Alibaba Cloud’s achievements in Malaysia
Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, General Manager for Malaysia, Kun Huang, talks to Enterprise IT News about challenges to digital transformation
EITN: What do you think is the biggest technology challenge that most companies face in their digital transformation efforts today?
Kun Huang: In my opinion, cybersecurity is one of the many technology challenges and has been a biggest concern for most companies in committing to their digital transformation efforts these days. This is further proved by Gartner, it found that security and risk management is among top three technology priorities for enterprises in a survey conducted in 2022.
We at Alibaba Cloud are aware that the issue is critical for the enterprises; data privacy and protection remains our top priority. We are committed to complying with local regulations and industry standards.
Our ecosystem is also built on and depends on trust; protecting the privacy of our customers and consumers is our highest priority.
On top of that, Alibaba Cloud is verified to be adherent to and compliant to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Alibaba Cloud has more than 80 security and compliance accreditations worldwide such as international information security standards ISO27001, IS27018, and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).
Alibaba Cloud also provides an array of security products including DDoS protections, web application firewall, cloud security and business risk management, to ensure the highest cyber protection for businesses worldwide.
For example, Alibaba Cloud has been recognized by Gartner as a Challenger among global security service providers evaluated in the newly released 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls. The move acknowledges our firewall offering, extensive customer base and significant market shares.
Through the two local data centres, we offer a complete suite of advanced cloud products and services to Malaysian customers for them to meet the growing demands for digitalization among various industries in Malaysia, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services.
EITN: What do you think makes Alibaba Cloud unique from the industry peers in Malaysia?
Kun Huang: Alibaba Cloud has been serving Malaysian market for almost 6 years and we are the first global cloud service provider that has two data centres locally since Oct 2017 in Malaysia. Adding to this, in August 2018, Alibaba Cloud launched its first cloud based Anti-DDoS Scrubbing Centre in Malaysia to mitigate risks and offer customers the highest level of protection against stronger DDoS attacks.
Through the two local data centres, we offer a complete suite of advanced cloud products and services to Malaysian customers for them to meet the growing demands for digitalization among various industries in Malaysia, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services.
Alibaba Cloud is the official Cloud Services Partner of the International Olympic Committee and provides the best-in-class cloud computing infrastructure and cloud services to help the Olympic Games operate more efficiently, effectively, and securely.
Alibaba Cloud is the cloud provider for the world’s largest retail event, the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, handling USD74.1 billion worth of transactions over an 11-day period in 2020 with zero downtime. With over 10 years’ experience in digital transformation and expertise in different industries, we are enabling vertical specific cloud-based solutions along with partners for Retail, Finance, Manufacturing, Logistics, Media & Entertainment, and internet companies.
Alibaba Cloud has always been committed to providing a conducive environment for startups and SMEs to grow in Malaysia and better serve Malaysians. As part of our continuous initiatives, we have launched an Alibaba Cloud Innovation Centre in Kuala Lumpur and work with Malaysian local partner HandsProfit to bring their local expertise to the innovation centre, ensuring its smooth operation with strong local connections.
On top of that, Alibaba has also maintained its position as the third leading public cloud IaaS service provider globally since 2018, according to IDC and according to Gartner’s April 2021 report, Alibaba Cloud maintained its position as the world’s third leading and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider by revenue in US dollars since 2018.
EITN: Why is it crucial for Alibaba Cloud to have partnerships with local businesses?
Kun Huang: Localization has been an always-on strategy for Alibaba Cloud to accelerate our business and better meet the growing demand from the customers in Malaysia. As a trusted cloud service provider and partner in Malaysia, we are extremely committed to making the country a high-value-added economy by being a part of the nation’s digital transformation which is in line with Malaysia’s national Digital Economy Blueprint.
On top of that, Alibaba has also maintained its position as the third leading public cloud IaaS service provider globally since 2018, according to IDC and according to Gartner’s April 2021 report, Alibaba Cloud maintained its position as the world’s third leading and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider by revenue in US dollars since 2018.
