloud-computing forum recently held in Taipei, attending Taiwan government officials and top executive of Taiwan's No.1 telecom carrier announced the commencements of their five-year, multibillion-dollar cloud computing projects.

Government representatives said the government will funnel NT$24 billion (US$750 million at US$1:NT$32) in five years into cultivating Taiwan's cloud-computing industry, with the ultimate goal set to transform the island's information-communications technology (ICT) industry into the cloud-computing industry.

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. will invest NT$40 billion (US$1.2 billion) in five years to set up the island's biggest cloud-operation and data centers, the company's chairman, S.J. Lu, vowed,

To smoothen the development of the Taiwan industry as expected, a cloud-computing alliance representing around 80 of the island's manufacturers will set up a system-test platform, according to Lu, who is chairman of the alliance.

Chunghwa is building a cloud-computing test center, which will offer 127 server platforms. Initial-stage construction of the center will be completed at the end of this month, and the second stage will start two months later.

Chunghwa executives pointed out that as uniform standard has yet to be worked out for cloud-computing equipment, the company's test center will adopt open-spec systems. The carrier has placed orders with HP for servers and will buy equipment from Quanta Computer. It has designated NetApp and Cisco as supplier of storage equipment and supplier of switching equipment, respectively.

Inventec Corp. Chairman S.T. Lee said his company, also a member of the alliance, is also building a test center housing 100 servers, calling for an estimated NT$2 billion (US$62 million) in investment. The center will kick off operation in November this year.