Tag Archives: aws

PayNet Works on Bridging the Digital Divide in Malaysia’s Financial Sector with Program Akar

The digital landscape is rapidly evolving, and the demand for skilled professionals to navigate it is higher than ever. Recognizing this critical need, Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) has launched a groundbreaking initiative called Program Akar. This program aims to bridge the digital skills gap in Malaysia’s financial services sector by equipping the next generation with essential cloud computing knowledge.

The impetus for Program Akar is clear. Research indicates that a staggering 78% of Malaysian employers anticipate needing digitally skilled workers within the next five years. However, access to affordable training remains a hurdle, despite a high level of interest among Malaysians. This gap between desire and opportunity is precisely what Program Akar seeks to address.

Program Akar offers an inclusive and accessible pathway for Malaysians to acquire in-demand cloud skills. It removes the financial barrier to entry by providing the program entirely free of charge. Prior technical experience is not required, making it an attractive option for individuals from diverse backgrounds.

PayNet x AWS reStart Program Akar

The program leverages the expertise of industry leaders. Amazon Web Services (AWS) re/Start, a global training initiative focused on cloud skills development, provides participants with essential resources and technical know-how. PayNet, as the program’s sponsor, champions the integration of industry-specific skills, ensuring graduates are well-equipped for the financial services workforce. World Education Placement Services Sdn Bhd. (WEPS) serves as the program delivery partner, guaranteeing a curriculum that is current, industry-focused, and effectively delivered.

Program Akar equips participants with a solid foundation in cloud computing and digital payments, preparing them for future career opportunities. Through a rigorous 47-day training course, participants delve into core areas like programming, networking, security, and databases, all from an AWS cloud-centric perspective.

This foundational training is complemented by the industry-recognized AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification Exam, validating participants’ newly acquired skills and demonstrating their commitment to cloud computing.

Program Akar extends beyond skills development by actively supporting graduates in securing employment within the Malaysian financial services sector. PayNet and WEPS connect program graduates with potential employers, facilitating placements in roles like cloud operations, site reliability, infrastructure support, and technical business support functions.

Program Akar exemplifies the power of collaboration. PayNet’s vision and financial backing are critical elements, as are the expertise of AWS re/Start and the program delivery proficiency of WEPS. This collaborative approach ensures participants receive high-quality training and industry-relevant skills, ultimately boosting their employability.

The program’s initial cohort of 50 participants will begin their journey in July 2024, commencing their training at the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU). Leading financial institutions such as Bank Negara, Maybank, Public Bank, Hong Leong Bank, and Bank Islam have already expressed interest in providing internship opportunities for graduates, further solidifying the program’s link to the industry it aims to serve.

With the proven success of AWS re/Start programs worldwide, connecting over 98% of graduates with job interview opportunities, Program Akar holds significant promise for Malaysia’s digital future. It fosters a diverse pool of cloud-skilled talent, empowering individuals while enabling the financial services sector to embrace new technologies and enhance its competitiveness. Program Akar is not just a skills development initiative; it’s a bridge towards a thriving digital economy fueled by a skilled and motivated workforce.

Axrail Collaborates with AWS & Phison in Launching Southeast Asia’s First Gen AI Lab

Axrail, a leading Malaysian IT solutions provider, has taken a groundbreaking step towards accelerating AI adoption in the region. The company, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Phison, has launched the first-of-its-kind Generative AI (Gen AI) Lab in Southeast Asia.

Axrail Gen AI Lab Pic 2

This state-of-the-art facility signifies a major leap forward for Malaysian businesses looking to leverage the power of AI. Here’s how the Gen AI Lab empowers innovation and shapes the future of tech skills in Malaysia:

A Hub for Cutting-Edge Solutions

The Gen AI Lab brings together the expertise of three industry heavyweights. Axrail’s proven track record in AI implementation combines with AWS’s industry-leading cloud solutions, including Amazon Bedrock – a service offering access to high-performing AI models. Phison’s innovative aiDAPTIV+ technology adds an on-premise dimension to the mix. This collaborative environment fosters the development of comprehensive, end-to-end generative AI solutions, catering to both cloud and on-premise needs.

Fast-Tracking AI Adoption for Businesses

The Gen AI Lab isn’t just about showcasing cutting-edge technology; it’s designed to be a practical resource for businesses. The “sandbox” environment allows companies to experiment with AI applications and explore their potential to transform business operations. This hands-on approach helps companies to build the capabilities needed to extract value from data and increase efficiency across various functions.

Empowering Malaysian Businesses, Big and Small

Axrail is particularly focused on accelerating AI adoption among Malaysian SMEs. The upcoming AWS Region in Malaysia will provide crucial benefits like data residency, low latency, and robust cloud services, making AI solutions even more accessible. With the Gen AI Lab serving as a launchpad, Malaysian businesses of all sizes will have the opportunity to reimagine their operations using AI and achieve future-proof growth.

