Key Google Cloud investment in Malaysia
Google Cloud has announced that it is bringing its first public cloud region to Malaysia.
This is really a cloud infrastructure investment and there will be hardware and software involved in the build out, as well as a cloud data centre involved.
The deployment and its key feature
“Specifically a public cloud region is all about the apps and services that are being leveraged to serve our Google Cloud customers,” Ruma Balasubramaniam, Managing Director for Google Cloud in Southeast Asia, also added wanting to differentiate a public cloud region investment from just a data centre investment.
Availability zones means companies of regulated industries can back up their critical customer and stakeholder data on other availability zones as they work with Google cloud.
This infrastructure roll out would be part of a cloud network that Google Cloud has built over the years and is still building out. There are a total of 34 public cloud regions around the world with three additional regions in Asia Pacific, including Malaysia’s, being announced the past week. The other two are in Thailand, and New Zealand.
All these 3 public cloud regions will now have ability to be part of a global network which means its customers can seamlessly have their applications ride on Google Cloud as well as have these apps available across multiple countries.
A key feature of this deployment is the three availability zones, which means companies of regulated industries can back up their critical customer and stakeholder data on other availability zones as they work with Google cloud.
Key implications for Malaysia and MSMEs
Sherie Ng, Malaysia MD for Google Cloud, quickly clarified the key implications of this development. Firstly, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) would be able to tap into global innovation that sits on the cloud, accelerate their growth, and leverage digital opportunities in and beyond Malaysia.
All these 3 public cloud regions will now have ability to be part of a global network which means its customers can seamlessly have their applications ride on Google Cloud as well as have these apps available across multiple countries.
“There is an estimated one trillion US dollars economic opportunity across ASEAN (by 2030) which is ripe for local MSMEs to take advantage of,” she reminded.
Secondly, with a cloud region based here there is now ability to accelerate digital transformation for the public sector and regulated industries that want to ensure secure, sustainable, scalable infrastructure, to be able to meet enterprises’ requirements.
Lastly, the infrastructure investment brings with it a transfer of digital skills for, adoption by Malaysians so they can participate in the digital economy.
Push and pull factors
Ruma explained, “We are basing this infrastructure investment on the huge customer base we have built over the years in Malaysia.”
Malaysia’s digital economy is set to be worth USD35 billion by 2025, but this could almost double to USD61.3 billion in 2030 if digital transformation is leveraged fully..
Besides this opportunity, the support of government policies is another key factor that the cloud company takes into consideration when strategising their future investments.
“Now, if we think about the government support here and the drive towards digitalisation in the national areas, these are two areas that are really critical to us,” Ruma said.
Customers and the digital-first mindset
Maxis, JB Cocoa, KPJ Healthcare, and Capital A are among Google Cloud’’s long lineup of customers in Malaysia.
Then there is KPJ Healthcare which aims to establish itself in the forefront of health tech, a sector that is expected to become a significant part of the digital economy by 2030.
Interestingly since 2019, telco services provider, Maxis, had fully adopted Google Cloud’s data analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities. In 2021, they made a commitment to put all of their data workloads onto Google Cloud, according to Ruma.
She said, “If you spin this out into the future, you can imagine that they could be able to fast track the roll out of AI-powered contact centres to enhance the customer experience and end-to-end customer satisfaction.” Google Cloud is currently working with the telco provider on conceptualising 5G use cases and bringing them to the commercial market.
Then there is KPJ Healthcare which aims to establish itself in the forefront of health tech, a sector that is expected to become a significant part of the digital economy by 2030.
KPJ Healthcare uses Google Workspace for employee collaboration, as well as its video conferencing services to deliver secure tele-consultation services for continuous patient care.
Digital roots
Tony Fernandes, who now heads Capital A Bhd, formerly known as AirAsia Group, was also present to talk about his group’s involvement with cloud technologies since the very early days of the budget airline business.
Tony said, “People kind of forget that we are actually a digital company. Twenty one years ago when we started AirAsia, we saw the Internet as a tool that will democratise life and created the first booking engine where you could book airline tickets on the Internet. We used a cloud reservation system which we still use 21 years later!”
He shared about meeting then-Google CEO, Diane Greene, in 2014 and saying to her that AirAsia wanted to make digital services much more than an airline. “I said, ‘We have amazing data, but I don’t think we have the skillset to really monetise and build all these businesses that were in my head at that time.”
“I said, ‘We have amazing data, but I don’t think we have the skillset to really monetise and build all these businesses that were in my head at that time.”
Since then, Tony migrated his corporate enterprise apps away from on-premise and towards the cloud, and was even instrumental in decisions for core systems of regulated businesses TuneProtect (insurance) and Big Pay (digital payments), to be on the cloud instead of on-premise.
‘We believe Google will be a very large part of enabling us to level up in the system,” Tony said.
Inroads into public sector
Minister of Finance, Tengku Zafrul had recorded a message which when played to media members shared that public private partnerships (PPP) such as those between Malaysia and Google Cloud, facilitated 35,327 MSMEs to e-commerce platforms for the first time in 2021 and more optimally leverage access to growth opportunities.
He said Google Cloud will play a key role in helping the government move 80-percent of their systems onto the cloud, by end of 2022. Earlier this year, Google Cloud had signed a cloud framework agreement with the Government CIO, MAMPU, to advance public sector innovation.
