This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 22, 2024 - April 28, 2024

A study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by intelligent integration company Boomi, has revealed that companies experienced uncontrolled and wasteful cloud spend, with cost remediation tactics introduced too late or without a full picture of the environment.

The independent study found that 87% of Asia-Pacific companies had exceeded their set cloud budgets over the past two years, with 69% of these companies expecting to exceed their cloud budgets this fiscal year.

Although the study showed Asia-Pacific business leaders prioritising cloud cost monitoring and optimisation (CCMO) tactics earlier in the cloud development process (62%), most companies lack proactive strategies at the earlier architecture level.

Just 5% of Asia-Pacific decision-makers reported that their cloud cost remediation strategies are as proactive as possible, and only four in 10 said they contain costs at the solution architecture stage. While Asia-Pacific organisations are aware that they could optimise cloud costs at the solution architecture level, less than half of the companies have the strategy in place to resolve perennial problems, such as excessive storage (57%), lack of integration strategy (39%) and overconsumption of bandwidth (45%).

When asked how difficult it is to track areas of cloud spend with the CCMO tooling currently in place, leaders listed data management as the most difficult undertaking, followed by egress charges (for example, fees for moving data in and out of the cloud), with time and resources needed to build and maintain app integrations as the third most difficult area to track.

“About six out of 10 Asia-Pacific respondents (63%) believe their CCMO recommendations are only as good as the data their company can provide. However, 40% are finding it challenging to address the fundamental issue causing their excessive cloud spend. This issue arises due to many organisations perceiving integration as a separate entity, when it holds great potential to serve as a control layer in managing cloud costs,” said Thomas Lai, vice-president and general manager for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Boomi.

E-commerce platform Shopee’s “The Future of Shopping: Engaging Generation Z Shoppers in the Digital Era” study discovered that seven in 10 Gen Z consumers (aged 18 to 24) leverage e-commerce platforms as the primary touchpoint in their shopping journey.

This shows a continued preference for e-commerce platforms despite the existence of alternative channels for product research and discovery. About 68% of Gen Z respondents demonstrate a higher purchase completion rate on e-commerce platforms while 18% prefer to explore products on social commerce platforms and the remaining 14% opt to finalise transactions through other channels.

When surveyors were asked what information they searched for when shopping for a product, 67% said they actively sought positive recommendations, emphasising the importance of favourable customer reviews and influencer endorsements as external validation. They view clear communication of product benefits and effectiveness as justification, prioritising products that deliver strong value for money over affordability (16%) and quality (17%).

While two-thirds of Gen Z consumers complete their purchase journey within a day, the rest dedicate at least five days to in-depth research. This extended research prioritises reviews and video demonstrations to ensure product performance and user satisfaction.

Blockchain company Emurgo has announced a partnership with Huawei Cloud to extend support for the Cardano Validator Node on the Huawei Cloud, further strengthening the Cardano network and bringing Huawei’s cloud infrastructure into Cardano’s open-source public blockchain ecosystem, ultimately driving growth and Web3 adoption in Asia-Pacific and Africa.

Huawei Cloud, one of the world’s largest cloud computing companies, will give access to Cardano developers to leverage Huawei Cloud’s expansive network and computing resources to build innovative Web3 solutions within the Cardano blockchain. This collaboration will further enhance the scalability and interoperability of Cardano’s cloud services.

Cardano will also gain access to Huawei’s Marketplace, a platform used by many leading enterprises, thereby expanding the reach of its Web3 capabilities.

Emurgo is a founding entity of the Cardano blockchain, one of the most distributed blockchains in the industry with more than 3,000 stake pools or validators that secure the Cardano network and provide liquid, delegated staking capabilities for millions of Cardano users.

Global professional services firm Aon plc’s recently released report, the 2023-24 Asia Pay Equity Survey, revealed that pay equity and pay transparency are gaining importance in the region.

As organisations across North America and Europe are enhancing their pay transparency practices complying with increasing regulatory requirements, Asian companies anticipate similar regulations. Although 79% of survey respondents said they consider pay transparency important — with the exception of Japan and Australia — there are no specific regulations mandating pay disclosure in the region at present. Legislation around pay disclosures are expected in the near future for markets such as China, India, Singapore and Hong Kong.

According to the survey, 72% of companies cited regulation and compliance as their primary driver for action on pay transparency, followed by 58% that attributed it to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) policies and 38% to peer practices. However, only 25% of organisations said they have proactively disclosed some aspects of their pay-related matters to employees, with many taking a cautious approach.

Public-listed companies are further ahead in implementing pay transparency practices, with 86% adopting some form and frequency of pay transparency compared with 74% of privately-held organisations.

ICT Zone Asia Bhd, a LEAP Market-listed fintech company, has won the Hewlett Packard (HP) Amplify Impact Global Emerging Sustainability Leader Award at the HP Amplify Partner Conference in Las Vegas.

The award is a recognition of the company’s efforts in securing the highest percentage of sustainability-influenced sales deals in the region.

