Maxis is one of the only telecommunications companies in Malaysia already embracing the cloud. The company embarked on its journey to become a one-stop provider for connectivity and infrastructure for Malaysia back in 2019 with an early partnership with AWS (Amazon Web Services) who is currently the most prolific web service platform in the world. Today, they are announcing that they have successfully achieved new accreditation as an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner; making them the only telecommunications company in Malaysia to have done so. This solidifies their claim to being one of the most equipped converged solutions providers in the country.
The new accreditation certifies that Maxis is equipped to provide its customers and partners with the technical support and know-how to migrate and sustain their businesses in the cloud. To achieve this, Maxis has to demonstrate a sustained competency in their workforce equipped and certified by AWS for the many services that their platform provides. This includes taking advantage of the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence components available on AWS.
In addition to this, Maxis is now also offering AWS Direct Connect. AWS Direct Connect allows customers to access AWS directly via a dedicated network connection with one of the many AWS Connect locations using industry-standard 802.1q VLANs. This also allows customers to partition the connection into multiple virtual interfaces easing access to object instances in the AWS public and private clouds while maintaining network separation.
The new accreditation comes on the heels of Maxis having announced key acquisitions that have bolstered the company’s position as one of the most equipped telecommunications companies in Malaysia able to empower businesses in their digitization journey. The company has also been certified in the AWS Public Sector Partner program with over 300 Maxis employees being accredited and undergone comprehensive training by AWS.
Just one week after YES of YTL Communications introduces the most affordable mobile data plan ever, they are back. This time, they are back with Shopee in hand. Why? They are launching another thing of course. They are launching their new DATABACK program, in collaboration with Shopee.
What is DATABACK? It is like Cashback, but not cashback. You do not get cash rebates when you shop. Instead, you get data to rebate when you shop. They say, giving data back makes sense. This is because you need data and internet to buy things online anyway. So, giving data back to customers allows the customers to stay online longer and spend more money. As far as they can tell, it is a win-win situation.
The exclusive partnership between YES and Shopee, as part of the Kasi Up plan, applies to all YES customers on the Kasi Up plan, which should be all of them by now. If you have not gotten your YES SIM card for the Kasi Up plan yet, you might want to get it on Shopee for MYR 1. MYR 1 on Shopee buys you the SIM card together with a 30-day validity period. On top of that, you get YES Kasi Up Prepaid 15 plan which gives you 10/GB of data for the next 30-days once you activate your card.
The YES DATABACK programme is exclusively for YES users. The program allows users to earn back their data as they spend on Shopee. For every MYR 50 you spend on Shopee, YES gives you back 5GB of data. You can get back up to 100GB of data in a month. You will have to spend up to MYR 1,000 a month to get back 100GB though. That also means that you can buy a smartphone on Shopee and all your data problems for that month is solved.
The YES DATABACK initiative is exclusively valid on Shopee for now. The YES kasi Up SIM card is also now available on Shopee for as low as MYR 1. You can also top up your YES Prepaid account with Shopee, of course. For more information on the YES DATABACK programme exclusively on Shopee, you can head to Shopee’s microsite. Of course, you can head to YES’ website for more information on Kasi Up plans as well.
How much do you pay for data? That is the question that you often do not ask yourself in this difficult period. It is also something we take for granted these days. In fact, we have taken this for granted for a while. You never really thought about it also because Malaysia’s major Telco players have not made a huge step in terms of competitive pricing over data. That is, until now.
To be fair, when you talk about a major Telco for Malaysia, you would not start at YES 4G. You might not even consider this plucky organisation to be a major Telco in Malaysia. To blow your bubble a little bit, we can safely say that they are now a major Telco in Malaysia. They have one of the widest, if not the widest 4G network coverage in Malaysia. This includes Sabah and Sarawak, mind you.
Back to the price of data. If you do a little bit of research in and around the region of South East Asia, Malaysia’s data price point is not exactly the most affordable. You have players in Indonesia, and even Singapore that would offer data at much cheaper price points. Malaysia still has competitive pricing on data though, do not get us wrong.
