In 1992 China and India accounted for less than a tenth of the world’s gross domestic product. In the two decades since, that has doubled.

By 2025 it’s likely that four of the world’s ten largest economies will be in Asia: China, India, Japan, and Indonesia.

Asia’s re-emergence as the world’s most dynamic economic region has focused many minds on the opportunities and challenges of what we see as the Asian century.

A trusted technology partner

The growing trend of expanding businesses into Asia does, however, present some challenges that should be properly understood in order to be appropriately addressed.

Without question, getting your IT support and infrastructure right plays a crucial role when breaking into any new market, and it can ultimately determine whether you succeed or fail abroad.

To work profitably in Asia, US businesses need to take a long-term approach and, ideally, work with a technology partner who understands the culture within which the market operates. The region is incredibly diverse with wide cultural differences in each country and varying levels of political maturity and regulation.

Local country infrastructure: While data may be stored in the cloud, companies need to ensure it reaches their end-users in a timely and reliable manner. Without a resilient global network that can intelligently handle latency issues and network outages, a cloud solution can be rendered useless. Bandwidth costs are another aspect to consider when comparing suppliers, as costs in Asia can be higher than in the US. Each country has very different technological infrastructures and capabilities, so access rights differ from country to country, and companies need to consider local regulation. For example, if a US organization’s data is stored offshore, it could be subject to the laws of the country in which that storage facility is located. This could lead to scenarios such as a foreign government requesting access to stored information.

Security and data governance: US businesses should consider adopting a cloud infrastructure platform that enables them to host data off-shore safely. Organizations should thoroughly assess cloud service providers before any service agreements are entered into. Careful examination of everything from physical security of data centers and disaster recovery capabilities, to the software tools in place to prevent unauthorized access, should be carried out as a matter of course.