Axrail Gen AI Lab Pic 1

Boosting Malaysia’s Tech Skills Landscape

The Gen AI Lab isn’t just about technology; it’s about people. By fostering a collaborative environment for AI development and experimentation, Axrail is contributing to the growth of a skilled AI workforce in Malaysia. This aligns perfectly with the country’s Digital Economy Blueprint, which prioritizes digital transformation and establishing Malaysia as a regional leader in the digital arena. The complimentary half-day sharing session planned for July 18th is a testament to Axrail’s commitment to knowledge sharing and empowering Malaysians to navigate the exciting world of AI.

The Gen AI Lab: A Springboard for the Future

Axrail’s Gen AI Lab marks a significant milestone for Malaysia’s tech landscape. This collaborative effort positions the nation at the forefront of AI innovation, empowering businesses to thrive and nurturing a future generation of tech talent. Malaysia’s focus on building a digital economy that is not only focused on the needs of an increasingly digital market but also on the skillsets needed to adopt and adapt to a rapidly evolving market aligns with the efforts that we see from the country’s digital pioneers like Axrail. The Gen AI Lab aligns with the recent rhetoric and push by the government to adopt and upskill to make the country a competitive lifeline for the Southeast Asian Region’s digital development.

AWS Announces New Thailand Region

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced a significant investment in Thailand’s digital future. The company plans to launch a new AWS Asia Pacific (Bangkok) Region by early 2025, accompanied by a US$5 billion investment in the country by 2037. This move signifies a major commitment to supporting Thailand’s “Ignite Thailand” ambition and its cloud-first approach to economic growth.

Expanding Infrastructure and Empowering Innovation

The new AWS Region will join existing infrastructure like CloudFront edge locations, Outposts, and Local Zones. This expanded presence offers several benefits. Customers with data residency preferences can store their data securely within Thailand’s borders. The new Region also promises reduced latency, improving application performance and user experience for cloud-based services across the country. Furthermore, it enhances the overall availability of cloud services, catering to the growing demand for these technologies across Southeast Asia.

Thailand AWS Region
Image Generated with Microsoft Co-pilot

This infrastructure boost aligns perfectly with Thailand’s “Ignite Thailand” plan, which aims to establish the nation as a regional leader in digital innovation. The new Region will empower startups, businesses, and government organizations to leverage cutting-edge technologies like generative AI, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Positive Impact on Businesses and the Economy

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin welcomed the investment, highlighting its role in propelling Thailand’s digital transformation journey. He emphasized how this move strengthens national infrastructure, fosters business growth, and aligns with the Cloud First initiative. The AWS Region is expected to create economic opportunities by fostering innovation and attracting investments, generating new business opportunities across various sectors. Additionally, training programs offered by AWS will equip Thailand’s workforce with the necessary digital skills to thrive in the digital age. This increased accessibility of cloud technologies is expected to stimulate innovation across various industries.

Several prominent Thai organizations have already embraced AWS cloud services to drive their digital transformation journeys. Financial institutions like the Bank of Ayudhya leverage AWS for data analytics and AI to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency. Energy companies like PTG Energy utilize AWS for their core applications, with plans to migrate their point-of-sale system for improved performance. Manufacturing giants like PTT Global Chemical leverage AWS to develop a data platform and implement ML operations, enhancing production efficiency. Media organizations like Bangkok Biz News utilize AWS to personalize content and drive media team efficiency. Startups like Botnoi Voice leverage AWS for its text-to-speech AI bot, creating high-quality Thai language voice synthesis.

Despite the growing adoption of AI, Thailand faces a looming skills gap. AWS is committed to bridging this gap through several initiatives. Since 2017, AWS has trained over 50,000 individuals in cloud skills, with a target of reaching 100,000 by 2026. Educational partnerships with Thai universities like Chulalongkorn University equip students with industry-recognized cloud certifications, preparing them for the digital workforce. Additionally, the “AI Ready” initiative offers free training courses on AI and generative AI for individuals with varying technical backgrounds.

Looking Forward: A Brighter Digital Future

The launch of the AWS Thailand Region, coupled with AWS’s commitment to skills development, marks a significant step forward for Thailand’s digital transformation journey. Businesses and organizations across industries will benefit from enhanced cloud infrastructure and access to advanced technologies. By fostering a skilled workforce, Thailand is well-positioned to solidify its place as a leader in Southeast Asia’s digital future.

