À̹ÌÁö È®´ë South Korean IT giants have joined forces to defend the cloud market from foreign invasion amid surge in demand from COVID-19.
NHN and Samsung SDS announced on Thursday they entered a memorandum of understanding agreement to advance strategic cooperation in cloud business and to explore new business models based on their advantages against global players such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft.
The two local cloud providers agreed to expand their joint bid in the client`s cloud establishment and focus on developing cloud-based products and solutions.
This is the first time NHN has gathered strength for cloud business with its local peer company. NHN launched an integrated cloud service called ¡®TOAST¡¯ in 2015 and has advanced its service into various fields such as public service, finance, game, and commerce. It is planning to build a second data center in addition to its Seongnam Pangyo Data Center, and several sites in Tokyo, Japan and North America.
Samsung SDS is supporting clients in their cloud transformation based on 17 data centers around the world. The company is also focusing on elevating its cloud capabilities in response to R&D and artificial intelligence (AI)-related demand.
Separately, Naver`s cloud subsidiary Naver Business Platform (NBP), has been aggressively attracting new clients in the financial and public sectors since late last year. Key clients include National Election Commission, KORAIL, Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), Korea Communication Agency (KCA), and Green Technology Center in the public center, and Bank of Korea, Samsung Card, IBK, and Mirae Asset Daewoo in the financial sector.
The local cloud service market is still dominated by global giants, but a market shakeup is expected in the upcoming years with growing orders won by Korean competitors.
According to market tracker Gartner, the domestic cloud service market is projected to grow from 2.78 trillion won ($2.24 billion) this year and 3.72 trillion won in 2022. With the spread of COVID-19, local demand for digital transformation gains momentum, experts say.
By Oh Dae-seok and Minu Kim
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