By Catherine Lian
IBM Malaysia Managing Director and Technology Leader
With Malaysia celebrating our 65th ‘Hari Merdeka’ today, as a country we should continue to stay focused on the goal of making our country a fully-fledged and high-income Digital Economy.
The Digital Economy contributed 22.6% to Malaysia’s GDP in 2020 and is expected to increase its contribution by 25.5% by 2025. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed stated that “We have much to do to meet the aspirations to transform Malaysia into a digitally-enabled and technology-driven high-income nation, and a regional leader in the digital economy.” “The participation of all stakeholders is highly welcomed to enable the nation to realise the benefits and overcome the challenges of digitalisation.”
In this light, there are three crucial factors that would ensure that the Digital Economy continues growing in the decades ahead. The ‘accelerators’ are hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and the continuous nurturing of digital talent readiness.
Hybrid cloud
Hybrid cloud is swiftly becoming the dominant force driving industry changes. It is an essential information technology (IT) infrastructure that connects multiple types of clouds – such as public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises IT – and IBM hybrid cloud is providing orchestration, management and application portability among them to create a single, flexible, secure and optimal cloud infrastructure for running computing workloads.
The benefits are enormous. A hybrid cloud strategy enables organisations to achieve their technical and business objectives more cost-efficiently. This is because the approach enables application modernisation, process automation, and AI (artificial intelligence) infusion and insights resulting in better, scalable, and more secure digital services, while serving customers and helping employees work better.
In other words, a scalable, secure and flexible cloud-based IT infrastructure has been key for organisations to adapt their new operating models. In recent years, there has been an acceleration in the adoption of hybrid cloud technology and services, allowing organisations to run workloads on-premises, in the private cloud and in the public cloud.
Such aspirations for hybrid cloud optimisation are now possible with more powerful technologies available today. A good example is the new IBM z16 platform which brings AI and cyber resiliency to hybrid cloud using innovative on-chip AI inferencing and industry-first, quantum-safe technologies.
Another highly essential platform is the new IBM Power10 servers which had been designed specifically for hybrid cloud environments. This is because these IBM Power10-equipped servers were engineered to be one of the most secured server platforms to empower organisations to operate secure, frictionless hybrid cloud experiences across their entire IT infrastructure.
AI
AI, on the other hand, is known for creating mission-critical workflows to create efficient processes, augment human capabilities, and improve business outcomes.
It continues to enable organisations to address urgent and immediate business priorities quickly and at scale. AI improves a company’s cost base by augmenting human capability to motivate greater and more expansive efficiencies. And AI helps enhance or protect top-line revenue, experience, and engagement.
A good example is TIME dotCom Bhd (TIME)’s adoption of IBM’s Cloud Pak for Network Automation. In doing so, TIME’s network operations have become more efficient and flexible across a wider range of environments, thereby increasing the speed of delivery for new services. This artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automation solution has enabled TIME to modernise its network operations and deliver faster and secure services to its customers.
AI is also a key component of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0). AI together with advanced analytics are critical for organisations, especially manufacturers, to optimise production processes. When factories are instrumented through the internet-of-things (IoT), available data surges – and this is where operators tap on AI for data insights to identify potential production losses and act to balance quality, cost and throughput to realise greater operational efficiencies and productivity.
Spearheaded by AI, these core technologies that encapsulate IR4.0 coupled with a strong security framework builds a solid foundation for manufacturers in Malaysia to ‘survive and thrive’ in a post-pandemic environment. At the same time, for the government AI would be about providing appropriate digital services for citizens. For other businesses, it is about automating, digitising, and transforming the business to reduce cost, increase business velocity and provide more value to customers.
Building Digital Talent Readiness
Due to the increasing demand for skills associated with digital tools and processes, Malaysians need to transform themselves to stay relevant in the future workforce.
At IBM, we believe that learners at all stages need access to the skills that will allow them to compete in an ever-evolving economy. A good example is IBM SkillsBuild which has been designed to give aspiring professionals a powerful set of resources at no charge to help them cultivate meaningful careers.
SkillsBuild is IBM’s open and free online learning program offering over 1,000 interactive courses in cybersecurity, data analysis, cloud computing, and other technical disciplines, as well as courses to build workplace skills such as collaboration and presentation.
And in various Malaysian states, IBM has also collaborated on various public-private partnerships, such as our collaboration with Politeknik Balik Pulau (PBU) and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) to set up the IBM SkillsBuild program to increase industry-relevant high-value talent. The rationale behind these partnerships stems from ‘new collar’ workers being required to perform technical and non-technical skills, while also familiarising themselves with workplace trends, and professional skills such as presentation skills, effective communication, and collaboration can be acquired which can build up students’ portfolios.
To sum up, these three aspects – hybrid cloud, AI and talent – are much needed for Malaysia to be in a stronger position so that the country can consistently evolve and adapt with the times.
Our continued partnership with the government and Malaysia’s organisations would further strengthen Malaysia’s competitiveness, bolster the economy and contribute to overall growth.
As we all come together to celebrate Malaysia’s independence today, I wish all my fellow Malaysians ‘Selamat Hari Merdeka! Keluarga Malaysia Teguh Bersama’
We assure you that IBM will continue to play a ‘nation-building role’ while doing our part to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation through the socialisation of transformative technologies.
Note: Catherine Lian is IBM Malaysia Managing Director and Technology Leader