AWS Malaysia Region to Go Live in 2024

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is preparing to go live with its Malaysia AWS Region. The eagerly awaited AWS Region in Malaysia is now confirmed to go live in 2024. This is part of AWS’s RM25.5 billion (USD$5.39 billion) investment pledge, which aimed to construct a brand-new AWS Region in Malaysia by 2037. This monumental step will provide a slew of benefits for developers, startups, enterprises, educational institutions, and various organizations.

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Photo by Zukiman Mohamad on Pexels.com

The forthcoming AWS Region is set to play a crucial role in driving Malaysia’s digitization efforts and meeting the surging demand for cloud services. It will also be a hub for innovation in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. An array of cutting-edge technologies such as generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things will be at the fingertips of startups, small to mid-sized businesses, enterprises, and public sector organizations. The announcement also aligns with the Malaysian government’s recent strategic Madani Economy Framework, which strives to enhance the well-being of all Malaysians by 2030.

The new AWS Region also brings a significant advantage for customers with data residency preferences, enabling secure data storage within Malaysia, faster response times, and catering to the escalating demand for cloud services in the region.

In-Person Support for Local Visionaries & AWS Partners

To further support Malaysia’s digital transformation, AWS opened a new office in Kuala Lumpur on June 1, 2023. This state-of-the-art facility spans over 32,000 square feet, designed to encourage agile work, lifelong learning, and collaboration. It is primed to serve as an innovation hub, deepening relationships with customers and partners.

The Malaysian team is diverse and features experts from different fields who are able to support the company’s Malaysian clientele remotely and in person. Their focus is on empowering customers and AWS Partners of all sizes. Some prominent names include Al Rajhi Bank, Bank Islam, Cancer Research Malaysia, the Department of Polytechnic and Community College Education (DPCCE), the Department of Statistics Malaysia, Maxis, and PETRONAS.

Having a diverse team, AWS has been able to help its clientele and partners drive innovation and transformation in their respective fields. For instance, Pos Malaysia Berhad (Pos Malaysia), the nation’s postal and courier service provider, has embraced AWS as part of its ambitious transformation plan. This includes migrating its IT infrastructure to AWS, which has streamlined operations, reduced IT costs by 50%, and introduced new, customer-centric solutions.

The partnership between PETRONAS, Gentari Sdn Bhd (Gentari), Amazon, and AWS is set to accelerate sustainability and decarbonization efforts. Their plan includes the construction of a state-of-the-art facility incorporating advanced technology, robotics, and automation, similar to what’s used in Amazon’s facilities. PETRONAS will continue leveraging AWS technologies to improve and expand existing solutions like SETEL and STEAR.

Generative AI, with its ability to create new content and ideas, is making significant inroads in Malaysia. One of AWS’s partners, 123RF, a major digital image stock agency, has introduced an AI image generation service in collaboration with AWS. This service allows users to create custom images from text prompts and has led to a 20% increase in licensing rates for AI-generated content.

Creating a More Diversely Accessible Launchpad for Malaysia’s Digital Ambitions

The launch of the AWS Malaysia Region in 2024 is set to become a catalyst in Malaysia’s journey toward becoming a regional leader in digital technology. AWS’s commitment, stretching back to 2016, underscores its dedication to supporting Malaysia’s digital transformation, fostering innovation, and building a brighter future for Malaysians.

The company has also been instrumental in the upskilling of Malaysians. They have trained over 50,000 individuals in cloud skills since 2017. Through initiatives like the AWS re/Start program and AWS Academy, they offer free cloud computing skills development and job training. This equips learners for essential roles in the cloud computing industry, connecting them with employment opportunities.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Brings Generative AI Innovations to their Service Stack

It seems like Generative AI isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is bringing a whole suite of Generative AI innovations to its services stack. These innovations are set to empower organizations of all sizes, enabling them to develop cutting-edge generative AI applications, enhance employee productivity, and transform their businesses.

Amazon Bedrock Lays the Foundations for Wider Generative AI Applications & Adoption

Leading the charge is Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that simplifies the development of generative AI applications. This service offers a variety of foundation models (FMs) from top AI companies, such as AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Stability AI, and Amazon. These FMs are versatile and can be applied to a wide range of use cases, from content creation to drug discovery.

One key challenge for businesses interested in adopting generative AI has been finding the right FM for their specific needs. Amazon Bedrock solves this problem by providing access to a diverse selection of FMs via a single application programming interface (API). It also removes the need for specialised hardware deployments. This streamlines the process and eliminates the complexity of managing multiple models and infrastructures.

