AWS Public Sector Summit: Upscaling Cloud Technology in ASEAN

Amazon Web Services made public, the trends and future plans of AWS cloud technology adoptions during the AWS Public Sector Summit held this week at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, here, at the heart of the Lion City.

Elsie Tan, Country Manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Singapore, AWS opened the keynote with key facts and figures and shared more about AWS’s continued commitment towards driving further innovation in Singapore and the ASEAN region.

Elsie Tan, Country Manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Singapore, AWS

During the event, Amazon Web Services shared that following the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region in 2010, the company has invested over USD$6.51 billion in local infrastructure and in 2022 alone, Amazon and AWS will collectively create 1,000 jobs in Singapore. In terms of skilling, AWS has trained over two hundred thousand individuals with cloud skills since 2017. “We will continue to invest in resources to help organisations like yourself, innovate, grow, and unlock the potential of the cloud,” said Elsie Tan.

Eric Conrad, Regional Managing Director, ASEAN, AWS highlights new announcements across ASEAN, with emphasis on the training they gave to more than 700,000 individuals on cloud technology skills since 2017. These include:

Indonesia:
- AWS has trained over three hundred thousand individuals with cloud skills since 2017.
- The AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Region will create 24,700 direct and indirect jobs with an estimated USD$5 billion in planned investment in the local economy.
- The AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Region will add an estimated USD$10.9 billion over the next 15 years to Indonesia’s GDP.

Singapore:
- AWS has trained over two hundred thousand individuals in Singapore with cloud skills since 2017.
- Following the launch of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region in 2010, AWS has invested over USD$6.51 billion in local infrastructure and jobs across Singapore.
- Amazon and AWS will collectively create 1,000 jobs in Singapore in 2022.

Eric Conrad, Regional Managing Director, ASEAN, AWS

According to the speakers, all this showcases AWS’ full commitment towards empowering public sector organisations across the region to innovate and lead in an increasingly digital ASEAN. “This is why we are constantly working to bring you the speed, agility, and reliability you need to build innovative solutions,” Eric Conrad said during his speech.

At the event, Eric also shared about the AWS Cloud Availability Zones, which extend across 84 Availability Zones in 26 geographic regions. The company has announced plans to add 24 additional Availability Zones and 8 additional AWS Regions in the near future. There are currently two operational AWS Regions in ASEAN, located in Indonesia and Singapore with the addition of three new Local Zones in ASEAN, located in the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure deployment that their customers can utilise to help them design and deploy applications that require a latency of fewer than ten milliseconds and are located closer to end users or their on-prem data centres.

The AWS Regional Managing Director for ASEAN also spoke about public sectors in the region that have benefited from the collaboration they had with AWS.

Government and Public Sector

February 2022 – AWS signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society in Thailand, to support the digital transformation of the Thailand Government Cloud.
March 2022 – AWS signed a Cloud Framework Agreement (CFA) with the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (or MAMPU), to help accelerate cloud adoption and drive innovation in the public sector.
September 2022 – AWS announced the AWS Smart City Competency program, to curate and develop a community of advanced and rising AWS Partners with scalable Smart City offerings on AWS.
- In Indonesia, AWS partner Elitery developed SiPANDU, an integrated report information system, and SiPANON, a machine-learning (ML)-enabled closed-circuit television solution to monitor and improve road traffic flow.
New announcement – October 2022 – AWS awarded its very first contract following the CFA, with the Department of Polytechnic and Community College (DPCCE), a department within Malaysia’s Ministry of Higher Education.
- DPCCE worked with AWS to migrate its Learning Management System or LMS to the cloud and has since achieved the scale and flexibility to support over 150,000 active users with access to its curriculum, eContent, and digital learning activities. DPCCE is also working with AWS to expand their Moodle-based online LMS to 105 community colleges, in addition to the 36 Polytechnics that are already using the LMS.
New announcement – October 2022 – AWS announced that Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Thailand has gone all-in on AWS to drive learning worldwide and support the university’s vision of becoming a digital university.
- By moving to the cloud, the university was able to support 100% online learning and e-examinations during the pandemic. Through harnessing the power of data and leveraging AWS’s global infrastructure, the university is able to achieve low latency and scalability to offer online services for its 200,000 learners over two years, across 64 countries globally.

Research and Healthcare Sector

In Malaysia, AWS is helping Cancer Research Malaysia scale the processing of breast cancer genomics data, accelerating its cancer research by as much as 3 years. It can now process up to 10 times more patient data, allowing it to analyse hundreds of patients at a time.
In the Philippines, the Chinese General Hospital consolidated its various operating systems onto the AWS cloud and improved employee productivity by more than 60%. More importantly, it reduced patient discharge time from ~~up to~~ hours previously, to just minutes.
In Singapore, the Urban Analytics Lab at the National University of Singapore spearheads research in geospatial data analysis and 3D city modelling. With AWS at the foundation of most of its investigative work today, its researchers can develop more in-depth analysis at an unprecedented scale and apply its work to almost any geographic location.

Non-Profit Sector

In Indonesia, the ASEAN Foundation migrated its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning system to the AWS Cloud. This allowed it to support the remote approval of budgets and spending, generate reports faster, and improve transparency. Now, the organisation can dedicate more resources towards its work in promoting ASEAN and developing the potential of ASEAN citizens.
Singapore’s National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre or NVPC uses the cloud to ensure that donors can make financial contributions to the needy anytime, anywhere. Its donations platform, Giving.sg, saw a record of 20.4 million Singapore dollars being donated during the pandemic. AWS helped them scale up to manage the surge in traffic of five times the normal amount.

Peter Moore Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific Japan, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS, took over and puts the spotlight on two key factors, sustainability and upskilling the people of ASEAN.

Sustainability

In Indonesia, AWS works with Water.org to partner with district-owned community banks to acquire financing, expand infrastructure, and improve access to water services. Also, the Urban Water Utilities Association is partnering with PERPAMSI to provide capacity building and technical assistance training, among others. So far, these efforts have directly impacted more than 35,000 people living in Java, Indonesia.
In Singapore, Amazon has two solar energy projects with Sembcorp and Sunseap that generate 79.6 megawatts, which is enough to power almost 20,000 Singaporean homes every year. In addition to the generation of solar energy, this solar project in Singapore also collects and treats up to 170,000 cubic meters of rainwater annually, which is equivalent to the amount required to fill 68 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Upskilling Across ASEAN

In Indonesia, AWS is partnering with the Social Economic Accelerator Lab to accelerate digitisation and launch “Indonesiaku AWSome!” a 5-month program that provides comprehensive education on advanced cloud technologies.
In Singapore, AWS jointly developed “Cloud Ready SG with AWS” with the Singapore Government, a holistic digital and cloud technology skilling program curated for Singaporeans across segments.
In Thailand, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is collaborating with AWS to train more than 1,200 public sector employees with cloud skills.
AWS is also working with educational institutions across the region, like Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture, Singapore’s Ministry of Education, and Malaysia’s Ministry of Higher Education, to transform course delivery, enhance the student experience, and improve learning outcomes.

Peter Moore Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific Japan, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS

Ending his speech as well as the keynote, Peter Moore said, “It is truly inspiring how AWS customers are finding new and better ways to deliver on their missions. It’s clear there is no slowing down – and I look forward to what we will accomplish as we continue to pave new paths and reimagine what is possible together. It’s been great to share with you these exciting advancements and to hear from our customers who are using AWS to break boundaries. Looking ahead, our goal is to continually empower you to lead and serve in an increasingly digital ASEAN.”