HIT by the Covid-19 pandemic, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are well aware of the need to go digital-first.
According to a survey by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), some 54% of SMEs embarked on their digital journey during the pandemic.
The pandemic has propelled the need to adapt to digital infrastructure and SMEs that don’t jump on the bandwagon stand to lose out.
This is further amplified with Budget 2022, as the government has indicated intentions to push operations on the cloud with its Digital First Programme.
The IDC opined key highlights in the MyDigital initiative such as increasing local data centres to provide high end cloud computing services and driving a “cloud-first” strategy both in federal and local state levels will help drive the adoption of cloud services in Malaysia.
Moreover, IDC Malaysia senior research manager finds that this would be the stimulant needed for local companies to embrace dynamic consumption, build resilient infrastructure as well as use cloud for the much needed digital transformation within the organisation.
Empowering SMEs with cloud computing
As we move into an endemic phase, SMEs are faced with another set of new norms.
Cloud computing stands to be a game-changer for SMEs as it offers business insights and applications anytime and anywhere.
It makes information storage and distribution easier, which empowers businesses to operate more effectively and ups the ante on productivity.
Guided by Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organisation to achieve more, Microsoft rolled out its Bersama Malaysia (together with Malaysia) initiative, which reflects its commitment to building Malaysia’s inclusive digital economy and advancing digital transformation across the private and public sectors,
As part of Microsoft's Bersama Malaysia pledge, it will establish its first data centre region in the country to deliver trusted cloud services locally, with world-class data security, privacy, and the ability to store data in-country.
The data centre will deliver access to the full Microsoft Cloud including Microsoft Azure, which enables anyone to invent with purpose using cloud services and capabilities that span computing, networking, databases, analytics, AI and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Microsoft is also committed to equipping individuals with equal opportunities to thrive in a cloud and AI-enabled digital economy. To achieve this, Microsoft will skill an additional one million Malaysians by December 2023.
In addition, Microsoft has established 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$4.6bil in new revenues for the country’s ecosystem of local partners and cloud-consuming customers over the next four years.
How SMEs can benefit from Azure
Azure provides SMEs with cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) that can help build and manage apps more quickly and easily without local businesses having to do the heavy lifting of maintaining the underlying infrastructure.
This flexible, cost-effective, and at the cutting edge of technology makes for a good companion for SMEs looking to grow and remain resilient.
With Azure, SMEs can benefit from its pay-as-you-go pricing model to meet any budget. It can save small businesses on in-house IT costs, including hardware and maintenance.
It also complements and expands SMEs’ current IT infrastructure, allowing in-house IT personnel to focus on the business and leave the cloud to Microsoft.
Besides that, Azure helps SMEs to launch their current apps without a hitch. It also has an integrated development environment that helps teams learn the platform better and faster.
Microsoft is paving the way with IaaS and PaaS, the hybrid cloud environment that allows companies to operate autonomously or utilise a public cloud.
Furthermore, Microsoft takes its security seriously with Azure, first by ensuring that you have a secure foundation. SMEs would be privy to multi-layered security provided by Microsoft across physical datacenters, infrastructure, and operations in Azure as well as state-of-art security delivered in Azure data centres globally.
It also simplifies security with built-in controls that helps SMEs protect their workloads with built-in controls and services in Azure across identity, data, networking, and apps. SMEs would be able to get continuous protection with deeper insights from Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
What’s more is that it is able to identify new threats and respond quickly with services that are informed by real-time global cybersecurity intelligence delivered at cloud scale. This is made possible via machine learning, behavioural analytics, and application-based intelligence.
For more information, visit https://www.aka.ms/azurebersamamalaysia or call 1800 889 85252 from Monday-Friday (8:30am-6pm) or email askMS-SMB@microsoft.com to connect with a Microsoft representative.
