IIJ partners with FPT Telecom to gain foothold in Vietnam's cloud industry

Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), an Internet access and network solutions provider, has reached an agreement with FPT Telecom to provide cloud services in Vietnam. FPT Telecom, with headquarters in Hanoi, is engaged in the data centre and ISP business, and it is part of FPT Corporation, one of the biggest IT companies in Vietnam.

Thanks to steadily increasing foreign direct investment, Vietnam has seen stable economic growth, with GDP growth in recent years of more than 5%. The country announced in September 2010, that it would leverage ICT to strengthen Vietnam, and set the target of having ICT account for 8% to 10% of the country's GDP by 2020. In June 2015, guidelines were laid to restrict the movement of data out of the country, boosting domestic storage and data operations and leading to forecasts of a rapid expansion in the Vietnam cloud market.

IIJ is entering the cloud market in Vietnam to take advantage of this opportunity through the collaboration with FPT Telecom. By leveraging IIJ’s expertise in operating cloud services in Japan, FPT Telecom can provide highly competitive services to local companies as well as Japanese- and other foreign-owned companies with the aim of capturing market share at an early stage. The IIJ Group is working to enhance its cloud business against the backdrop of growing adoption of ICT in ASEAN. Vietnam is the fourth country in the ASEAN region - following Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand - in which IIJ has rolled out its cloud business.

Under the agreement IIJ will implement public cloud facilities at FPT Telecom's data centres. It will undertake the operation and maintenance of service platforms and technical support for the facilities. FPT Telecom will handle the provision of infrastructure equipment, including data centres and Internet connections, as well as business operations and the sale and delivery of services.

IIJ Global Solutions Vietnam Company is slated to be established in November 2016 as the group's business base in Hanoi, Vietnam, and FPT Telecom is planning to offer the cloud service in January 2017.

Nguyen Van Khoa, CEO of FPT Telecom Joint Stock Company said, "We are confident that the partnership will be able to provide unparalleled high-quality public cloud services in Vietnam through the fusion of FPT Telecom’s network infrastructure with IIJ’s cloud technologies. We expect that both companies will be able to contribute to the expansion of the public cloud market in Vietnam through even closer cooperation going forward."