• The Cloud Framework Agreement will help accelerate cloud adoption in the public sector and help agencies save costs, boost digital skills, and drive innovation.
• The Department of Statistics Malaysia became the first Malaysian federal government agency to migrate to AWS in 2020
• AWS will also provide training support for selected federal government employees

The Malaysian public sector has often been criticized in the past for not being efficient enough. However, things are beginning to make a change as more agencies in the public sector continue to modernize and digitally transform their services.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has signed a new Cloud Framework Agreement (CFA) with the Malaysian government, together with local IT provider and AWS Partner Radmik Solutions Sdn Bhd, to help accelerate cloud adoption in the public sector and help agencies save costs, boost digital skills, and drive innovation.

The CFA enables Radmik Solutions, an IT systems integrator and technology service provider in Malaysia, and now an AWS Managed Service Provider, to provide consulting and technology services to government agencies and contribute towards the growth of Malaysia’s digital economy. AWS is also the first international cloud service provider to have concluded and signed a CFA with the Malaysian government, as part of its long-term commitment to supporting Malaysia’s digital transformation.

Through the CFA, Malaysian government agencies will now have a consistent approach to access and use all AWS services in any of AWS’s 84 Availability Zones spanning 26 geographic regions around the world, without having to negotiate separate contract terms. They also will be able to leverage the breadth and depth of more than 200 fully-featured AWS Cloud services, including AWS’s industry-leading security capabilities, world-class global infrastructure, and the most comprehensive security and compliance controls validated by third-party.

According to Eric Conrad, Managing Director of Worldwide Public Sector for ASEAN at AWS, the CFA will make it easier for government agencies to procure AWS services, and enable them to use the cloud to rapidly experiment at a lower cost and with increased flexibility.

“It will pave the way for an accelerated cloud adoption journey in Malaysia by removing barriers in government technology procurement, allowing government agencies to focus their time and resources on their core mission of improving citizen services,” commented Eric Conrad, Managing Director of Worldwide Public Sector for ASEAN at AWS.

For Adam Roslly, Managing Director of Radmik Solutions, the collaboration will give them the speed and connectivity to foster greater innovation and accelerate customers’ digital transformation.

AWS and Malaysia aligned with plans

Prior to this, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), which collects national economic and social statistics, became the first Malaysian federal government agency to migrate to AWS in 2020. While the agency typically only takes three months to conduct Malaysia’s national census, it needed to maintain its costly on-premises infrastructure year-round. By switching to cloud services, DOSM now only uses cloud resources as needed, saving costs and improving scalability.

It was the first success story of AWS and the Malaysian public sector. DOSM migrated its citizen-facing services to the cloud using various AWS services and worked alongside AWS Partners Uberfusion and Integriti Padu to handle traffic spikes, improve security, and help census workers access DOSM’s cloud-based e-learning solution.

On AWS, DOSM’s census portal can handle 100% of its traffic at any time, including at a peak of 200,000 users. In total, DOSM helped nine million users access Malaysia Census Data on AWS.

“Aligning to Malaysia’s MyDigital initiative, the Government has published a ‘Cloud First Policy’ circular to provide guidelines for adopting cloud computing technology in the implementation of ICT projects to further improve public service delivery,” said Adi Azlan, Principal Assistant Director of the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) at the Prime Minister’s Department.

Beyond the public sector

AWS’s other Malaysian customers include large public sector organizations, such as the Ministry of Higher Education and the Smart Selangor Delivery Unit in the Selangor State Government, as well as leading companies like Petronas and innovative startups like Storehub.

AWS also has an extensive network of AWS Partners in Malaysia, such as Maxis Enterprise and Radmik Solutions, who help support Malaysian businesses and organizations in their cloud journey. Radmik Solutions will offer consulting and technology services to government agencies as the local Managed Services Provider in the CFA.

At the same time, AWS will also provide training support for selected federal government employees via on-demand digital courses, facilitated training events, and instructor-led classroom training. These initiatives aim to help government employees develop the skills and expertise needed to implement cloud technologies at scale, make better data-driven business decisions, and innovate new services to drive improved outcomes for citizens.

In January 2022, AWS launched the re/Start program in Malaysia, through free cloud computing courses offered by Malaysia-based UNITAR International University.