It could be even more affordable though, and YES, with the Kasi Up plans, show that it is completely possible. They have introduced two new mobile data plans with Kasi Up, one Prepaid and one Postpaid. Both are, in our books, extremely attractive in value.
Kasi Up Prepaid
Source: YES
We start with the prepaid Kasi Up plan. The YES Kasi Up Prepaid 15 plan, they call it. As the numbers suggest, it will cost you MYR 15 for a 30-day validity. To be fair, that does not actually sound all that special. MYR 15 though buys you 10GB of data for that 30 days of validity though. This pricing is quite unheard of in Malaysia. Before this, YES’ most affordable data plan was MYR 30 for up to 10GB of data. Of course, for prepaid plans, calls are charged normally (MYR 0.09/call) on your valid airtime.
Kasi Up Postpaid
Source: YES
If you want to make calls for free though, you go for a YES Kasi Up Postpaid 49 plan. As the name suggests also, the plan will cost you MYR 49 a month. For just below MYR 50, you get 100GB of 4G data a month and free unlimited call time. This also means that your data effectively costs less than MYR 0.50 for every 1GB. What’s more, you get to have your bill free for the first 6 months if you sign up for a 24-month plan. This is also effectively the cheapest data plan available in Malaysia currently.
Additional Plans
Of course, the YES Kasi Up mobile plans are not limited to just those two plans. For prepaid customers, you can choose between three available plans. You know the YES Kasi Up Prepaid 15 data plan. There is a YES Kasi Up Prepaid 20 plan too for MYR 20 a month. You get 20GB of data a month for MYR 20. Then you can go for YES Kasi Up Prepaid Unlimited for MYR 30 month which qualifies you for unlimited mobile data capped at 7mbps and 9GB of uncapped speed hotspot data. This also makes the YES Prepaid Unlimited data plan the most affordable of its kind in Malaysia.
For Postpaid customers, the YES Kasi Up Postpaid 49 data plan is the most premium available from YES. You can go for something cheaper at MYR 30 for the YES Kasi Up Postpaid 30. You only get a data quota of 20GB a month though, on top of a free YES 4G smartphone.
Kasi Up Refer & Earn
Source: YES
YES also introduced a new way of earning a little bit of side income for Malaysians with YES Kasi Up Refer & Earn programme. You get up to MYR 50 cash for every referral you make when you get your friends to sign up for the YES Kasi Up data plan. Your friend also makes MYR 50, if they sign up. It really looks like a win-win situation.
Availability
There is some caveat in all this though. YES relies completely on their own 4G network with no 3G or 2G coverage. That also means that if you do lose your 4G coverage, you lose coverage. YES has continuously worked to improve network coverage in all major cities in Malaysia and even rural areas in Malaysia, enabling connectivity across the nation though. The introduction of the Kasi Up data plans will also bring an end to all their previous data plans. Current users would be transitioned to their new Kasi Up plan. Why would you not want to be transitioned to a cheaper plan?
The YES Kasi Up data plan is now available for both new and current customers. You can head to your nearest YES outlet to get more information, obtain your SIM card, and sign up for either the postpaid or prepaid plans. You can also head to their website for more information and to obtain their SIM cards and get it delivered to your doorstep for free. Of course, all terms and conditions apply.
Maxis Berhad, one of Malaysia’s biggest telecommunications providers, has been actively differentiating itself from its competition. The company has, in recent months, been focusing on complementing it’s telco services with services which make sense to businesses and also consumers. Not too long ago, the company announced it’s consumer-focused OnePrime, which has now been rebranded to the Maxis Unlimited Postpaid & Fibre, which gave consumers the flexibility of having their mobile and broadband service in a catch-all subscription with added benefits.
