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Research firm Zinnov has released an estimate that the cloud computing market within India is expected to reach $1.08 billion by 2015. This would be a ten-fold increase from today’s $110 million market. Software as a Service (SaaS) is expected to make up $650 million of that revenue, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) will make up the rest.

“This is indeed a perfect storm. The only difference is that, this storm is destructive only to companies which are not willing to change, while it is a huge opportunity for others,” says Pari Natarajan, CEO of Zinnov.

The global cloud computing market, as a whole, is expected to increase from $58.6 billion in 2009 to $148.8 billion by 2014, as estimated by another firm, Gartner Inc. Much of the market’s growth is expected to come from outside of the US, from countries like the UK and Japan. American shares are expected to decrease from 60% in 2009 to 50% in 2014.

Cloud computing refers to using services without owning them, but by paying a subscription fee. Hardware and software infrastructure is often not necessary as the services come through an online network.

Cloud computing often entails enterprise applications such as ERP and CRM. The popular trend has been to use cloud computing because it can eliminate investment costs for software or deployment. Zinnov expects cloud computing to grow in major sectors such as banking and finances, telecommunications, manufacturing, and government. In particular, the Indian government has been more receptive to cloud computing than, say, the U.S. government.

So far, Indian software businesses have not been large players in the cloud market. However, cloud computing solutions have been readily accepted there for CRM or ERP applications, and many U.S. cloud companies, such as Zoho, hold certain operations in India. Also, Indian outsourcers have taken advantage of cloud computing to become even more competitive. Clearly, the texture of this market may change in the not-so-distant future.

Reportedly, Marc Benioff loves Apple. He loves iPads. And he loves Japan.

In a recent guest column by the Salesforce executive, Benioff describes his 3-week stay in Japan that coincided with the release of the iPad. He watched as the Japanese people completely ate up the iPads in stock and revered the new device.

To him, Japan represents a fundamental IT market that will readily accept Cloud 2 development and social networking. For one, cloud computing allows software to be easily ported to the Japanese from the US. The software can be updated immediately and without cost. Japanese people have also quickly adopted social networking sites (such as the local website Mixi) due to their “community-based culture.”

Benioff partly attributes the success of Salesforce.com in Japan (its second largest market after the United States) to his own past experiences in the country. Other companies have been unable to get into the Japanese market because “it’s notoriously difficult for many Americans to navigate.” Most entrepreneurs wrongly focus on China or India, despite the fact that Japan represents the second largest IT market in the world.

He also describes how much he loves Apple, how Apple is so in-line with his own Salesforce dream, and how, in slightly unrelated news, Apple has passed Microsoft in market cap. I certainly hope Steve Jobs is compensating Benioff for his wonderful PR work.

Granted, Salesforce.com has success in Japan, but I am uncertain of Benioff’s real understanding of the country. I do not pretend to be any sort of expert of Japanese culture, but there is an unhealthy undertone on the flipside of Benioff’s corporate executive perspective. He loves Tokyo for its “frenetic charge that’s even higher than New York City.” How can that ever be healthy? The suicide rate has been over 30,000 per year, every year for the past decade, which is double the US rate. Over the financial year of 2009, a record 269 of 927 applicants received compensation for job-induced mental disorders. That same year, the deaths of 159 workers were attributed to karoshi, the Japanese term for overwork. The work ethic issue in Japan has only gotten worse since the global recession, as the unemployed and young feel the pressure to find work.

While Japan is a technological giant, its population is decreasing. In 2009, there was a net decrease of 29,119 (out of a population of 127 million). The population is aged, with 22.2% over 65. The tendency to invest in countries like China and India over Japan is understandable, cultural barriers or not, when the country is shrinking.

Benioff’s adventures through Japan give him a skewed viewpoint. I would think that the executive of Salesforce would be treated excruciatingly well in Japan’s corporate circles (“In Tokyo I enjoyed dinner with one of my friends, John Hinshaw, the global CIO of Boeing…I met with John Roos, the new United States Ambassador to Japan…then-Prime Minister Hatoyama requested a meeting with me”, etc). Japan isn’t a place where “Zen” pervades everything (Benioff references the term, along with temples and gardens, as another reason why he loves the place).

We don’t doubt that Japan is an IT giant. Japan does love Apple products as much as Benioff. But there are fundamental issues with Japan’s growth, with Japan’s pace of work, with Japan’s cultural mentality that make it a questionable future investment.

PacificNet, Inc., who is billed by its own PR as “a leading provider of gaming technology, e-commerce and Customer Relationship Management services in China” but might be more accurately described as a big company well worth listening to, announced today that its Take1 Electronic Bingo Machines have received Technical Systems Testing Certification.

