This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 9, 2024 - September 15, 2024

In May, tech behemoth Google made a significant move in Malaysia by investing a substantial US$2.2 billion (RM9.5 billion) to expand its Google Cloud region to deliver high-performance, low-latency cloud infrastructure, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) services.

The investment is also poised to reshape industries, create jobs and position Malaysia as a Southeast Asian tech leader. The Malaysia cloud region will make it easier and faster for public sector organisations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), start-ups and traditional businesses alike to leverage Google Cloud’s on-demand network and compute resources.

“It is faster and more reliable with economics that are better than what they could build themselves — without having to build it themselves. It will also deliver more choices for customers to store their data locally, enabling them to meet digital sovereignty requirements,” says Patrick Wee, country manager of Google Cloud in Malaysia.

For instance, regulated industries like the financial services and healthcare industries will be able to store sensitive data in compliance with local regulations. In financial services, even lower latency enables real-time fraud detection and risk management systems.

Moreover, the manufacturing industry can further advance Industry 4.0 initiatives, resulting in smarter factories and optimised supply chains. Retail and e-commerce businesses will benefit from rapid scalability and real-time data management.

“Google’s first data centre and Google Cloud region is our largest planned investment so far in Malaysia. It will enable easier and faster access to Google’s extensive suite of AI and machine learning tools and services, and accelerate digital transformation for Malaysian businesses in a rapidly evolving digital economy,” says Wee.

Google’s new data centre and cloud region in Malaysia hold the promise of driving economic growth. However, the rapid pace of technological advancements is outstripping the development of workforce skills, creating a significant skills gap that presents a challenge for the country.

According to the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs 2023” report, 48% of companies identify improving talent progression and promotion processes as a key business practice that can increase the availability of talent to their organisation.

To support the development of a skilled cloud workforce locally, Google has been working with the government, customers and partners to deliver tailored solution-based cloud skilling to upskill people via targeted workshops, online courses, hands-on labs and certification programmes.

“Our focus is on building competencies in critical areas such as AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and data analytics — all focused on solving real-world business challenges, with courses on how to build large-scale cloud projects, manage employees who are new to the Cloud, optimise Google Cloud costs and more,” explains Wee.

Earlier this year, Google announced a partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) to offer up to 500 Google Career Certificate scholarships to students from 161 public universities, polytechnics and community colleges across the country, available until the end of 2024.

These nine Google Career Certificates, designed by in-house experts, cover fields such as cybersecurity, data analytics and IT support. The programmes can be completed within three to six months through flexible, self-paced online training, requiring no prior experience.

“This strategic initiative with MoHE marks a significant expansion of Gemilang, the digital training programme launched by Google in 2022 to help more Malaysians acquire digital skills — at no cost — for jobs in high-demand technology fields,” says Wee.

Google Gemilang is Google’s digital training initiative aimed at helping the nation’s workforce develop current digital skills, unlock new opportunities and gain access to high-demand jobs.

Since its launch, Gemilang has already provided 31,000 career certificate scholarships, with 80% of certificate graduates reporting a positive career outcome, such as a new job, promotion or salary raise within six months of completion.

In addition, Google has also made data management, cybersecurity and AI skills development training options accessible to working professionals through the Google Cloud Skills Boost programme.

This includes courses such as the “cloud digital leader learning path”, the “introduction to generative AI learning path”, the “preparing for your professional cloud security engineer journey” course, and the “preparing for your professional data engineer journey” course, along with gamified learning experiences via the arcade.

“Regardless of whether they are executive-level, an IT decision-maker, in a non-technical role or a technical practitioner, learners can seize the opportunity to build and demonstrate their proficiency in in-demand cloud computing and AI skills to their employers,” says Wee.

These efforts are part of Google’s broader commitment to fostering a robust digital economy in Malaysia, ensuring that businesses have access to the talent they need to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge in the global market.

The data centre will power Google’s popular digital services, such as Search, Maps and Workspace. It will also play an essential role in enabling the company to deliver the benefits of Al to users and customers across the country.

Companies like telecommunications provider Maxis use Google Cloud’s enterprise-grade generative AI capabilities to unlock their data’s full potential. Similarly, construction giant Gamuda Bhd uses generative AI across its different verticals. Bank Muamalat too leverages Google Cloud’s capabilities in security, data analytics and generative AI to help the bank drive new operational efficiencies.

“This investment also supports our partnership with the government of Malaysia and its goal of advancing a ‘cloud-first policy’, and unlocks the potential of digital transformation across the public sector as well,” says Ken Siah, head of data centre public affairs at Google Apac.

To ensure that the Malaysian data centre has the necessary infrastructure to accommodate future growth and increasing customer demand, Google is focusing on scalability as one of its top features in its technical infrastructure.

“Google’s data centre in Malaysia is a long-term US$2 billion investment designed to meet the growing demand from customers locally and around the world. Ensuring robust business continuity and disaster recovery is critical for any Google data centre across our planet-scale network, and this will also be a top feature and priority for our infrastructure in Malaysia,” says Siah.

With more than 20 years in the cloud, Google offers security solutions and built-in protections to help customers modernise security in the cloud or wherever their applications or data live.

To highlight a few security features of its solutions and network, Google Cloud encrypts data-at-rest and data-in-transit by default and cannot be turned off. It also provides options for customers to use their own encryption keys for greater control.

“We also provide AI-powered tools such as data loss prevention application programming interface (API) to help customers quickly detect, classify, redact, mask and tokenise their sensitive data,” says Wee.

Google employs a multi-layered security approach, combining hardware and software innovations, 24/7 monitoring and advanced threat intelligence. It identifies and addresses vulnerabilities, utilises AI to detect anomalies and fosters a culture of security through initiatives like bug bounty programmes. This defence-in-depth strategy helps safeguard its infrastructure and user data from evolving cyber threats.

Through its security command centre, it provides customers with centralised visibility and control with built-in cyber risk management, improves their vulnerability management, reports on and maintains compliance and detects threats.

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