KUALA LUMPUR: Organisations are grappling with unprecedented uncertainty, amidst the current volatile economic climate, prompting them to adapt and innovate.
According to Peter Murray, AWS Malaysia's country manager, this places them at a crucial juncture in their digital transformation journey.
Murray referenced a recent report by Information Services Group (ISG), commissioned by AWS, which revealed that 44 percent of Malaysian small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are still at a basic level of digital maturity, primarily relying on social media and web applications.
These SMBs have yet to embrace emerging cloud-enabled technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
He emphasised AWS's commitment to empowering businesses to fully leverage cloud computing's potential across industries.
Last June, the company announced the opening of a 32,000-square-foot AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) office in Kuala Lumpur, to reaffirm its commitment to the Malaysian market.
"We believe that it is essential for customers to have control over their data to fully realise the potential of the cloud. The localisation of AWS infrastructure, as exemplified by our investment in our upcoming region, will provide customers with the choice to securely store their data in Malaysia while benefiting from even lower latency across the country.
"We are confident that our Malaysia-based customers, who are currently running their workloads in our 32 AWS regions around the world, will be keen to launch their workloads to the new AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) region that we will be launching in 2024," he told Business Times.
AWS aims to support Malaysia's digital ambitions with a commitment of RM 25.5 billion in investment by 2037.
This expansion will give developers, startups, enterprises, and government organisations more options to host their applications and serve users directly from data centres in Malaysia.
Murray anticipates that the adoption of cloud computing among SMBs will become increasingly pervasive, advanced, and mature by 2030.
He noted how cloud technology has significantly revolutionised SMBs, enabling them to initiate, operate, and expand their operations more efficiently.
Murray also highlighted that cloud technology has democratised access to advanced tools like AI and ML for SMBs, which were previously accessible only to large companies with substantial resources.
"With continuous advancements in technology and the decreasing costs of cloud services, SMBs will have access to an even wider range of scalable and cost-effective technology solutions across functions, occupations, and industries," he said.
He noted that the AWS-ISG report highlights the challenges SMBs face with outdated infrastructure, fixed cost concerns, and inadequate digital skills and knowledge to keep up with the right technology as they scale.
To address this, AWS has introduced "AWS Lift" in Malaysia, aiming to enable SMBs to enjoy the advantages of AWS services without concerns about the associated expenses of adopting new technology.
"Based on an assessment of cloud industry forecasts and our global report, we expect 90 per cent of all businesses will adopt at least a basic level of cloud technology in a cloud-enabled economy," he said.