Naver advocates 'data sovereignty' in cloud computing in financial and public sectors

By Lim Chang-won Posted : April 18, 2019, 13:41 Updated : April 18, 2019, 16:06

[Courtesy of Naver]


SEOUL -- Advocating "data sovereignty" in public and financial sectors, Naver, a leading domestic web company, threw down the gauntlet to major foreign players which have dominated South Korea's fast-growing could computing market with technical superiority.

With the rollout of 5G mobile services in South Korea this year, Naver thinks its technological level is now high enough to challenge Microsoft and AWS (Amazon Web Services), a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. Many South Korean companies have maintained ties with foreign cloud providers.

"From now, we will step up our business and compete in earnest," a Naver official told reporters, adding Naver has tried hard so far to strengthened its technological competitiveness to compete with global companies since it established its subsidiary, Naver Business Platform (NBP), in April 2017.

South Korea's public cloud market is expected to reach 2.3 trillion won ($2.02 billion) this year and 3.7 trillion won in 2022. Naver said it would actively increase the use of its cloud platform at state organizations and financial institutions this year.

"NBP has a competitive edge in the two areas, which along with health care, handle sensitive information and requires access in terms of security and data sovereignty," the official said, adding Naver has prepared a lot to expand its market share.

NBP's cloud service head Han Sang-yong said that global companies are aggressively making inroads into South Korea's public and financial cloud market as it became more open. "The market has become a battleground for global companies."

NBP operates separate cloud portals for public institutions and meets stringent review requirements, Naver said, vowing to establish a specialized cloud system for financial institutions through cooperation with Koscom, a financial IT solutions company which has five corporate divisions with providing IT infrastructure to the Korean financial securities and futures market.

A financial cloud zone will be set up in the Youido financial district in Seoul within the first half of this year, Naver said, showing confidence in customer support and security technology as its cloud platform runs a 24-hour customer center to respond quickly to service failures.

"We will do our best to protect the cloud market in the public and financial sectors," NBP CEO Park Won-ki said, disclosing plans to tap into the overseas market.
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