At the same time, Maxis has been busy building its portfolio for its business clients with partnerships with companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and more. These partnerships work to bolster the company’s portfolio with more than just telephony and connectivity services. The company has also announced a series of acquisitions including its recent acqui-hire of ICMS (Infrastructure Consulting & Managed Services) which allowed the company to provide better integration with cloud services such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and more. It also brought deeper partnerships with ICMS’s certifications as a Dell-EMC partner and Commvault partner.
The latest announcement made late last week, gears Maxis to be one of the only telecommunications companies in Malaysia focusing on becoming a truly converged solutions provider. The company has acquired Audeonet (M) Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian based unified communications and voice cloud solutions company to bolster its talent pool and services. The acqui-hire also brings on board a team of skilled individuals which will enable end-to-end deployment of Audeonet’s services. The new products and services brought into the fold will allow Maxis’ enterprise and SME customers access to offerings to help them cope with the rigours of the “new normal”.
The acquisition of Audeonet (M) Sdn Bhd also makes Maxis Berhad the exclusive distributor of Deltapath, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider, in Malaysia. In addition, Maxis Business will now also be a Gold Reseller of Lifesize, bringing a cloud-based 4K video conferencing solution into their list of offered services.
Sony’s Xperia line up is one of the longest lasting line up of smartphones. It continues to be Sony’s go to brand with their newly launched flagships the Xperia 1 II and the Xperia 5 II. The Xperia 1 II will be available starting in November and the Xperia 5 II a little later after that, with prices starting at MYR4099. Let’s take a peek at bells and whistles of models to retail in Malaysia.
Both of these new Xperia models share some key specs. Chiefly, they are both powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. They both have a triple 12MP camera setup with ZEISS optics for quality images. They also have good life battery with 4,000mAh battery supported by USB-PD and charging via USB-C. They also retain the 3.5 headphone jack for your audio needs.
The key difference between these devices is their size. The Xperia 1 II is slightly bigger with a 6.5 inch screen compared to the Xperia 5 II and its 6.1 inch screen. The Xperia 1 II also has a better OLED display with higher resolution of 1644 x 3840 and and a higher pixel density, while the Xperia 1 II has a lower 1080 x 2520 resolution.
Both models have IP65/IP68 certification for water and dust resistance. They also come with stereo speakers and support PS4 Remote Play. Only the Xperia 1 II comes along with wireless charging as is expected of the flagship variant. However, the Xperia 5 II with its lower price tag and similar core features will give it a run for its money.
The Xperia 1 II is listed for retail at MYR4,999 while the Xperia 5 II is listed at MYR4,099 in the official Sony Online Store. With this announcement, the original Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 are now retailing for MYR3,099 and MYR2,799 respectively.
You know the year has been a tough one when it forces a titan like Dell to consider leaning up its operations. The company well known for its laptop and desktop offerings to consumers and businesses is entering a transition phase to withdraw itself from retail in Malaysia and Singapore – two of the most tech forward markets in the Southeast Asian region.
The company will halt supply of its products to partner retailers in Malaysia and Singapore. This will come into effect immediately. The information surfaced via a tip to Malaysian online portal, LowYat.Net.
When contacted for a comment on the situation, Dell Technologies representatives clarified:
Dell Technologies has announced plans to transition out of the retail market in Singapore and Malaysia. Customers will still have access to the full complement of our products and services through Dell direct.
Dell will honour contractual commitments with our partners and customers, and our team is on hand to work with our partners to coordinate a seamless transition. We anticipate the transition to be completed by the end of January 2021.
Dell’s service and customer support is not affected by the transition.
That said, Dell products will continue to be offered by retail partners until current stock sells out. Come 2021, consumers interested in purchasing Dell and Alienware desktops and laptops will have to go to Dell’s official online store at dell.com.
Leaving your home can be daunting now with COVID-19 on the rise. While there are measures in place to help control the spread, there are some that are still wary of the risks. That said, there’s also a group of us who would rather have our groceries come to us. Well, there’s good news for both sides – Tesco has partnered with foodpanda.
