Initiated by 50 Chinese information technology companies, including CCW Research, Babaike (Beijing) Software Technologies, and UFIDA Software, the Cloud Computing Committee has been set up in Beijing and a proposal for promoting the healthy development of China's software-as-a-service and cloud computing industries has been published at the same time.
In the proposal, these 50 companies make eight promises about major issues, which are the concerns of users and the industry. They promise to operate honestly; to maintain the integrity of clients' data; and not to provide this data to third parties. They will establish a strict management system and implement protections to prevent loss of data. When clients' data has security problems, they promise to compensate all losses.
In addition, these companies promise to respect and support each other. They will jointly promote the values of sharing and cooperation, and they will not pirate or steal intellectual property rights of other companies.
Li Zhi, CEO of Babaike, told local media that this is a good beginning for optimizing the Internet environment and clearing the obstacles for the development of cloud computing and SaaS in China.
He said the application of cloud computing not only lowers the threshold for small and medium-sized enterprises' entry into the information management sector, but also improves the management efficiency and enhances enterprises' competitiveness in the market.
With latest statistics provided by CCW Research, the Chinese information industry research organization, China's cloud computing service market is currently in its infancy. In 2009, revenue from this sector reached CNY35.6 billion, an increase of 36.9% compared with the previous year.
While these domestic companies have joined together, foreign companies are left behind. Companies like Google and Salesforce.com already make their cloud computing services available in China, but each has its own problems. Google's online document area, Google Docs, is often blocked in China; and Salesforce.com has some of its website — especially its training blog — blocked in some areas of China.