The certification means that TST has verified through mathematical and statistical analysis that the Take1 Electronic Bingo Machines operate with sufficient non-predictability, fair distribution and lack of bias to particular outcomes and complies with generally accepted industry standards for highly regulated jurisdictions.

TST offers a full range of testing and consultation services for terrestrial (that’s “terrestrial” as in “traditional/land-based,” rather than involving the third planet revolving ‘round ol’ Sol) and interactive-based gaming, wagering, lottery, e-commerce and information technology industries, to ensure that gaming operates in a manner that is fair, secure and auditable. TST services are delivered by a hard-hitting team of computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians and information systems auditors. Explains PacificNet (in abridged and nicely edited from), PacificNet’s Take1 Electronic Bingo Machines are based on traditional bingo. Read more

Amdocs, plugged as a customer experience systems provider, has recently announced a couple of deals to increase presence on the all-important continent of Asia.

Most recently was Guizhou Telecom, subsidiary of China Telecom, announcing the selection of Amdocs in helping integrate its enterprise data for improved system management.

Reportedly, Guizhou is the first China Telecom subsidiary to implement an enterprise-wide operational data storage project. Amdocs’ enterprise data architecture seeks to provide a data hub that standardizes and consolidates customer and product information, including bits and bytes from sales, marketing, billing, ordering, service assurance and call centers.

Last week, Amdocs scored a nice connection with Cambodian service provider Applifone, which will deploy the Amdocs Compact Convergence suite to support rapid delivery of next-generation products and services. This agreement represents Amdocs’ entry into Cambodia.

Applifone will employ Amdocs integrating news services such as money transfer, SMS, personal internet protocol web phones for roamers, call management, and mobile data on a single platform. In addition to the rapid service launch integrated with real-time convergent rating, the solution also promises integrated business process support with Voice over Internet Protocol capability.

Applifone is owned and managed by VISOR, an investment company based in Kazakhstan.

No one can ever accuse PacificNet, Inc. of doing things in a small way. The Asia-side provider of gaming technology, e-commerce, and Customer Relationship Management services in China, opened a joint venture with Japan-based Bellsystem24 last week.

Bellsystem 24 is said to be Japan’s single largest telemarketing call center services provider. (How big is it? Try over 5,000 clients, 27,348 communication service representatives and 33 offices throughout Japan.)

Dubbed a bit, um, Spartanly, Bell-Pact Consulting Limited is located in Shanghai, and was opened grandly by executives from PacificNet and Bellsystem24 in an opening ceremony.

The two parties signed the joint venture agreement in January of this year, with PacificNet owning a 40 percent equity stake and Bellsystem24 with 60 percent of Bell-Pact. Aggregate investments totaled about $643,000.

The joint venture will principally offer CRM call center consulting and training services, technical and business consulting services, network product sales, software development, system integration, value-added services and the soon-to-be classic “other relevant services.”

PacificNet, Inc. is a provider of gaming technology, e-commerce, and Customer Relationship Management in China. PacificNet’s gaming products are specially designed for Chinese and Asian gamers with products including multi-player electronic table games such as Baccarat, Sicbo, Fish-Prawn-Crab; roulette machines; server-based games with multiple client betting stations; slot and bingo machines; video lottery terminals; and multimedia entertainment kiosks.

PacificNet’s gaming clients include hotels, casinos, and gaming operators in Macau, Asia, and Europe. E-commerce and CRM clientele includes telecom companies, banks, insurance, travel, marketing and business services companies; clientele here includes China Telecom, China Mobile, Unicom, PCCW, Hutchison Telecom, Bell24, Motorola, Nokia, SONY, TCL, Huawei, American Express, Citibank, HSBC, Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, DBS, TNT, China and the Hong Kong government. PacificNet employs about 1,200 staff in offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Macau and Zhuhai, China, the US, and the Philippines.

Hey, this one’s a surprise, at least for me – I mean, i didn’t even know they drank Pernod in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, StayinFront, Inc., a provider of enterprise-wide customer relationship management applications, decision support tools, data services and e-business systems, has announced its a new multi-year contract with Pernod Ricard Hong Kong Limited.

Pernod Hong Kong is the company’s regional office and supports markets across Asia, including the Gulf states, India and Japan. Pernod Ricard itself is the second-largest wine and spirits company in the world and number one in Asia with a well-stock liquor cabinet which includes Chivas Regal, Kahlúa, Malibu, The Glenlivet, Jameson, Beefeater, and Stolichnaya.