Unlocking the Power of Generative AI Through Amazon Titan Embeddings

One of the highlights is the general availability of Amazon Titan Embeddings. This family of models, created and pre-trained by AWS, includes a large language model (LLM) known as Amazon Titan Embeddings. This LLM converts text into numerical representations called embeddings, which are crucial for tasks like search, personalization, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

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What sets Amazon Titan Embeddings apart is its ability to support more than 25 languages and handle context lengths of up to 8,192 tokens. This makes it highly versatile and suitable for various applications, from processing single words to entire documents. Its output vectors, boasting 1,536 dimensions, ensure both accuracy and low-latency performance.

Integration with Meta’s Llama 2

In the coming weeks, Amazon Bedrock will also offer Llama 2, Meta’s latest large language model. Llama 2 models come with significant enhancements, having been trained on 40% more data and featuring a longer context length of 4,000 tokens. These improvements make Llama 2 ideal for dialogue-based applications, providing fast responses on AWS infrastructure without the need for complex setup and management.

Securely Customise Amazon CodeWhisperer Suggestions with Your Own Codebase

For developers, Amazon CodeWhisperer has been a game-changer. This AI-powered coding companion is trained on billions of lines of Amazon and publicly available code, making it a valuable tool for improving developer productivity. Now, developers can securely customize CodeWhisperer’s code suggestions using their private codebase, addressing the challenges of working with internal, proprietary code.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This customization capability streamlines the process of finding and incorporating internal code into applications. Developers save time, as they no longer need to manually search through extensive internal code repositories. Additionally, administrators can centrally manage customizations, ensuring adherence to quality and security standards.

Generative Business Intelligence with Amazon QuickSight

Amazon QuickSight, a unified business intelligence (BI) service, is introducing Generative BI authoring capabilities. These capabilities go beyond answering structured queries and allow business analysts to easily create and customize visuals using natural-language commands. Analysts can describe their desired outcome, and QuickSight generates compelling visuals, reducing the time spent on manual tasks like data source identification and visualization creation.

Availability

Amazon Bedrock is now generally available, offering businesses the opportunity to leverage the power of generative AI. Amazon Titan Embeddings is also available, while Llama 2 is set to launch in the next few weeks. Customizations for Amazon CodeWhisperer are coming soon while Generative BI authoring capabilities in Amazon QuickSight are already available on AWS.

Pos Malaysia Digitization Efforts Enhances Parcel Delivery Offering with Amazon Web Services

Malaysia’s national postal and courier service is going full monty with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to achieve its digitization goals. The drive for digitization and agility comes as a multi-year plan that was initiated back in 2019. Plans were put into high gear with the sudden onset of the pandemic later that year. However, the pandemic also saw an increase in parcel deliveries driven by increased transaction volumes on e-commerce platforms.

Pos Malaysia
Source: Pos Malaysia

With that in mind, Pos Malaysia has already rolled out a number of customer-facing and internal digital initiatives to provide better service for their customers. Having already experienced the effects of an estimated 24% growth in the e-commerce sector during the COVID lockdown, the company is looking to further improve their service further. To date, the company has already migrated 60 critical applications which include parcel tracking, point-of-sale retail, SAP, supply chain, mail tracking, and human resources to the cloud with Amazon Web Services. They are now in the process of migrating the remaining workloads and applications to AWS by 2023.

Pos Malaysia’s digitization efforts will utilise Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (ECC) which provides secure, resizable compute capacity. Most importantly, it will allow Pos Malaysia to dynamically scale to meet customer needs during periods of increased demand. It will also allow them to more efficiently manage resources for day-to-day operations. The scalability will be a cornerstone of Pos Malaysia’s ability to provide frictionless deliveries during peak periods.


Eric Conrad Regional Managing Director Worldwide Public Sector ASEAN AWS profile
Source: AWS

“Pos Malaysia’s digital transformation with AWS is a great example of how a traditional last-mile
logistics business can simplify, modernize, innovate, and scale. Using AWS, Pos Malaysia can capture
growth opportunities in e-commerce as demand for online shopping accelerated across Southeast
Asia during the pandemic. Pos Malaysia is delivering goods into the hands of customers in a cost-
effective, efficient, and agile manner, especially during peak periods with high parcel volumes.”

Eric Conrad, Regional Managing Director of
Worldwide Public Sector, ASEAN at AWS


AWS is will become the home of Pos Malaysia’s central data repository for an integrated data platform. This data will be able to provide insights which will enable them to better understand customer demands, find delivery efficiencies and improve operations across the country. They will be able to do this using AWS services like SageMaker which will allow the company to build, train and deploy machine learning models for virtually any use case. This will allow Pos Malaysia to build data-driven models that will be able to predict peak periods. This will allow the company to proactively deploy more staff and vehicles to ensure smooth delivery.

