W.Media (Singapore), in collaboration with OPEN-TEC and 17 enterprises in Asia, has launched THCDC 2019, with aim to attract business opportunities and tech knowledge into Thailand, as well as strengthen Thai IT infrastructure.

BANGKOK, Thailand, September 24th, 2019 – OPEN-TEC (Thai tech platform) and WMedia Pte. Ltd. (W.Media) (Singapore platform) reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July, 2019 to foster collaboration in Cross Country Tech Knowledge Base. Execution has been initiated in a form of the event “Thailand Cloud & Datacenter Convention 2019” (THCDC 2019), to be held on November 6th, 2019 at Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit. The objective of this joint project is to promote technology ecosystem collaboration among members in ASEAN from both platforms. The four major mutual interests include Cross-Border Activities, Cross-Ecosystem, Cross-Platform, and Cross-Media. 

This joint convention aims to highlight Thailand as an emerging key market that plays an important role in driving economic growth, and as an ideal digital hub in ASEAN. With its 17 sponsors and supportive strategic partners in Thailand and ASEAN, W.Media will gather key players and providers in the industries to share insights about cloud, data center, cybersecurity, and technology trends in the digital era, to develop solid foundations in term of infrastructure, technology and workforce in accordance with digital economy. Mr. Vincent Liew, Founder and Director of W.Media from Singapore, shared his vision for the technology demand in the future. “Infrastructure investments by data center operators, OTT providers, cloud service providers, Gaming, Banking and Finance and Government sectors, for example, are being driven by ever-increasing demand for low latency connectivity, storage capacity and computing power via mission critical cloud-based applications,” he said.

According to a study by Frost & Sullivan, global traffic between data centers will grow by 28% annually between 2018 and 2021, a higher growth rate than the traffic between data centers and the users, which is projected at 24%. This trend has been driven by CDNs and the need to disseminate large volumes of static content closer to the user, such as images and video. The ASEAN data center market is set to grow at a CAGR of 16.1% over the next 5 years. Emerging markets, Indonesia and Thailand, are expected to be key growth engines in ASEAN. 

This resonates with Thailand’s push for Industry 4.0 across multiple industries including manufacturing, logistics, tourism and more. The route to digital transformation by corporations in Thailand aims to cope with changing customer behavior and intense competition from global players. To support digitization, corporations will need to focus on building a strong and agile IT infrastructure, leading to the need for cutting edge strategy and technologies in cloud, data centers, and connectivity.

“W.Media is a global marketing agency that specializes in the cloud and data center industry. Its flagship series of Cloud & Datacenter Conventions (CDC) span across ASEAN and South Korea, and have witnessed strong growth in key markets, including Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. The success of W.Media lies with its strong connections and understanding of the industry, which enable it to build market confidence of global business and infrastructure leaders in locations where CDCs are,” Vincent Liew said.

On behalf of OPEN-TEC (Tech Knowledge Sharing Platform), which is inspired by TCC Technology, Mrs. Waleeporn Sayasit, TCCtech Corporate Communications Director, stated that “Cloud & Datacenter Convention Thailand 2019 emphasizes the continuity of collaboration. We OPEN-TEC are very honored to be part of THCDC 2019 to attract valuable knowledge into Thailand, and to welcome the regional networking community that aims to work together to strengthen the business and technology workforce in Thailand. Nowadays, each country seeks the global partnership in order to collaborate, co-create projects to amplify the positive effects on the industries, and finally contribute sustainable society. I believe that the international knowledge sharing and learning convention is one of the most important tools to contribute to well-rounded and sustainable business development in our region.”

Thailand Cloud & Datacenter Convention (THCDC) will be the first ever global vendor-neutral convention for the cloud and data center professionals and businesses in Thailand. There will be over 700 senior professionals, business leaders and investors, with more than 30% flying in from the region to attend the convention. THCDC will serve as a catalyst to increase trade through highlighting of opportunities in Thailand, and through the building of an ecosystem by gathering key stakeholders, including corporate and government representatives, leading TELCOs, cloud and data center providers, and trade associations. THCDC will also delve into the recent Cybersecurity Act, which is the latest in a wave of new laws in ASEAN that assert government control over the internet. Similar laws have been enacted in Indonesia and Vietnam which contribute to the significant rise of local cloud and data center adoption by both international and local corporations.

This was the ambitious topic which we panelists joined at the Indonesia Cloud and Data Centre convention organized by W Media.

The panelists consisted of

-H. Sukamta, DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat)
-Thomas Kyung Joo Suh (Epsilon)
-Alex Budiyanto (Indonesia Cloud Computing Association),
-Theo Nasser ( Right- Hand AI Cybersecurity),
-Nimisha Tailor (Keynote Women Speakers),
-Rudi Rusdiah (ABDI)
-Ajay Sunder (SC-Nex)
And was moderated by Ted Hilbert (Cloudmatika)

It was amazing that we managed to cover a range of topics ranging from digital culture, regulations, connectivity, cybersecurity, talent and more in the 45 minutes allotted.

Some key notes from the discussion:

Regulations
Indonesia is embracing itself for some transformation. This will happen at a regulation level as well. Although there will be a new Cabinet this October but the fundamentals of regulations regarding Indonesia’s digital economy ( OJK – 82 / Others ) has been clarified .

The difference between Data Privacy and data protection should be clearly understood by Indonesian enterprises both wrt implications and impact .Data Privacy is about getting the consent to use data from the user . The user needs to be clear on what purpose will this data be used.Data protection is ensuring control over the location of the data and strict controls to prevent unauthorized access to the data .

As ASEAN countries across ( Thailand , Malaysia , Singapore , Indonesia and others ) introduce and enforce Data privacy laws , key issue will be the extent of harmonization of these laws across the region. This will be important to unlock the benefits of ASEAN as a region so all countries can benefit from this .

Another discussion point was the new tax law on foreign tech companies which was announced a day before and the impact it will have on the Digital economy.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/indonesia-plans-tax-overhaul-to-make-tech-firms-pay-vat

Cybersecurity
Indonesian enterprises are still not that concerned /aware on the risks from under-investing in Cyber-security . It is important for CIOs to realize it is not a question of “If but When“” . Indonesian enterprises need a back up plan and constant monitoring to ensure they are aware of the vulnerabilities and are constantly assessing and trying to bridge the gaps in the Network to the extent possible.

Connectivity
Indonesia given the geographical complexity is a challenge wrt Connectivity. The telcos are doing a reasonably good job but the enterprise grade connectivity is still a challenge beyond the major cities.

New solutions like SD-WAN may be important for the CIOs to start evaluating to accelerate the Digital transformation

Talent
Pak Alex highlighted some new initiatives wrt scholarships which have been announced to better match the requirements from the tech industry with the current curriculum . This is essential to produce a future tech workforce which can support the growth of Indonesia’s Digital economy.

Nimisha shared her perspective on what are some of the best practices from other countries and how Indonesia should be embracing a culture of inclusion, mentor-ship and constant training to ensure females are represented well in the new Digital economy.

All in all a great session and was well moderated by the ever cheerful and cogent Ted Hilbert .

Thanks Ted for that and to all the panelists for a great session and to the W Media team for another great event !