By building an inclusive and collaborative ecosystem for our customers, partners and public stakeholders, we hope to help enterprises of all sizes capture and capitalize on opportunities across Asia. Working closely with other local partners, we provide access not only to our proven Cloud and technology solutions but also to the entire Alibaba ecosystem.
Besides, we work with local partners who have a strong local presence to provide localised solutions, along with our leading technologies and domain expertise, to serve the needs of digital transformation in Malaysia.
EITN: How does Alibaba Cloud support local businesses from various sectors and industries?
Kun Huang: In order to support local businesses from various sectors and industries in Malaysia, Alibaba Cloud has become the only global cloud service provider that has had two data centres locally since Oct 2017 and one anti-DDos scrubbing centre which is aligned with our mission of “Alibaba Cloud, In Malaysia For Malaysia”. We are also equipped with a dedicated team to fully support our customer in cloud consultancy, solution deployment, operation, and maintenance.
We have worked and collaborated with several local organisations and associations from different industries including CIMB, Touch N Go, Genting SkyWorlds and Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation Berhad (SDEC), to name a few with the aim of transforming and elevating their journey towards a digitalised nation.
With our industry tailor-made and comprehensive suite of solutions, we are able to support and provide a wide variety of solutions to customers in various industries like Finance, Retail and many more at different stages, from new startups, to SMEs and large enterprises so as to help them unleash their potential to thrive in the digital transformation.
For instance, we have recently launched our own financial services solutions in order to enhance financial institutions’ operational efficiency and customer experience through 70 products that are designed to help these institutions of all sizes across banking, insurance, securities, and FinTech to digitise their operations.
To further support the customers’ operations and enhance the cloud adoption process for the customer locally, Alibaba Cloud has launched “Global Delivery and Service Program” and it has unveiled the establishments of Customer Service Centre and Service Delivery Centre in Kuala Lumpur. This can definitely help us to provide timely and regionalised cloud migration and consulting services, and provide extra technology support to the regional offices and local customer project delivery.
With the mission of In Malaysia, For Malaysia, we aim to build and grow an inclusive and collaborative ecosystem for our customers, partners and public stakeholders. We just announced an investment plan of USD1 billion for a global partner ecosystem upgrade and Malaysia is one of the strategic markets for us to enhance the investment. In order to further implement the localization strategy, we have also launched “Global Delivery and Service Program” and it has unveiled the establishments of Customer Service Centre and Service Delivery Centre in Kuala Lumpur to better serve our local customer.
EITN: Moving forward, what is Alibaba Cloud Malaysia’s focus in further supporting the digitalisation of the country?
Kun Huang: It is one of our top priorities to better serve our local customers by meeting their growing demands of digital transformation and Alibaba Cloud has always been committed to empowering Malaysian enterprises to thrive through cloud and digital intelligence technologies. Therefore, we will continue to introduce the leading products and services to the market to serve customers’ demands. Apart from the cloud infrastructure products, we will also continue to bring more AI-driven and innovation solutions such as Virtual Queue Solution for Genting SkyWorlds and carbon management platform Energy Expert as well as tailored vertical solutions to further support and elevate Malaysia’s digital transformation.
With the mission of In Malaysia, For Malaysia, we aim to build and grow an inclusive and collaborative ecosystem for our customers, partners and public stakeholders. We just announced an investment plan of USD1 billion for a global partner ecosystem upgrade and Malaysia is one of the strategic markets for us to enhance the investment. In order to further implement the localization strategy, we have also launched “Global Delivery and Service Program” and it has unveiled the establishments of Customer Service Centre and Service Delivery Centre in Kuala Lumpur to better serve our local customer.
Last but not least, we will focus on strengthening local talent development through Alibaba Cloud and Alibaba Cloud Digital Heroes Program which includes Academic Empowerment Program (AAEP) and other newly announced talent initiative, providing a conducive environment for local start-ups and enterprises to grow as well as having more local partnerships in order to further transform and elevate the nation’s digitalization journey which is in line with Malaysia’s Digital Economy Blueprint.
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