Razer Banks on Better, More Traceable Sustainability with Restorify

Sustainability is all the rage in the tech industry, with more companies committing to long-term sustainability plans. Razer is no different when it comes to that with lofty goals to become a nett zero carbon company by 2030. However, in working towards that, the company has also realised that it is currently difficult for businesses to be sustainable and transparent. This is further complicated by a system which values and measures carbon offsets and credits by the metric ton.

Restorify 2

With that realisation, Razer Fintech is working with partners such as GoNetZero, ESGpedia and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to bring Restorify. Restorify is Razer’s answer to creating a more sustainable e-commerce platform which is also transparent. Restorify also removes the barrier of needing to purchase metric tonnes of carbon credit with a more fractionalised approach, allowing every purchase to have a quantified carbon offset. This approach allows customers and e-commerce partners to be part of the equation contrasting vastly with the current state of relying solely on companies.

Restorify is looking to foster a more proactive mindset in consumers when it comes to purchasing. With the smaller denominations of carbon offset, it allows users and consumers to make carbon offsets a part of their daily lives. In an age where e-commerce has become the go-to platform for shopping, it makes sense as one of the main touchpoints to drive greener habits.

That said, carbon credits and offsets haven’t had the best reputation with Greenwashing and companies artificially inflating their carbon offsets. To combat this, Razer Fintech is partnering with agencies like GoNetZero and ESGPedia to ensure the quality and traceability of the carbon offsets offered on Restorify. It is hoped that the traceable carbon neutral shopping carts will help users and consumers be more aware of their carbon footprint as we shop.

Restorify 1

They will receive a certificate detailing the total amount of carbon emissions that have been offset by their purchase, the kinds of projects the credits have suppported as well as the certification standard. These individualised fractionalized transactions are digitally recorded into ESGpedia’s registry where you’ll be able to check your own individualised carbon offset.

Encouraging Businesses to Adopt More Accountable Sustainability

It’s not all about sharing the responsibility with consumers with Razer’s Restorify. It also aims to empower businesses with a more tangible pathway to evaluate and put into action plans in their commitment to become more sustainable. Restorify itself will provide businesses a pathway to evaluate the environmental impact of their products and business. They will be able to leverage ECOLOGO Certification, Environmental Product Declaration Certification, or Product Carbon Footprint Verification using UL Solutions.

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Razer is also working to bring Restorify and its features will be made available for businesses to integrate into existing platforms. In addition, Razer will be working with its supply chain partners and more than 50,000 merchants in Razer Fintech’s network to support their transition to nett zero carbon emissions at no additional cost. Restorify will also be available in over 150 countries through AWS.

Continuing the Pace of Government Innovation in a Post-Pandemic World

The unprecedented disruption the world faced during the past two years forced governments to rewrite the rulebook on how they serve their citizens. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector organizations across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) had to act quickly to find digital solutions to everyday challenges to keep citizens safe and productive. Enabled by cloud technology, digitized government agencies became better equipped to offer citizen, educational, and healthcare services, which helped improve and even save lives. 

As we emerge from the crisis, the experience, momentum, and lessons learned have heightened potential for leaders to drive digitization as a priority to deliver their national agendas. Public sector organizations across APJ are pivoting from the pandemic and looking ahead to how digital transformation enabled by cloud can help to seize opportunities to deliver faster, more innovative, and modernized citizen services.

Scaling Digitization for Public Sector Organizations

According to a Gartner survey in 2021, digitally advanced government organizations realize more benefits of modernization, including higher efficiency, cost reductions, greater workforce productivity, compliance, and transparency. Research by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Economics shows that AWS customers in ASEAN – across commercial and public sectors – who migrated to AWS are seeing an acceleration in innovation, with an approximate 29% reduction in time-to-market for new features and applications, about 41% increase in employee efficiency, and an improvement of about 37% in operational resiliency through less downtime of services.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

In the last year, AWS has signed six government cloud services agreements across APJ to boost digitization, supporting these governments with our network of local partners as they move their customers and themselves to the cloud, including Malaysia, and Thailand in ASEAN. These initiatives help governments save lives, provide critical citizen services, and support learner outcomes – ultimately changing the way society engages, educates, and does business for good. They also enable opportunities for local businesses on the AWS Partner Network to work closely with public sector customers to solve some of the biggest community challenges.

Enabling Security, Resilience, and Continuity through the Cloud

Aside from accelerating the speed and scale of digitization, leveraging the cloud also ensures security, resilience, and continuity. This creates a safe and reliable environment for students to learn, employees to work remotely, and citizens to access government services and healthcare.

In Indonesia, when the Bali Provincial Government launched its Smart Island initiative to transform the Indonesian island into a digital province, the Communication, Information, and Statistics Agency of Bali (Diskominfos) migrated its data to AWS cloud from an on-premises infrastructure. Launching an attendance system using machine learning technology, it enabled 19,820 public service employees to sign in to the office virtually, saving almost 69% in monthly costs for its attendance system. Many of Bali’s other critical applications are also built using AWS solutions, including a traditional village census system, a health facility oxygen monitoring system, and an asset management system.