Pernod Ricard’s rollout of StayinFront CRM will begin in China for 300 users; StayinFront CRM will be replacing the existing in-house solution.

Also from StayinFront land comes the news today that Biovail Pharmaceuticals Canada has implemented StayinFront Pharma 9.3 for its sales, marketing and management teams.

Biovail Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the formulation, clinical testing, registration, manufacture, and commercialization of pharmaceutical products utilizing advanced drug-delivery technologies.

Biovail Pharmaceuticals has deployed products from the StayinFront CRM Life Sciences suite, including StayinFront Pharma Companion for Windows Mobile; StayinFront Marketing Center for direct marketing and medical education event marketing support services; and StayinFront Analytics. Biovail Pharmaceuticals is also using StayinFront Pharma 9.3 to integrate sales and marketing initiatives.

Asia Commercial Bank this week announced its agreement with Hanoi-based Thien Nam Information Technology Company, an international reseller of banking and financial processing systems. Thien Nam will be upgrading Asia’s core processing platform to the latest release of Open Solutions Inc.’s classically no-nonsensically named The Complete Banking Solution.

Open Solutions Inc., a provider of integrated enabling technologies for financial services providers, recently signed an international reseller partnership agreement with Thien Nam Information Technology Company.

Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Asia Commercial Bank has more than $1.7 billion in assets, 84 branches and 658,000 customers. ACB originally converted to Open Solutions’ TCBS platform in 2001 through a private label reseller agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, Thien Nam will offer Open Solutions products within Asia and will sublicense Open Solutions’ relational enterprise data processing solution and integrated ancillary products. Thien Nam will be responsible for implementing, customizing, localizing and supporting the products covered by this agreement.

In addition to The Complete Banking Solution data processing platform, Asia Commercial Bank will be implementing Open Solutions’ CRM business intelligence program cView, online banking, cash management, financial accounting solution, imaging, interactive voice response, loan origination and payment solutions.

AsiaInfo Holdings, Inc., a provider of telecom software solutions and IT security products and services, has announced this signing of a contract with China Unicom subsidiary Jiangsu Unicom to upgrade the existing billing and Customer Relationship Management to support its new GPRS services.

Currently plans call for Jiangsu Unicom to upgrade its GSM system to GPRS in three cities and offer services including MMS, Wireless Application Protocol browsing, and mobile Java applications. Under terms of the agreement, AsiaInfo will upgrade Jiangsu Unicom’s existing billing and CRM system to support billing and customer care for new GPRS services.

Jiangsu Unicom currently employs AsiaInfo’s convergent billing and unified customer care systems to support both GSM and CDMA services. Organized as a Delaware corporation, AsiaInfo began operations in the United States in 1993. The Company moved major operations to China in 1995 and played a significant role in the construction of the national backbones and provincial access networks for all of China’s major national telecom carriers, including China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Netcom. Since 1998, AsiaInfo has continued diversifying its product offerings and is now a major provider of telecom software solutions in China.

Evolving Systems, Inc., a provider of software solutions and services to the wireless, wireline and IP carrier markets announced on Friday that the firm had been selected by an unnamed convergent telecoms operator in Indonesia to provide service activation solutions.

Evolving Systems will provide the core solution technology, as well as related technical and agent development services. Accenture will develop custom functionality, service logic, configuration of business rules, and provide dedicated in-country support.

Evolving Systems, Inc. is a provider of software and services to more than 50 network operators in over 40 countries worldwide. Its portfolio includes products for activation, number portability, number inventory and mediation. Founded in 1985, Evolving has headquarters in Englewood, Colo., and offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, India and Malaysia.

CinTel Corp. announced its signing of a stock purchase agreement to acquire fully one hundred percent ownership and equity interests of Bluecomm Co., Ltd. for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $6.5 million. Bluecomm is a Korea-based DBM (Database Marketing) and CRM solutions provider.

Bluecomm entered the CRM business in 2005 and has special expertise in DBM and HSC solutions. HSC stands for “Home Service Center,” which is a bit of Kenglish known outside the Korean market as “call center and telemarketing services.” The Home Service Center market has grown rapidly in recent years, with market size ultimately expected to reach over $380 million in 2007.

Bluecomm’s is valued at approximately $6.9 million and the firm’s biggest win seems to be its exclusive contract to host HSC solutions for Pizza Hut Korea.

Founded in 1997, CinTel introduced what is touted as “Korea’s first dynamic server load balancer” and has now produced technology products including NAND flash memory packaging, LCD assembly, semiconductor packaging and testing specialists. CinTel also produces solutions for memory applications for home appliances, semiconductor and TFT-LCD application products.