• The cloud service providers are expected to invest between RM12 to RM15 billion (US$2.96 – US$3.70 billion) in the next five years
• These infrastructures will form the “backbone for a sustainable digital ecosystem” in the country
• SMEs in Malaysia are bound to benefit from the upcoming geopolitical locations of the hyperscale data centers

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Telekom Malaysia have been granted conditional approval to build and manage hyperscale data centers and cloud services in Malaysia. The move is anchored around the aim to empower cloud computing services in the country’s public sector as well as to drive mass digital adoption.

As revealed by the country’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin last Friday, in line with the government’s Digital Economy Blueprint or MyDigital initiative, the cloud service providers (CSPs) are expected to invest between RM12 to RM15 billion (US$2.96 – US$3.70 billion) in the next five years. The government is also targeting to migrate 80% of public data to hybrid cloud systems by the end of 2022, “as part of the measures to empower cloud computing services in the public sector through its ‘Cloud First’ strategy,” the Prime Minister stated.

“In addition, for a more effective and smooth data collection and management, this strategy also helps to reduce government costs in information technology management in the long run. All these cloud services will allow big data, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT) and other applications to be utilized to enhance and strengthen government services,” he added.

The government has also proposed the appointment of three local information communication technology (ICT) companies comprising of Enfrasys Solutions, Prestariang Systems, and Cloud Connect, as managed service providers (MSPs) to work with the CSPs to manage their services to agencies in the public sector. This particular move is in line with government ambitions to strengthen the capabilities of local providers.

“For a more effective and smooth data collection and management, this strategy also helps to reduce government costs in information technology management in the long run. All these cloud services will allow big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and other applications to be utilized to enhance and strengthen government services,” Muhyiddin said.

Why data center’s geolocation matters

A hyperscale data center can accommodate thousands of servers and millions of virtual machines. This data center act as a delivery mechanism for cloud-powered businesses and applications. Hyperscale data centers offer enormous scalability allowing organizations to take control of all aspects of their productions. Hyperscale is used for cloud computing, big data, and distributed systems, and companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google use hyperscale computing. Hyperscale cloud is normally done through off-site data centers and this type of cloud environment is known as the public cloud.

The speed of a website is directly proportional to the distance from its data center. The shorter the distance, the faster the speed. The geographic location is one of the several significant factors which affect the performance of a data center and it should be near to the target audience. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia has a lot to benefit from if they fully embrace the digital transformation enabled by the government through the aforementioned democratized technologies such as hyper-scale cloud, data, mobile, social, IoT, and AI.