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Photo by panumas nikhomkhai on Pexels.com

By digitally transforming on the cloud, the public sector can rapidly scale services to meet spikes in demand, wind-down operations to reduce costs, and innovate widely using the latest cloud technology.

More Digital Skills Needed to Support Digitization

As the digitization momentum accelerates, governments across APJ will also need to prioritize digital skills training for their workforce in order to unlock the cloud’s full potential. The recent “Building Skills for the Changing Workforce” report produced by AWS and AlphaBeta shows that Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea will need to train an estimated 86 million more workers in digital skills collectively over the next year to keep pace with technological advancements – equivalent to 14% of their current total workforce. The report also noted that three of the five most demanded digital skills by 2025 will be cloud-related.

In Thailand, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is collaborating with AWS to train more than 1,200 public sector employees with cloud skills, so they can implement cloud technologies at scale, make better data-driven business decisions, and innovate new services to drive improved outcomes for citizens. In Indonesia, its Information and Communication Technology Training and Development Center (BPPTIK Kominfo) worked with AWS to get its employees up to speed on cloud knowledge, in support of Indonesia’s goal of creating a pool of about 9 million digital professionals by 2030 as part of its national digital information agenda. And in Malaysia, AWS has worked to provide cloud training for the Malaysian Administration Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) to help accelerate their cloud use and fulfil mission-critical needs.  This is in addition to the training of over 3.5 million users across Asia Pacific since 2018.

crop unrecognizable audio engineer working on console and using laptop
Photo by Dayvison de Oliveira Silva on Pexels.com

Looking ahead, we will need to move beyond business as usual to close the skills gap and create conditions for successful digitization. Governments, educators, and industries across APJ will need to collaborate more closely than ever to give all individuals the opportunity to build and deepen their digital skills that will support digitization momentum now and in the future.

Closer Collaboration Needed to Unlock the Potential of APJ

As societies and communities across APJ continue to evolve, organizations of all kinds – from governments to industries to non-profits – will need to come together to solve some of the biggest issues we are facing, from helping marginalized communities to addressing climate change.

This is why AWS launched Cloud Innovation Centers (CIC), to serve as a platform for public and private sector organizations to collaborate, solve challenges, and test new ideas with AWS’s technology expertise. In Singapore, AWS is partnering with East Coast Town Council and Accenture on a six-month pilot to deploy cloud-powered sustainability solutions in municipal estate management, to support Singapore’s move towards its net zero carbon emissions goal by 2040.

We encourage collaborations between governments, industry, and cloud services providers to enable long-term scaling of digital programs. The momentum has been established, so let’s continue to ride the wave and work together to keep digitization at the forefront of the region’s push for progress as we pivot from pandemic to prosperity.

The Cloud and the Opportunity Ahead

A lot of what we do now is underpinned by the cloud, and “cloud” has increasingly become a tech buzzword. There are many reasons there is buzz around the cloud, and I will expand on some of them here.

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Photo by Redd Angelo on StockSnap

Cloud democratises access to the kind of computing power that was previously only accessible to large corporations with deep pockets. What used to require a $100 million investment can now be achieved on the cloud for as little as $26 a year. And, by not spending time and resources on traditional IT infrastructure, companies using the cloud can build faster, better, and cheaper – in more sustainable ways. Cloud is flexible, agile, scalable, and has the potential to impact all industries in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago across healthcare, finance, agriculture, education, and sustainability, to name a few. And as the demand for cloud computing grows, so does the demand for cloud-skilled workers. It has been predicted that there will be a significant skills gap by 2025 unless more is done to train, retrain, and upskill the region’s workforce.

Driving digital transformation and harnessing data

In today’s digital economy, it’s hard to find an industry that doesn’t use cloud applications. From accelerating medical research, improving crop yields in developing economies, and driving sustainability, to tracking bush fires, the cloud is changing the way we live, work, and play. Digital transformation is both an agent of change and a facilitator of it, and some of the biggest disruptions have been in the banking sector as we change the way we bank. There are more than 50 digital banks across Asia, with more on the way, helping drive financial inclusion in developing countries using the cloud. Today’s digital bank customers have high expectations for convenience, enhanced user experience, and personalisation, and access to the cloud has enabled these banks to innovate to meet these demands quickly and at low cost.

