Bernie Trudel, chairman, Asia Cloud Computing Association, and Cloud CTO, Cisco APAC, said the Index will also be useful to governments that are taken to task to pave the way for the smooth implementation of the cloud in the region.

"National public policy makers are starting to understand the benefits of this new IT delivery model and how it can make their countries more competitive. However, they might not necessarily yet understand the issues that underpin cloud computing, or the impact that policy decisions, such as data privacy or intellectual property protection, can have on the success or otherwise of cloud computing," said Trudel.

Worldwide spending on cloud computing is expected to reach 30 to 40 per cent of IT budgets by 2013, the industry association said.

In Asia, some organisations have yet to adopt the cloud. But the association believes that Asian organisations, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit most from the technology.