With the partnership, you will be able to order from Tesco’s catalog of over 3,000 items on foodpanda’s delivery service. The items range from fresh produce to groceries. These items will be delivered to your doorstep within 40 minutes of your order being confirmed.
The partnership will complement Tesco’s online grocery service: Tesco Online. It will serve as a way for users to get urgently needed groceries on demand while larger monthly or weekly orders can still be done via Tesco Online. This partnership will let customer rely more on Tesco as Foodpanda is a well-known delivery service and strengthen the presence of the platform.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic, customers have begun to change the way they shop. Many are looking for options where they can feel safe to purchase their necessities. This partnership with foodpanda will not only be convenient for Tesco’s loyal customers, but it will also help to address those who are concerned with having to leave the safety and comfort of their homes for a grocery run,” said Product Director, Kenneth Chuah.
Kenneth Chuah, Product Director, Tesco Malaysia
The service is available in the Klang Valley area. Users can order groceries from Tesco Paradigm Mall, Kepong, Extra Cheras, Extra Puchong, Bandar Puteri Bangi, Kajang, Bukit Puchong, Shah Alam, Wangsa Walk, Setia Alam and Selayang. They are planning to bring this service online to other areas soon.
As Malaysia enters a fresh wave of movement restriction measures and lockdowns, local businesses have once again been cornered to adapt and find their footing with digital transformation initiatives.
Although the pandemic has accelerated the uptake of digital business technologies, many leaders are still unsure of how to approach their transformations given the current challenges. Global Data’s Market Opportunity Forecasts model reveals that many businesses in Malaysia will delay their long-term digital transformation initiatives until at least 2021 to mitigate the risk of financial instability in business operations.
While forecasts remain gloomy, there is a way forward. Gartner has identified that IT leaders can successfully navigate this uncertainty by achieving a TechQuilibrium – the balance point at which an enterprise has the right mix of traditional and digital capabilities and assets to power the business model needed to compete most effectively.
So, how can enterprises find their TechQuilibrium? By leveraging technology that can help them do more with less, starting with the cloud. The cloud has played a significant role in helping many businesses survive — and even thrive – as operations moved online and employees shifted to remote work during the health crisis.
Businesses are looking to eliminate complexities and streamline processes. They need to have the agility to react to market changes and take advantage of opportunities. They need to be able to move quickly, to adapt and make changes to stay relevant and minimize costs. The good news is that cloud technology can help in all these areas.
The complexity of the Hybrid Cloud
The cloud journey can isn’t always smooth sailing, especially when businesses choose to take a hybrid cloud approach – a mixed computing, storage and services environment made up of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud and third-party public cloud services.
Implemented well, hybrid environments offer the advantages of both private and public clouds and help to drive the best return on IT investments. Businesses have the capability to move workloads between private and public clouds as computing budgets and needs change.
However, things can get messy when the rubber meets the road — mainly because collapsing operational silos is often easier said than done.
According to Nutanix research, a majority of organizations in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) see hybrid cloud as the ideal cloud approach but an alarming 72% believe that their transformation is taking longer than expected.
So, what exactly is holding organisations back?
A great deal of it has to do with the complexity of synchronizing private and public cloud technologies. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, for instance, each have their own expansive, high-powered toolbox for managing resources in public cloud servers. On the other hand, private, on-premises clouds often use different tools and interfaces.
Reconciling the differences between private and public clouds can get expensive and time-consuming, but a hybrid cloud environment can also be a marvel of power and flexibility — if IT teams have the tools to seamlessly coordinate their public and private clouds.
Reconciling the Conflicts
In a nutshell, private clouds are public cloud-like solutions built on conventional on-premises data centres with racks of computing, networking and storage gear. Public clouds, on the other hand, are giant server farms operated by Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other technology platform companies.
Private and public clouds have different use cases. The consensus is that private clouds work best for industries with sensitive data — such as the public sector and financial services — where tight security and abundant, concentrated computing power is critical. By contrast, public clouds are known to be ideal for rapid software development and services that must scale up or down quickly.
