— AFP
PETALING JAYA: Oracle Corp’s US$6.5bil investment in Malaysia aims to reshape the country’s corporate landscape by making cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) technology more accessible, removing the typical cost barriers associated with such innovations.
With its AI-powered public cloud region in Malaysia, the American tech giant is targeting the productivity and digital growth of not just large enterprises but also the backbone of the economy – small and medium enterprises.
“One of Oracle’s strengths and one of the reasons we have grown so quickly is because we’re delivering a price-performance ratio that’s unheard of in the industry at the moment,” Oracle Asia Pacific and Japan senior vice-president for technology and customer strategy Chris Chelliah told StarBiz.“We’re offering secure cloud services and innovations at a significantly lower cost compared to other hyperscalers.”
He said Oracle’s services typically provide savings of between 20% and 50%, helping organisations improve productivity without the burden of high costs.
“We’ve been helping organisations and enterprises become more productive and effective. If you can improve productivity, you effectively contribute to the economy,” Chelliah added.
A cloud region refers to the physical location of a company’s public cloud facilities.
Oracle’s new Malaysian cloud region, its third in South-East Asia after two in Singapore, is part of a broader strategy to support the growing demand for cloud services, AI and supercomputing in the region.
“We’ve been in Malaysia for 36 years and many of our customers are already on the cloud journey with us.
“This investment will not only enhance cloud and AI services but also support the government’s MyDigital Blueprint, which aims to transform Malaysia into a high-income, tech-driven nation,” Oracle Malaysia managing director Fitri Abdullah said.
Meanwhile, Chelliah acknowledged traditional perceptions of cloud computing – often seen as complex and distant – has been a barrier to adoption.
“Our strategy for the cloud is to really get as close as possible and hence, our customers feel free to deploy and move workloads to the cloud.”
Over the last five years, Oracle has built 85 cloud regions worldwide, with 12 in the Asia Pacific, of which three are in South-East Asia.
“Moving the cloud closer to the customer removes a barrier to adoption and mitigates latency issues while accessing cloud services,” Chelliah noted. “When they’re on the cloud, they can rapidly innovate with AI services. That’s really our focus.”
Chelliah added this strategy does not only address performance implications but also regulatory requirements concerning data residency.
“We’re bringing a whole bunch of data management services where the data resides in Malaysia. Our approach to data is unique – we leave your data in place in Malaysia and bring the AI to you,” he highlighted.
Chelliah said the value added by a cloud region and AI lies in the innovative services layered on top.
“We’re looking at bringing innovative services that can drive productivity and business improvement through AI. What we’re launching in Malaysia is the same as we have launched everywhere else in the world, which is over 150 cloud services.”
Chelliah said Oracle’s US$6.5bil investment is earmarked for infrastructure, services, people, enablement and partner ecosystems to cater to Malaysia’s growth trajectory in this space. It includes AI computing capabilities, supercomputing resources and the latest Nvidia Blackwell chips.
