KT to Square Off with SI Leaders in Private Cloud Business
KT employees check a computer system at a cloud center in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on July 20.
KT will advance into the private cloud center construction and operation business for companies and public institutions by using a public cloud service based on its own internet data center (IDC). As a consequence, KT is expected to square off with system integration (SI) companies that have engaged in corporate and public IT system projects.
“We will begin to develop new markets this year going beyong our public cloud business,” said Kim Ju-sung, head of the cloud and DX business at KT. “We will enter the private cloud sector where SI companies have been active.”
In foreign countries, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are operating a data center for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pentagon, respectively, after migrating their IT systems to cloud.
Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) companies such as KT are expected to compete with SI and IT hardware companies in the new market. KT’s entry in this market means that it will actually resume the public SI business that it has abandoned for years.
“We will compete with Samsung SDS and LG CNS, which are strong players in the SI market,” Kim said. “We will present value which different from that of SI companies to the market based on our cloud operating experience and technology accumulated through the public cloud business.”
In early 2020, KT established the AI/DX Convergence Business Department which combines 5G with AI, big data, cloud computing, and incubation organizations, and made a decisive move in the B2B market away from the traditional telecommunication business. The plan is to support sweeping changes in social and industrial systems by combining 5G, AI, and cloud services.
The first result of the new organization is platform as a service (PaaS), which puts together the technologies of its member groups into a cloud platform. KT will start exploring new projects after releasing commercial solutions in October.