That said, in this rapidly evolving environment where flexibility is key, enterprises need to be able to move resources like applications, containers and virtual machines between public and private clouds.
This is where hybrid environments come into play. An encrypted highway of sorts, hybrid cloud allows businesses to meld on-premise, private and public cloud capabilities.
However, until now, it was nearly impossible to move applications across platforms without re-architecting them. One component of tackling this challenge is to implement a unified cloud platform to manage workloads in both environments. Still, to be truly hybrid, businesses need help getting their workloads to flow seamlessly between public and private clouds.
Getting Down to Bare-Metal Level
Over the past year, I have come to realise that enterprises often need much more control over their public cloud resources than we as an industry previously believed. Here’s where utilising public cloud “bare-metal” compute instances with dedicated servers are critical. Bare-metal instances can enable businesses to build their hybrid cloud environments with ease, which typically would have required substantial expertise to master.
Why is this important? The team that manages an on-prem infrastructure may not be the same one managing the cloud infrastructure. This can then result in unnecessary costs and time spent, because different people do essentially the same job on separate cloud architectures.
Instead, businesses should utilise a hybrid cloud platform that would allow on-prem and cloud services to work the same way in both on-prem and bare-metal public cloud instances, all while breaking down silos. IT teams can then be more comfortable to manage their environments, without worrying about unexpected costs or needing to custom-build existing applications. This has proven useful for organisations in sensitive industries such as finance, and even businesses who have to manage demand spikes during the year.
Bare-metal compute offers businesses the opportunity for complete portability and flexibility. It provides superior economics and help teams manage and administer their multiple cloud environments through one unified, seamless IT operating environment, while keeping costs down.
Supporting Future of Work
There are several use cases for businesses to invest in a unified hybrid cloud management tool, and we have seen these come to life this year especially.
A flexible hybrid cloud platform allows businesses to support a remote workforce while adding secure connections for employees working from home. While businesses are beginning to reopen their offices, remote work could be a potential fixture in the future workforce.
An analysis by Deloitte found that up to 4.1 million people in Malaysia – or 26 percent of the workforce – could shift to working remotely over a multi-year time horizon. A hybrid cloud platform can enable organisations to support this future.
External factors such as seasonality, like the upcoming holiday shopping season, may require some businesses to ramp up computing resources. 2020 is also known to be the year of disruption, increasing the impetus for businesses to strengthen disaster recovery and reduce downtime after a disaster. A unified hybrid cloud platform can enable businesses to spin up more capacity and shrink it when they need it, without having to reinvent these environments.
Ensuring Hybrid Success
There is a rule of thumb that Nutanix takes with software development. We focus on getting our product out in front of the customers, letting them try it out, gathering feedback, fixing bugs and iterating quickly to generate improvements. We also discuss directly with customers to identify their pain points and everyday challenges.
Business leaders should tap into this methodology to ensure that hybrid environments deliver the most value to the organisation’s users.
Hybrid clouds are more than an emerging trend. It is a new set of technologies and IT operating models that is reshaping how organisations across different industries will function now and in the future.
11th November is around the corner, it’s time to start clearing out that shopping cart and taking things off your wish list! This year, Shopee’s 11.11 sale brings together over 1200 brands and retailers, as well as 800,000 sellers for some of the biggest bargains and best deals to Malaysians. What’s more the e-Commerce platform is getting a kick start by starting offers early on 3rd November 2020. Their big sale will end with a blast on 11th November 2020.
Shopee is sweetening the bucket this year with millions of products going on offer for as low as 11 sen with even more getting discounts of up to 99%. In addition, Shopee is lowering the minimum spending on an order to RM11 to qualify for free shipping. These offers are coming from brands such as Acer, Carlo Rino, Enfagrow, Netle, OPPO,P&G, Philips, realme, Sa Sa, Skechers, Tefal, Unilever, Watsons and many others. To top it off, many brands will also be giving out additional 50% off vouchers daily which can be used on top of their product discounts.
