Can a telco company push cloud adoption in Malaysia?

• The cloud management platform will provide users access and control to cloud resources across their organization for better efficiency and visibility
• Maxis Right Cloud is supported by in-house capabilities, a large pool of certified cloud experts, and advanced partnerships with leading global cloud providers

As cloud adoption in Southeast Asia increases, many businesses are still unsure of which cloud fits them best. Many organizations also feel that moving to the cloud is hard because of their existing legacy hardware.

In Malaysia, cloud adoption is slowly picking its pace but is still not fast enough. While costs and a lack of skills are reasons for the delay in cloud adoption, many organizations, especially SMEs, are still unsure of how exactly they can benefit from moving their operations to the cloud.

At the same time, organizations want to be able to have full control of their data in the cloud, especially with security being a concerning matter as well. While cloud providers are there to help them in their journey, the complexity of the cloud isn’t as simple as it seems for them. Some businesses have leveraged multiple cloud services and are now struggling to integrate their services.

Many businesses especially SMEs feel that the cloud is only about running their workloads digitally. However, the cloud promises a lot more than that. Not only can businesses increase their productivity in the cloud, but they are also able to have access to the myriad of cloud services that will enhance their business.

The cloud allows them to leverage analytical tools for better insights and also monetize their data without breaking any regulations. Not only that, but businesses will also be able to automate most of their processes, allowing them to have better workforce allocation and increase their productivity.

While these advancements and services may sound pricey, cloud services today come in a variety of payment methods. Gone are the days whereby businesses can only leverage one particular vendor for digital services. Today, the pay as you use and pay as you grow models are becoming the dominant payment package offered by cloud service providers.

Cloud adoption in Malaysia

To help Malaysian businesses in their cloud journey, Maxis launched its “Right Cloud” proposition, which is designed to liberate enterprises from the complexities of cloud adoption while maximizing its true potential. This proposition reinforces Maxis’ capabilities as an end-to-end cloud service provider supported by the right expertise and right connectivity.

Enabled via a cloud-agnostic management platform, Maxis Right Cloud provides users with greater visibility, insights, and control of their cloud resources, even workloads on leading public cloud providers. This is particularly useful for enterprises leveraging various cloud providers and would like a single view of how they are currently utilizing their digital resources.

According to Claire Featherstone, Maxis’ Head of Enterprise Practices, the new proposition is built on three important elements – the Right Cloud, Right Expertise, and Right Network.

“Combined, we can support enterprises with a holistic cloud transformation journey from design to implementation, so they can focus on driving business outcomes. Our ambitions to accelerate cloud adoption in the country are in line with our commitment to support the nation’s digital agenda,” said Claire.

Maxis Right Cloud is supported by end-to-end in-house capabilities from assessing, designing, building, migrating, securing, and managing the cloud infrastructure for businesses. In addition to working with leading public cloud providers as well as private and hybrid cloud services, Maxis also has a large pool of technical experts who are fully accredited and certified by AWS and Microsoft.

Despite the competitive market, Claire explained that their partnership with AWS and Microsoft enables them to also provide service to the customer on the back of their technology. And this is where the cloud experts come in to help businesses build on their tech services. Another advantage is that Maxis can combine cloud services with their network.

All of Maxis’ cloud solutions are accessed via the Maxis Programmable Network (MPN), Malaysia’s first programmable software-defined network which is Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) 3.0 certified. This network is designed to enable businesses to reliably scale the capacity demand to meet the requirements of the fast-changing IT environments while operating at consistently high performance. Services such as Bandwidth on Demand, Usage-Based Internet, and Cloud Connect are all provided through MPN.

“No other telco provider is offering such a service, especially in providing a platform that is neutral and cloud-agnostic. It’s the foundation for customers to run and manage their cloud environment. It effectively allows customers to broker the services across cloud organizations and provides access to all major hyperscalers available. We will be able to connect and offer services across all the hyperscalers globally,” said Selvakumar Rajasekaran, Head of Enterprise Products, Maxis.

Securing the cloud

There is no denying that security needs to be a priority when moving to the cloud. While there are myriad security solutions available, businesses are often unsure which security controls work best for them.

“A lot of companies that adopt cloud fail to look at the security controls that are relevant for the applications that they use and the services that they deploy as well as the architectures that they tend to run. Most hyperscalers offer a level of security in terms of data protection, safety, and so on. But all they give you are the controls that are required. It needs to be set up in the right way,” explained Selvakumar.

Selvakumar highlighted how Maxis not only looks at the business when offering cloud services but also the sensitivity of their data and transactions that happen. From there, they will design the security needs for the cloud environment.

It builds on top of the native security that is already provided from the hyperscalers or other cloud environments that exist.

As a leading converged solutions provider in Malaysia, Maxis provides end-to-end professional and managed cloud services from strategy and advisory, migration and optimization, security, and application modernization to managed support. Currently, Maxis offers Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Backup as a Service, Data Centre Services, Data Centre, and Cloud Connect.

With cloud adoption gaining traction in Malaysia, enterprises large and small need to find the best and most convenient ways they can speed up their cloud adoption. Understanding the technology is key in their cloud journey and partnering with the right vendor or managed services provider needs to be well planned and executed.

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