The pandemic has accelerated disruption and cloud adoption, and the volume of data produced as industries move to the cloud is growing rapidly. This data holds the potential for insights that can inform business strategies and is a resource that can’t be ignored. While some businesses are already leveraging data to drive decisions, gain competitive advantage, and fuel the next generation of innovation and success, more will do so in the coming year as business leaders start to understand the potential that cloud computing presents.

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Photo by Lukas from Pexels

Data and analytics will become this decade’s priorities, and we must be ready with the necessary tools, skills, and expertise to tap into this resource to deliver efficiency and unlock experimentation. For many organisations, data is their most valuable asset, and we are helping them move data to the cloud, modernise applications, build next-generation secure data platforms, and build data lakes to collect real-time data. And, using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, these organisations can gain real-time actionable insights, results, and predictions to improve decision making.

The digital skills gap

The rapid evolution of cloud technology and widespread adoption of cloud computing will require a workforce that has the right data and cloud skills, and across Asia, the supply of digitally skilled workers is nowhere near the demand. COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of cloud tech which meant the skills gap widened as the global talent landscape transformed. Digital workers in Asia today know they will need advanced digital skills – almost half believe cloud computing skills will be required in their jobs within just four years.

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Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

Broadening the skills base of workers globally is vital for economic growth, resiliency, and prosperity, and the social implications of failing to act include rising income disparity and more unemployment. Since COVID-19, there has been mass labour market displacement with job losses predicted to far exceed the Global Financial Crisis, and unemployment is forecasted to be at its highest since the Great Depression. With this in mind, governments around the world are implementing national policies on skilling and laying the building blocks for reforms, but more needs to be done by the private sector. Employers need to help current workers upskill, educational institutes need to adopt curricula that provide relevant skills, and workers across all fields need to seize the opportunity to learn new digital skills.

AWS is invested in the future

AWS is committed to a dynamic and entrepreneurial IT sector and supporting economic growth globally, and we hope to build resilience into the digital-skilled workforce and help bridge the skills gap. Globally, we are committed to helping 29 million people grow their technical skills with free cloud computing training by 2025. We have made over 500 free, on-demand, courses available online, with many courses available in local languages such as Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, as well as interactive labs and virtual day-long training sessions through AWS Training and Certification. We are also working with educational institutes around the region to develop programmes that provide students with relevant in-demand cloud tech skills.

The world’s workforce needs a sustainable future, and Amazon is committed to helping provide this by making more than 91 renewable energy investments around the world and committing to Amazon’s Climate Pledge to be a net-zero carbon business by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, and to be on 100% renewable energy by 2025.

The cloud has the power to do a lot of good, but we must be prepared to harness that power with a skilled workforce that can meet the challenge to innovate at exponential speed. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic with new ways of operating, working, and living being adopted, cloud will remain at the forefront of our digital lives.

A Necessity to Optimise & Leverage The Cloud – Lessons From Carsome and 500 Startups

Startups have become the norm nowadays. They’ve become a hallmark for not just the tech industry but also a thriving economy. However, when it comes down to it, the startup arena can also become one of the most brutal, unforgiving arenas any founder or individual can find themselves. The world has its eyes on Southeast Asia – Malaysia included – as its startup ecosystem teeters on the verge of another boom. The start-up arena has become one of the largest spaces for investment in the region, attracting some USD$1.48 billion in just Q1 of 2021 alone according to CB Insights. A significant chunk of 40.6% of this investment is driven by early-stage deals.

man in black crew neck t shirt sitting beside woman in gray crew neck t shirt
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So, the big question is, what do we do with this data? We’ve heard tonnes of startup stories – so, we’re offering a slightly different perspective. Let’s talk about the tech. Yes, not every startup is an app or tech-related. However, with the rapidly changing needs and challenges now, it has become even more important for startups to be able to adapt and react accordingly – in a word – AGILE. Again, it’s a term we’ve heard or read countless times. That said, it’s become even more important now that they do – it could be the difference between survival and disappearing into the ether.

Fail Efficiently, Innovate Quickly

Like a wise woman once sang – “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start…”. The world as we know it has changed over the past few decades. In fact, it’s changed in the past few years! The costs of starting a startup have reduced from USD$5 million in 1999 to just over USD$50,000 in 2010 and continue to decline.

The biggest difference? The Cloud.  Cloud computing has significantly reduced the capital needed to start-up enterprises and it will continue to do so. Companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) are enabling agility and cost-efficiency. They are enabling startups to take off with no upfront costs but most importantly they encourage startups to experiment and fail fast – allowing them to move forward with innovating their next approach. Each failure allows startups to learn, optimise and eventually succeed.

“The great thing about startups is the ability to start small and learn as you go. So long as you get the foundations right – such as ensuring you are secure by design from the outset – it won’t matter so much if you make the odd misstep along the way, because the consequences will be small.”

