Malaysia stands at the precipice of a vibrant digital future, with investments from tech giants like Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Microsoft and NTT as well as cloud-first government initiatives leading the way.

And with US$5.1 billion earmarked for Malaysia’s National Fiberisation & Connectivity Plan along with OLL and NEC’s MIST submarine cable system connecting the country major cities in Southeast Asia, it is inevitable that data centers, cloud and 5G will be part of Malaysia’s future in tech.

In the first of five W.Media Digital Summits, we will explore Malaysia’s position in the global technology scene and the innovations taking place to challenge neighboring mature markets like Singapore.

For example, you can discover new technologies on Open Compute (OCP) Solutions, including air-cooled, liquid cooling and immersion technologies on DC12v & DC48v platforms, which are helping to make efficient data centers more accessible to emerging markets in Southeast Asia where humid climates add unique challenges.

Explore Malaysia’s digital transformation journey

In a whistle-stop tour of Malaysia’s digital transformation journey, we will be joined by Wan Murdani Mohamad, the Director of Enabling Ecosystem Division at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

As an expert in driving, advocating and facilitating the progression of digital enablers in Malaysia, Mr. Mohamad will discuss how Malaysia has achieved four million new digital consumers in just the past two years.

And with his involvement in the rollout of Malaysia’s cybercities like Cyberjaya, Mr. Mohamad will explore the future of tech hubs as more and more devices come online.

Digital optimisation in Malaysia

As more businesses are digitalised, it is crucial to optimise operations to increase customer engagement, reduce IT incidents and enable the free flow of information. 

In our second pre-show interview, JS Wong, the Founder and CEO of TalariaX, will take us through the characteristics of an optimised enterprise and innovations available to help them grow further.

“In this new normal, IT management teams need to accelerate their digital transformation to complement overall business strategy. One area is using omni-channel messaging to enhance the IT incident management and automation to increase the IT uptime for the whole organisation,” said Mr. Wong

In this session, Mr. Wong will dive into the details of using omni-channel messaging.

Accelerating Cloud Adoption: The case of Malaysia

The cloud computing market in Malaysia is expected to be worth US$3.7 billion by 2024, as the Government has been active in encouraging cloud adoption by creating a data exchange hub for ministries, plans for smart cities and a digital identity platform known as MyIdentity.

Malaysia has also seen improvements in energy sustainability, data center risk and connectivity, which could encourage more cloud adoption and investment by tech giants and startups. 

However, there is still more that Malaysia could do to accelerate cloud adoption. According to the Asia Cloud Computing Association, the country ranked 8th out of 14 countries in the APAC region due to restrictions caused by the regulatory environment, privacy laws and intellectual property protection.

In a fascinating presentation, Wan Murdani Mohamad will join us to explore what can be done to accelerate more cloud adoption in Malaysia.

“Learn about Malaysia’s cloud-first strategy and the cloud adoption journey of key economic sectors in embracing digital transformation,” said Wan Murdani Mohamad the Director of Enabling Ecosystem Division at MDEC.

Leading Digital Transformation through Enterprise Architecture in the Cloud Era

With Malaysia’s overall IT spending forecast to be approximately US$11 billion this year and 55% of CEOs in Malaysia acknowledging the need to digitally transform, it is becoming even more important to consider how to drive digital transformation plans.

This involves considering the challenges and the gaps in an enterprise’s capabilities. Aaron Tan Dani, the Founder and Chairman of the International Association of Software Architects (IASA) will share his expert insights into the processes C-suite members of staff should implement to implement a successful digital transformation plan.

Pivot to Cloud and the Central Importance of Cybersecurity & Risk Assessment

Cloud adoption is a growing trend in Southeast Asia, but as more businesses digitally transform to the cloud, more cybersecurity vulnerabilities may be exposed.

We will be joined by Sina Manavi, the Senior Security Manager at Group AIA, to explore the central importance of securing your digital infrastructure and risk assessment.

How can Malaysia do better in their cybersecurity efforts?

Incidents of cybercrime are rising at an alarming rate in Malaysia and the Southeast Asia region with organisations seeing more cyberattacks in the past year.

Cybercriminals in Malaysia exploiting the fear and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. CyberSecurity Malaysia identified a spike in cyber attacks during the first phase of the Movement Control Order imposed by the Malaysian Government.

So how can Malaysia do better in their cybersecurity efforts?

We’ll be joined by Alvin Teoh the manager for Cybersecurity and Enabling Ecosystems at MDEC, Peter Leong, an expert Technology Program Director in the financial sector, Alvin Rodrigues, the Field Chief Security Officer at InfoBlox, and Fong Choong Fook, the CEO of LGMS to explore this matter.

Promoting innovation by migrating from on-prem to the cloud

In this thought leadership presentation by Yew Jin Kang, the Group Chief Technology Officer at Star Media Group Berhad, we will take a look at the evolution of data centers as well as the challenges of storing your data on-premise.

And in recent years, we are seeing many organisations move to the cloud for the increased scalability benefits and cost flexibility. But what skills do you need to manage this migration?

Yew Jin Kang will share his personal experiences in migrating data to the cloud and the advantages he has gained.

Data Centers at the Crossroads: Transformational Strategies

As the technology industry continues to advance in Malaysia, we will explore how data center operators can keep up with the growing trends in cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning, where even more data consumption is inevitable.

“Digital Infrastructure continues to play an important role in many parts of the world, including the APAC region. It is no doubt that there is a rise in the demand of good people in the data center space. We want to partner with Malaysia data center employers, to focus in their HR function, so as to attract, reward and retain their talent,” said Julie Tan of HR Exchange.

During an epic panel discussion on this topic, we will be joined by Ong Chin Seong, the Secretary of the National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Association of Malaysia, Tan Tze Meng, the Head of Data Cloud Department of the Enabling Ecosystem Division at MDEC, Mohamad Rejab Bin Sulaiman, the GM Data Center at TM One, Rhys Cole, the General Manager for APAC at PowerShield and James Rix, the Associate Director of Arcadis UK.

All this and more at the Malaysia Cloud and Datacenter Digital Summit

And if that wasn’t enough, we’ll also have a thought leadership presentation from Sabarinathan Sampath, the Senior Vice President and COO of ZNet Technologies, to share his expert insights on the Malaysia cloud and data center scene.

And we’ll also be joined by the team at Insyghts Security for their specialist cybersecurity perspectives.

> Register now for the action-packed Malaysia Cloud and Datacenter Digital Summit

Thank you to our Platinum Sponsors: the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, Open Computing Singapore, HR Exchange, Insyghts Security, and Securonix. Our Silver Sponsors: BLOMTEQ Solutions and PowerShield. And our Bronze Sponsors: TalariaX and Onion Technology.

Also a big shout out to all our Media and Industry Partners: Daily Host News, Data Storage Asean, ITUpdate, ISACA, IASA, the FinTech Association of Malaysia, the eBusiness Association of Malaysia, LGMS, the Asia Cloud Computing Association, the Malaysian Society for Engineering & Technology, OPEN-TEC, iCIO Community, APTIKNAS, and PIKOM.

Get in touch at partner@w.media for more information on sponsorships and partnerships.