Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and most organizations have digitally transformed their businesses by adopting available technologies including the cloud. NAVER Cloud, with headquarters in South Korea, believes that cloud plays a crucial role in moving this digital transformation forward as new other technologies emerge.

There may still be a significant number of companies that have not fully transformed digitally. NAVER believes that digital transformation and cloud adoption will be further accelerated as organizations adopt a hybrid work model. More industries including retail, finance, manufacturing, education, and healthcare, are undergoing digital transformation, and the need for big data analysis and AI (artificial intelligence) applications has become increasingly pronounced.

Metaverse is gaining more buzz these days and NAVER Cloud believes that the cloud technology will be central to the global expansion of the metaverse.

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"The growing use of cloud platforms has also facilitated the development of global metaverses, which has become one of the year's hottest tech trends," NAVER Cloud said. "However, NAVER LABS has been researching and developing its proprietary metaverse technology over the last five years. The company recently announced its metaverse technology ecosystem, ARCVERSE where data and services in both the real and virtual world are connected seamlessly through a combination of AI, robots, cloud, and digital twins."

As talks of metaverse may continue this year, NAVER LABS and NAVER Cloud will implement the ARC (AI, Robot and Cloud) system in its robot-friendly building, NAVER's second head office, which will run on a specialized 5G network and serve as a testbed for a new generation of buildings. The ARC (AI, Robot and Cloud) system, which operates on the NAVER Cloud platform, will bridge the physical world with its digital twin, creating a metaverse environment that connects various applications and interfaces of the real world, enabling robot-to-robot, robot-to-smart building, and robot-to-human interactions.

"The ultra-low latency performance of 5G networks is critical to reducing service interruptions and maximizing the potential of the cloud that performs as the brain of robots and buildings," NAVER said. "NAVER LABS has completed its technical preparations in line with Korea's 5G specialized network policy.

Cloud adoption

According to NAVER, the use of cloud computing has grown significantly (amid the COVID-19 pandemic), recording a 39% increase in 2021 compared to the previous year.

NAVER Cloud breaks down the three stages of cloud adoption:

  1. Beginner. Experiencing and grasping the value of the cloud platform.
  2. Intermediate. Developing and understanding applications of the cloud and being able to refine and analyze collected data
  3. Advanced. Mastering the use of the cloud and precisely understanding AI applications.

NAVER Cloud forecasts that cloud-based AI technology will enable the automation of customer service systems.

"Cloud-based AI customer service provides an affordable way for businesses and entrepreneurs to establish smart call centers at a low cost," said NAVER in a media advisory.

Companies are now looking to adopt data-centric approaches as data is now the new fuel for any business. With this development, Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) will be widely available and availed of as it would empower businesses with big data resources to scale and grow.