Digbijoy Shukla, Business Development Lead, Startup Business Development ASEAN, AWS
Digbijoy Shukla Business Development Lead Startup Business Development ASEAN AWS

These flexibilities are key in startups as it goes without saying – the road to their success is how fast they are able to present and prove their concept. The ability to provision and decommission servers and technological resources quickly and efficiently will help these start-ups further optimise and conserve resources. With this inherent efficiency built in it falls to start-ups and their management to take advantage of the tools at their fingertips to enhance their offering, evolve their approach and embrace the insights they are privy to.

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Source: Adobe Stock

The Right Cloud Computing Partners can determine the Success of Startups

The ability to fail fast and experiment comes secondary to the tools any startup has at its disposal. Cloud computing continues to be a necessity simply because of its robust offerings. Going digital is no more about changing typewriters to desktops, it’s about a set of tools that allow you to create, adapt and react to ensure that the company is meeting its clients’ and customers’ needs.

Khailee Ng Managing Partner 500 Startups

“It’s critical to align yourself with the right partners and support as early as possible. Folks like 500 Startups and AWS aren’t here to be new and trendy, we’ve been part of the core ecosystem infrastructure since the early days.”

Khailee Ng, Managing Partner, 500 Startups

Choosing the right cloud, then, is an essential part of a start-up’s success. It’s like choosing the right business partner, you need someone who believes in your vision and complements your skills with the correct tools. With the number of Cloud providers continually increasing, start-ups are forced to make a choice based on the needs and skill level of their organisation.

In our session with AWS, Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Startups, stressed that getting the right partner can be akin to getting that first investment. Programs like AWS Activate enable startups to continue experimenting and functioning while upskilling and adapting. It creates a simultaneous process in which founders, staff and enablers are continually interacting and improving. In fact, programmes like AWS Activate essentially provide startups with an infusion of not just credits for experimentation and setting up, it provides a platform for startups to learn and implement the relevant knowledge for their success. AWS also provides technical support which allows non-technical founders to also benefit.

Scale, Pivot and React with Actionable Insights from the Cloud

Being on the Cloud is not always about cost or efficiency. It’s about the amount of data that will be available from the experimentation and even day to day usage of services and products. The data and insights that it gives will invariably determine the direction in which the startup can grow. In fact, if utilised properly, this data can even provide insights into new niches and services that can grow the startup’s user base and open new markets.

Eric Cheng Co founder CEO Carsome

In the initial six months, we were a car listings site. We pivoted the business in 2016, based on the data. We then extended our sales online, with customer benefits such as five days money back guarantee. Our (sales) pickup rate became much stronger, as we saw the same level of sales (as what we experienced) before the lockdowns. It’s really all about navigating successfully through this crisis.”

Eric Cheng, Co-Founder and CEO of Carsome, an integrated car e-commerce platform
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Source: Adobe Stock

Take, for instance, Malaysian born startup – Carsome which started as a platform for searching for second-hand cars. The company ended up pivoting to complement its pre-existing service. They expanded to include the sales and purchase of these vehicles based on insights derived from the data generated by their users. They were able to gain insights that highlighted a niche that they could occupy; more importantly, it complemented their existing product. With these insights, they were quickly able to adapt, react and develop an offering that enhanced their product and led to exponential growth. They continue to use this data to enhance their service and ensure user happiness.

Of course, the Cloud doesn’t just provide for actionable insights and agility. It’s also about offloading mundane tasks and leveraging offerings like AWS Sagemaker. Implementing AI and Machine Learning in taking over tasks that can and should be automated will allow startups to focus their workforce on more pertinent tasks that will allow them to differentiate themselves further. Focusing on what is important will allow startups to eventually be able to scale. Of course, this doesn’t mean that vital tasks are offloaded, but it does mean that startups are able to maximise efficiency and optimise their workforce allowing them to flourish.

The Cloud Is Not the Future, It is Now

We keep hearing that the Cloud is the future. In truth, startups and companies that fail to adopt and adapt are bound to be held back by their own inefficiencies and stigmas. It is crucial that we realise that the Cloud is now – it’s not the future; at least, not anymore. Leveraging the Cloud and its many tools is a pivotal skill that startups need to develop. In fact, it would not be unfounded to say that it is a skill that all organisations should already be developing.

We are at a stage in the world where technology has already proliferated every aspect of our lives; from our entertainment to our work and even in our day-to-day lives. Why then are we hesitant to adopt it at scale to increase our own efficiencies and productivity? Why are we hesitant to put technology – already available – to use to increase profitability?

Startups cannot wait to adopt Cloud computing anymore. In fact, they are setting themselves up for failure without the proper Cloud and the willingness to learn how to use it. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to put technology to work for you in this day.