KEEP BANDWIDTH COST AFFORDABLE, TO STAY COMPETITIVE

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17, 2013 – The access fee for Malaysia’s internet accessibility and connectivity need to be made more affordable if the country wants to be competitive in the data storage centre, in the cloud computing industry.

Tengku Farith Rithauddeen, Group CEO of SKALI, said that apart from having to improve and upgrade the technological infrastructure, local bandwidth providers should also look at lowering the access fees to a more affordable level to encourage more businesses to embrace cloud computing.

Echoing the recent statement made by the Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Tengku Farith said that Malaysia definitely has the potential to become a hub for data storage in the cloud computing industry as the country is currently ranked 13th out of 24 economies worldwide in terms of cloud computing utilisation, mostly due the adoption of policies that were conducive to cloud innovation.
 
“Local businesses are beginning to embrace cloud computing as more are aware of the tremendous agility offered and its competitive advantage over on-premise applications.

“Nonetheless, the development was hampered by the high cost incurred by the service providers which have to be absorbed by the customers,” he said.

Malaysia had 500,000 square feet of data centre (IDC) floor space as of 2010, supplying approximately four per cent of the total floor space in the Asia Pacific region.

The Data Storage Centre market in this region is projected to grow by 16.3 per cent annually, accumulating RM10.9 billion in sales by 2014.

“Malaysia has a substantially higher bandwidth rate as compared to the regional competitors, accounting for 30 per cent of monthly operating costs in the sector.

“This is twice the rate offered in Singapore and three times those offered by the Hong Kong bandwidth providers,” said Tengku Farith.

A recent Gartner Report released in October 2012, had also indicated that the growing interest in cloud computing, a term used to describe data storage and processing done on the web, will see further growth in the IT services segment.

In order to allow more businesses to embrace Cloud Computing, SKALI, the first Public Cloud provider in the region, has offered ultra flexible, scalable cloud servers via its infrastructure on-demand platform to allow medium and smaller-size enterprises to capitalise the best of what cloud computing has to offer, while minimizing risks.

Known as PAYU (Pay As You Use), the model enables customers to enjoy Private Cloud setup, either at their own premise or at SKALI DC, with zero capital expenditure.

“Since Private Cloud may not be within their budgets, we offer our clients to pay only as per their usage, without having any fixed charges,” said Tengku Farith.

The service is in addition to the Private Cloud as well as the Public Cloud offerings, currently offered by SKALI, thus enabling customers the ability to specify access limitations and the level of resource dedication to safeguard data privacy and security.

“It is our sincere hope that the related ministry will look into this matter if we want to attract more foreign companies to pick Malaysia as their cloud data storage centre.

“With the expected rising costs of real estates in Malaysia, the foreign companies may opt for countries that could offer them more cost-effective infrastructure and labour, and lowering the bandwidth rate would definitely help in balancing these unfavourable factors,” added Tengku Farith.

宽频价格需经济实惠以保持竞争性

 （吉隆坡17日讯）大马若要成为具竞争性的数据中心，其网络连通性和收费需更加的实惠。

SKALI集团首席执行员Tengku Farith Rithauddeen披露，除了提升和改善科技建设网络基建设施，本地的宽频服务供应商应探讨降低收费，以鼓励更多商家“拥抱”云端运算服务。

Tengku Farith是针对通讯与多媒体部长Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek的言论指出，大马有望在云端运算工业中，成为数据资料库的中心。大马目前是在24个经济国家中的“全球云计算评测研究报告”中排行第13位，足以证明了国家的政策有利于云计算的发展。

他说：“本地企业开始拥抱云端运算服务，因为该服务供应商提供了价格的优势便利，应用方面了提供了竞争优势。”

“然而云端运算服务的发展受到阻碍，高成本服务影响供应商成本过高的影响，这些成本由消费人所吸纳。”

截至2010年，马来西亚有数据中心（IDC）建筑面积占50万平方英尺，占亚太地区的总建筑面积约百分之四。

数据存储中心在本区域的市场预计将年增长16.3％，预料在2014年累计109亿令吉的销售额。

“马来西亚的宽频速率，价位较区域竞争对手的高，占每月运营成本的30％。

Tengku Farith 指出：“本地的供应商的宽频收费，高于新加坡两倍，也高于香港三倍。”

Gartner最近发布的至期2012年10月的报告显示，市场对云端运算服务兴趣大增，这个用来形容网络数据存储和处理的服务，将在IT领域出现增长。

为了鼓励更多企业使用云端运算服务，SKALI作为本区域首个公共云端服务供应商，透过其基础设施，提供了灵活和可扩展的云端服务器，给予中小型企业最好的云端运算系统，同时降低企业风险。

名为 PAYU (Pay As You Use)的模式让客户在零资本开支下，在本身的建筑物或SKALI DC享受云端运算服务。

Tengku Farith 指出：“由于私有云计算服务可能超越客户的预算，我们为客户提供，按照用量进行收费，无征收任何固定收费。

SKALI除了提供公共云端运算服务，也额外提供的私有云计算服务，提供客户制定浏览次数和层面的限制，以保障数据的隐私和安全。

“这是我们真诚希望，部门能关注此课题，以吸引更多的外国公司挑选马来西亚作为他们的云端数据存储中心的据点。 

Tengku Farith 指出：“马来西亚房地产的价格昂提高，但外国公司亲睐成本效益低的的基础设施、劳力和宽频收费低廉的国家，作为投资据点。