Cloud computing is the future of information technology, as the world is heading for a "multi-device, post-PC era".

So say executives of US-based VMware, the so-called "Microsoft of the cloud industry", which recently hosted the VMworld 2011 conference in Las Vegas.

In his keynote speech, VMware's chief executive Paul Maritz said that more than half of the world's server applications were now running on virtualised infrastructures, rather than physical ones.

To support his point, he said that a new virtual machine was being born every six seconds - more than the human birth rate of the United States - and more than 20 million virtual machines had been deployed around the world.

"At any point in time, there are more virtual machines 'in flight' than there are aircraft in flight," he told the conference, which was attended by more than 19,000 people.

The head of VMware - which claims more than an 80-per-cent share of the global cloud-computing market - said a "multi-device, post-PC era" was on the way, with cloud computing at its core.

"In three years, more than 80 per cent of the devices connecting to the Internet will not be Windows-based personal computers. We are going to see new techniques and new approaches introduced into the world of IT."

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service, wherein shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network - typically the Internet.

Southeast Asia has seen a rapid growth towards cloud computing in recent years, with a high adoption rate of virtualised infrastructures - something seen in advanced markets like the United States and Australia some years ago, according to VMware's general manager for Southeast Asia Ed Lenta.

He said virtualisation was the first step in the journey towards cloud computing.

A recent survey showed that for cloud adoption within Southeast Asia, Singapore (23 per cent) was marginally ahead of Malaysia and Thailand (both 21 per cent). However, a larger percentage of organisations in Malaysia (39 per cent) and Thailand (39 per cent) had cloud plans in place, versus 30 per cent in Singapore.

The survey showed that Thailand led Asean countries in terms of virtualisation adoption, with 67 per cent, compared to 65 per cent for Singapore and Malaysia. The average virtualisation penetration across Asean stood at only 30 per cent.

When asked to comment on Thailand's readiness for cloud computing, Lenta said: "A lot of market forces make Thailand a very attractive market. There is a real appetite."

He said that among VMware's customers in Thailand there were a large number of small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as larger businesses in the telecoms and banking sectors and government agencies.

"We make the plumbing of IT disappear for them. They can focus on delivering their products and services to customers," he said.

VMware's senior vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan Andrew Dutton said in an interview with The Nation that "Thailand is maturing very rapidly towards cloud computing."

"Two years ago Thai customers actively embraced virtualisation. They have accelerated the demand for cloud computing and desktop virtualisation," he said.

VMware's country manager for Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia Chawapol Jariyawiroj said that virtualised infrastructures could achieve tremendous cost savings for businesses. They use fewer physical servers for the same amount of work and can save on the costs of maintenance, disaster recovery and running data centres.

Regarding concerns about security, the VMware executives said that virtualised systems were no less secure than physical ones. Dutton said VMware products allowed customers to personalise their security features, such as firewall settings.