Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, will be establishing a data centre in Malaysia later this year to provide enterprises in Malaysia and the region with powerful, scalable and cost-effective cloud capabilities to support their global expansion. The planned data centre will become the first global public cloud platform in the country. It has been reported that Alibaba Cloud will also build a cloud platform in Malaysia to help local SMEs to succeed in the digital age through technology such as big data and Internet of Things (IoT).
To provide support for startups, Alibaba Cloud will provide the Alibaba Cloud Certified Professional (“ACP”) certification program to train local technology talent and support the internet-related ecosystem in Malaysia.
While many of us today are very much aware of technology such as in the devices and services we use, not many give much thought towards where all the data that is being generated goes. Further, with the explosion of Cloud adoption, even applications can be run off that space.
Enter the Data Centre, the technological hub that hosts all the hardware necessary to handle that immense amount of data. According to Structured Report data, the data centre colocation market continues to move forward on a global basis. It was estimated to be worth $33.59b in 2016 and projected to grow at a rate of 15.2% in 2017. In Southeast Asia alone, that figure stands at an estimated $10.9b.
Data is driving the world’s economies and nowhere is it more apparent than in Asia. The region traditionally lagged Western nations in terms of technology but thanks to government backing and lighting fast uptake, Asia’s digital economy has become a force to be reckoned with.
“Overall, the digital economy contribution to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) stands at around 18.2%, and on course for the 20% target in year 2020,” said Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) director Ir Wan Murdani Wan Mohamad.
In spearheading the growth of Malaysia’s data centre industry, Malaysia formed the Data Centre Task Force to focus specifically on facilitating large data centre and cloud investments.
In addition, there is also the Malaysian Digital Centre Alliance (MDCA) was formed in 2013 consisting of 17 data centre providing companies to position Malaysia as the region’s data centre hub. To achieve this, five committees were formed under the MDCA to focus on Business Development, Connectivity, Energy, Green Technology Standards and Standards and Policies.
More room to grow
In 2012 the AIMS Group, Malaysia’s premier carrier-neutral data center, announced its latest highly secured, 34,500 sq. ft. state-of-the- art ˜CJ1′ data centre located in Cyberjaya. Aside from that, it also has Menara AIMS which boasts 37,500 square feet of fully commissioned data centre space and another 10,000 square feet work in progress. An additional 13,000 square feet is available in Cyberjaya plus points of presence in Penang, Johor and Kota Kinabalu.
The company managed to outdo the odds in 2016 with an unprecedented 24% revenue growth that propels the group well above the industry average. AIMS Group saw a 14% increase in new customers, while the data centre’s cloud-based services experienced more than 300% jump in revenue.
VADS Bhd is investing RM130mil to build a two-phase purpose-built data centre in Nusajaya Tech Park, as part of its strategy to cater to the growing demand for data business in the region. The Twin Core strategy Data Centres comprises of the Iskandar Puteri Core Data Centre (IPDC) which will incorporate 90,000 sq ft (8.400 sq m) of data centre white space that will have Uptime Tier III Design and Construction certification, and another 10,000 sq ft (930 sq m) each for office suites and disaster recovery workspaces AND building a second purpose-built data centre of similar scale – the Klang Valley Core Data Centre (KVDC), located 320km away at Cyberjaya.
Despite these successes, Malaysia certainly still has plenty of room to grow in the data centre space due to both natural and man-made advantages. We are blessed with the availability of critical resources such as energy and space. In addition, Malaysia also has modern optical fibre networks which provides high-speed connectivity within Malaysia as well as key submarine cable systems such as AAG, ASE and SMW4 for international connectivity.
This entire situation is being driven by a vibrant and holistic infrastructure which naturally includes Data Centres and the resources to support them. As a location of Data Centres, Malaysia has risen in time an ideal environment. Its diversified economic base and strategic central location in between China, Indonesia and India, which are the emerging and high growth economies of the world, makes it seem idea.
The country is has also proven to not only be one of the most cost competitive countries in the world but also possessed of a government that fantastic business-friendly to international clients and investors.
The strategic picture
Revenue growth of Malaysia’s data centre industry is targeted to contribute a total of RM2.1 billion to the country’s gross national income by 2020. Malaysian companies are exploiting Cloud services to transform digitally and expand their business. At this point of time, many are overseas because we do not have any public cloud equivalent in Malaysia.
“Malaysia is aiming to create an environment for the attraction of credible Cloud platforms to Malaysia, with MDEC embarking on a Data Gain programme to look into how we can create such an environment with the goal of bringing these companies home,” said Wan Murdani.
“MDEC is working hard to nurture and accelerate a conducive data centre and cloud services ecosystem within Malaysia, and for more companies to host their data services here,” he added. “The Sedenak Iskandar Data Hub (SIDH) serves as an ideal location for the needs of investors looking at establishing and operating full-fledge data centres to meet their regional and global aspirations.”