FILE PHOTO: Attendees walk through an expo hall at AWS re:Invent 2022, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., November 30, 2022. Noah Berger/AWS/Handout via REUTERS
KUALA LUMPUR: The establishment of an Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure region in Malaysia will accelerate digital adoption in the country further, the company said today.
Eric Conrad, AWS regional managing director for worldwide public sector in Asean, said the RM25.5 billion investment in Malaysia by 2037 was the largest to-date to help power Malaysia's digital economy.
He noted that Malaysia was chosen as its investments destination to provide support to its existing customers in ramping up their cloud infrastructure.
"We have seen a significant acceleration in the pace of adoption in recent years and increasingly our customers are telling us that they would like to bring their workload closer -- they would like to have their data closer, in some cases, to meet their requirements.
"We have followed their request and have made the determination that this is the right time to invest in this infrastructure," he told a media conference on the sidelines of the AWS Malaysia: Key Business Updates forum here today.
As for employment opportunities, Conrad said AWS would be looking at staffing for the data centres and would include local providers for the actual construction and development of the overall facilities.
"We look forward to working closely with the Malaysian government, our local partners, customers and organisations in Malaysia to unlock more opportunities to improve digitalisation, economic growth, and national competitiveness," he said.
Conrad also noted that AWS aimed to help the Malaysian government develop the skills and expertise needed to implement cloud technology upscale as well as make better data-driven decisions.
The new AWS region will give developers, startups, entrepreneurs, as well as education and nonprofit organisations greater choice for running their applications and serving end-users from data centres located in Malaysia.
The new AWS region will enable customers with data residency preferences to store data securely in Malaysia, enable customers to achieve even lower latency, and serve demand for cloud services across Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Minister of Economy Rafizi Ramli said the investment by AWS is particularly timely as the country is undergoing critical reforms to restructure and digitalise its economy.
According to him, data is the cornerstone of a digital-first country.
He said Malaysia needed real-time, granular data made available via an environment conducive to experimentation and learning.
"The prerequisite for this is affordable, scalable, and secure data infrastructure, and cloud computing platforms like AWS provide all three ingredients.
"The government is therefore committed to supporting their rapid adoption," he said.
Rafizi said the investment was also key to creating a cloud-first public sector with the competency to deliver digitalised services for the people’s convenience, while using data to continuously improve public service quality. - Bernama
