Microsoft will help form the MyDigital Alliance Leadership Council to collaborate on cloud-first and digital-native policy recommendations.
As part of the Malaysian Government’s My Digital goals, it has welcomed Microsoft’s agreement to establish its first datacenter region in the country to deliver trusted cloud services locally, with data security, privacy, and the ability to store data in-country.
Microsoft also announced plans to skill an additional 1 million Malaysians by end of 2023 to help create economic opportunities for people and businesses in the digital era. Finally, Microsoft will help form the MyDigital Alliance Leadership Council to collaborate on cloud-first and digital-native policy recommendations.
According to IDC’s research, Microsoft’s investment in Malaysia will help generate up to US$4.6 billion in new revenues for the country’s ecosystem of local partners and cloud-consuming customers over the next four years. Additionally, the research estimates Microsoft, its partners, and cloud-using customers will together contribute more than 19,000 new direct and indirect jobs.
YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin Prime Minister of Malaysia said this is just the first green shoots of a broader meadow of investments in Malaysia, for Microsoft and other data players.
“This significant investment from Microsoft further fortifies Malaysia’s position as a potential regional data hub and we stand ever ready to welcome more such partners as we work with our stakeholders to continually improve Malaysia’s value proposition in this big data space,” he said.
The datacentres will be built in the Greater Kuala Lumpur area and deliver access to the full Microsoft Cloud, which includes:
- Microsoft Azure, enabling anyone to invent with purpose using cloud services and capabilities that span computing, networking, databases, analytics, AI and Internet of Things (IoT)
- Microsoft 365, to connect, collaborate, work remotely and learn online with innovative productivity tools
- Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, to rapidly build and manage critical enterprise business solutions at scale with intelligent business applications.
The new datacenter region will also deliver Azure Availability Zones, providing additional resilience options for highly available applications, and support Microsoft’s sustainability goals. Microsoft has a global commitment to shift to 100 percent supply of renewable energy by 2025.
This means Microsoft will have power purchase agreements for green energy contracted for 100 percent of carbon-emitting electricity consumed by all its datacentres, buildings, and campuses, including the planned Malaysia datacentre region.
Microsoft will work with the government, startups and enterprises to support the country’s digital transformation goals. Specifically, Microsoft in partnership with the Social & Economic Research Initiative (SERI) has established the MyDigital Alliance Leadership Council to collaborate on cloud-first and digital-native policy recommendations.
The Alliance’s first meeting discussed digitalization in the education sector to nurture a globally competitive Malaysian digital workforce. Additionally, Malaysia’s leading companies including Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) and Celcom Axiata Berhad have committed to helping advance Malaysia’s nation building and digital ambitions, as well as using the Microsoft Cloud from the new datacenter region when available.