That’s not all! Shopee’s One Or Not is making a comeback! This round buyers can get items like a Samsung Galaxy Note20, sounds bars, watches, jewellery sets and more. You can even get a brand new Proton X50! All you have to do is pay RM1 for the items you’re interested in. Winners will be announced the following day, those that don’t get the item will have their money refundedto their account. Of course, like previous iterations, you will have to use the RM1 from your Shopee Wallet.
Shopee gamers aren’t being left behind either! Prizes such as a brand new Nintendo Switch as well as up to 11 million Shopee Coins are up for grabs if you can beat the competition. You simply have to play one or more of the many games: Shopee Shake, Shopee Farm, Shopee Bubble, Shopee Poly, Shopee Claw, Shopee Candy and Shopee Lucky Prize.
It’s not all about spending money. Users will also get to interact with local celebrities and win prizes while they shop with Shopee Live and the Shopee 11.11 Big Show. You definitely want to stay tuned to events and lives when you shop to stay entertained and even win some big ticket prizes.
Shopee is also giving a little tip for everyone looking forward to the big 11.11 sale: make sure to put the items that you wish to purchase into the shopping cart to avoid sellouts at 12AM. Do remember to claim for free shipping vouchers as well as the other discount vouchers available. Last but not least, do make sure that there is sufficient amount in your ShopeePay wallet to avoid last-minute top-ups.
The annual 11.11 sale is back on Lazada. This year the sale will include hundreds of exclusive brands with up to 70 million items. Sounds really tempting right? Bet you can’t wait for the big 11.11 sale to happen. Lazada is promising some of the lowest prices ever in Malaysia this 11 November 2020.
“Following LazMall’s upgrade in September, we are excited that hundreds of international and local brands have chosen Lazada as their exclusive e-commerce partner this 11.11, offering amazing discounts across a variety of categories and products to satisfy a wide spectrum of our consumers’ wants and desires. This signifies a growing trust in our platform, and we are excited that we can bring some of the lowest price deals, ‘guaranteed’ this year, backed by our 11 times money-back guarantee. This year, especially during this challenging period, we want to ensure that we help our shoppers maximise their ringgit and get the best value for their money,”
Leo Chow, CEO of Lazada Malaysia
Customers can have the ultimate shopping experience on Lazada as the LazMall provides a variety of brands and products at a claimed unbeatably low price. LazMall brings together some of their largest partners such as OPPO, Lancome, Samsung, Dyson and more are prepared to give shoppers an unforgettable 11.11 experience with some of the lowest deals yet. For those looking for deals on tech, Lazada and their partners are gearing up to offer up to 50% discount on items such as Huawei Mate 30 8GB RAM + 128 ROM smartphone, Edifier X3 True Wireless Stereo Earphone, SUUNTO 9 Baro Copper, Asus 23 Eye Care Gaming Monitor! The deals aren’t ending there – there will be more offers across a large spectrum of categories available.
You don’t even have to wait that long to get your orders as Lazada is offerings a guaranteed 24 hours delivery for the first 50 thousand customers. This is made possible by Lazada’s data-driven logistics team running on Alibaba’s backbone which has helped ensure 50% more efficiency for the delivery time nationwide and particularly in the Klang Valley.
In an effort to keep shopping entertaining, Lazada is continuing their “Shoppertainment” programs filled with special surprises for shoppers. Shoppers will be able to be entertained while getting the best deals with The Lazada 11.11 Super Show and Lazada’s CDO Show. If that’s not enough, there will be multiple other activities in the app such as the Lazada Heartbeat Wallet Contest and LazGames while users can also get even more rebates and rewards with LazCoins.
Lazada is also launching an initiative for CSR programs with one of their brand partners, Colgate-Palmolive, to send smiles and support to those in need via The Lost Food Project. Upon payment, consumers will receive a special thank you note from Colgate, along with a Lazada voucher that can be used for their next purchase on the platform.