ICT Zone Asia took home the HP Greater Asia Partner of The Year FY23 – Emerging Amplify Impact Partner award at the same event.

“As the only ICT solutions provider in Malaysia with a four-star HP Amplify Impact Badge, we are honoured by this recognition and remain dedicated to integrating sustainability into our business strategy, notably through our Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) 360 solutions. This reflects our steadfast commitment to eco-friendly and sustainable technology financing solutions,” said Tommy Lim Kok Kwang, ICT Zone Asia’s managing director and CEO.

This recognition underscores ICT Zone Asia’s readiness to transition from the LEAP Market to the ACE Market by 1Q2025, he added. “The transition to the ACE Market, which caters to a wider investor base compared to the LEAP Market’s focus on sophisticated investors, heralds a new chapter for ICT Zone Asia. It opens doors to increased investment opportunities and is expected to enhance shareholder value substantially.”

Nearly 10 million devices fell victim to data-stealing malware in 2023, Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence has revealed, drawing from insights gathered from infostealer malware log files traded on underground markets.

With cybercriminals pilfering an average of 50.9 login credentials per infected device, the threat posed by data-stealers is growing for both consumers and businesses. The .com domain leads in compromised accounts, with nearly 326 million logins and passwords for websites on this domain compromised in 2023.

This is followed by domain zones associated with Brazil (.br, 29 million), India (.in, eight million), Colombia (.co, six million) and Vietnam (.vn, over 5.5 million). In the .my domain, associated with Malaysia, compromised accounts reached 1.6 million in 2023.

About 10 million personal and corporate devices were compromised with data-stealing malware in 2023, amounting to a 643% increase over the past three years. The data on infected devices stems from the dynamics of infostealer malware log-files actively traded in the underground markets and monitored by Kaspersky to help companies ensure the security of their clients and employees.

To guard against data-stealing malware, individuals are advised to use a comprehensive security solution for any device. This will help prevent infections and alert them to dangers, such as suspicious sites or phishing emails that could be an initial vector for infection. Moreover, companies can help their users, employees and partners protect themselves from the threat this way. They can proactively monitor leaks and prompt users to change leaked passwords immediately.

If you are a medical student or doctor in Asean, you may be interested to know that 1337 Ventures and Disruptive Doctors are looking to cultivate the next innovation within the healthcare industry through mentorship and resources.

This programme allows for global collaborations and participants have the chance to connect with innovators worldwide, with real impact to be made when addressing healthcare challenges. Applications close on May 31 and interested parties should visit www.disruptive-doctors.com for more information and to register.

This image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy IC 4633, located 100 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Apus. It is a galaxy rich in star-forming activity and hosts an active galactic nucleus at its core.

The galaxy is tilted mostly towards us, giving astronomers a fairly good view of its billions of stars. However, we can’t fully appreciate the features of this galaxy — at least in visible light — because it is partially concealed by a stretch of dark dust (lower-right third of the image).

As mirrorless cameras overtake DSLRs as the dominant camera system, handmade medium format camera manufacturer Hasselblad joins the retro tech trend with its modular 907X and CFV 100C mirrorless camera, designed to emulate the classic 1948 camera design.

The 907X refers to the camera’s body while the CFV 100C is the camera itself, which when combined can use various lenses that blend digital and film photography, as captured images are rendered with the Natural Colour Solution — reflecting true contrast while producing rich saturation for accurate skin tones and images that look like they came from film.

The 907X and CFV 100C spots a hot shoe adaptor for flash accessories, built-in WiFi for sending either JPG or even raw image files via the Phocus Mobile 2 app, and a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 connector for file transfer, tethered shooting from an iPad or to charge the camera’s battery.

The Hasselblad 907X and CFV 100C mirrorless camera retails for RM42,590 and can be purchased at https://www.ylcamera.com.

The internet of today is a far cry from its early promise of a decentralised, democratic network of innovation, connection and freedom. In the past decade, it has fallen almost entirely under the control of a very small group of companies like Apple, Google and Facebook. In Read Write Own, tech visionary Chris Dixon argues that the dream of an open network for fostering creativity and entrepreneurship doesn’t have to die and can, in fact, be saved with blockchain networks. He separates this movement, which aims to provide a solid foundation for everything from social networks to artificial intelligence to virtual worlds, from cryptocurrency speculation — a distinction he calls “the computer vs the casino”.

With lucid and compelling prose — drawing from a 25-year career in the software industry — Dixon shows how the internet has undergone three distinct eras, bringing us to the critical moment we are in today. The first was the “read” era, in which early networks democratised information. In the “read-write” era, corporate networks democratised publishing. We are now in the midst of the “read-write-own” era, sometimes called Web3, in which blockchain networks are granting power and economic benefits to communities of users, not just corporations.

Read Write Own is a must-read for anyone — internet users, business leaders, creators, entrepreneurs — who wants to understand where we have been and where we are going. It provides a vision for a better internet and a playbook to navigate and build the future. — Amazon

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