In October 2011, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak launched a rare Digital Malaysia Initiative (DMI) that is meant to turn this South-East Asian country into a hub for e-commerce activities in Asia. This giant, one-of-its-kind project aims at creating an initial 160,000 high-value jobs by 2020 and subsequently increases the country’s Gross National Income contributed by the IT sector by about 17%.
This information paints exactly how bright the prospects of IT investment will be in Malaysia in the coming years. And interestingly enough, the projected success of Digital Malaysia Initiative is entirely hooked on Cloud Computing technology.
DMI is primarily designed to foster a rapid growth in the areas of online education, e-commerce, mobile technology, e-payment among small- and medium-scale businesses, evolution of e-entrepreneurs, and coordination of all Internet-based business activities with the view to guaranteeing higher productivity and creating jobs that will boost the economic activity of Malaysia.
With this scale of explosive digital adventures, one will expect that Digital Malaysia Initiative will bring about strategic changes as well as new challenges to the Information Technology processes in Malaysia. Some of the unavoidable challenges Malaysia’s IT sector will have to grapple will include but are not limited to:
- Dealing with an unprecedented increase in the volume of data produced;
- Guaranteeing optimum performance or efficiency of the IT industry and its numerous diversifications;
- Maintaining a culture of cost-efficiency;
- Guaranteeing security and data-protection.
For Malaysia to become a center of Asia’s e-commerce, it definitely has to devise the appropriate mechanism for dealing with the issue of large generation of sensitive data that will require safe and flexible storage facilities. Online education, e-payment system, e-entrepreneur activities, e-government procedures, e-commerce operations etc will all require the kind of efficient storage facility provided by Cloud Computing. Storing time-sensitive and highly confidential data through cloud technology provides the flexibility and scalability most e-business operators desire; in other words, e-entrepreneurs can sign up with cloud service providers for a limited storage capacity based on their current needs. And if their storage requirements increase in the near future, they can request for a bigger storage space. Using cloud computing, Malaysian e-commerce operators can rest assured that their business operations will not suddenly collapse due to limited space for storage expansion.
Digital Malaysia Initiative is centered on the promise that cloud computing will play a significant role in making the Initiative efficient and successful. This dream is achievable if Malaysian business owners pay serious attention to the gains of adopting cloud technology in all areas of their operations. Apart from leading to dramatic cut in the cost of running businesses, cloud computing will also necessitate business continuity and safeguard or protect some sensitive data that will be generated during these business activities.
DMI also provides opportunities for Western IT firm that wants to actively participate in Asian IT market. One of the reasons the Malaysian Government supports Digital Malaysia Initiative is to provide a level-playing field for foreign investors that will like to be a part of the Initiative with the hope of meeting the goals of job creation and economic expansion. This is the best time for foreign investors to check out the benefits of DMI for business expansion, if such investors are deeply interested in entering the Asian IT market. Malaysia has long been regarded as a vibrant home to many foreign companies which include IBM, Shell, Nestle, Sony, PricewaterCoopers etc.
Cloud computing will continue to make in-road into Asian economies as Malaysia appears to lead the campaign for others to emulate. The good news is that the 21st century has been generally agreed to be an Asian period of rapid development. China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia are now leading the pack in IT sector development; a trend that will seemingly not abate in the coming years!
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About the Guest Author:
Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at
http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/
