Experts have lauded the job-generation benefits of cloud computing and related activities in the Asia Pacific region. Australia as a smaller IT player in the region, will also experience the benefit of employment growth, although the numbers of new jobs created in this country will be dwarfed by those generated in our new neighbours.

A study by IDC, funded and commissioned by Microsoft, says that 125,000 jobs are likely to be created in Australia by 2015, which is about 0.009% of all the “cloud created” jobs. Interestingly, those jobs that will be created in this market are not likely to be in the IT sector, instead, they are likely to be in activities related to cloud computing, including sales, marketing, administration, finance, service, production, and the like.

According to the white paper entitled Cloud Computing’s Role in Job Creation, almost half of cloud computing jobs created in the region will be in China and India. The study says 13.8 million jobs will be created worldwide by 2015. India and China will account for 6.75 million of these new jobs, which dominate the industry. Asia Pacific (excluding China and India) will account for 2.87 million jobs. Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will account for 2.07 million. Meanwhile, North America will just create 1.17 cloud-computing related jobs.

According to IDC, the study has calculated job-growth based on the premise that IT innovation leads to business innovation, which then results in revenue, and ultimately job creation. Further, IDC analysts say that the study assumes that increased business revenue matches industries by job function.

IDC chief research officer John Gantz says it’s a common misconception that cloud computing is a “job eliminator.” However, the studies point out that cloud computing is, in fact, a job-generator. It’s even an equalizer, because cloud computing enables access not only to countries and companies that can afford high-end infrastructure. Even emerging markets, small businesses and organisations of all sizes have access to the same facilities and benefits as big enterprises.

A cheap and fast broadband service – such as the national broadband network will also help to improve business processes and efficiency, thereby helping increase profit among businesses.