Digital transformation is among Malaysia’s top priorities, as outlined in its Madani policy, and key to its success is a cloud infrastructure anchored on reliability, scalability, and security.
A notable example of cloud-enabled enterprise transformation is Sarawak Energy Berhad, the Sarawak-owned electric utility. The organisation is not only modernising its internal operations but also adopting smarter approaches to meet evolving customer demands.
During “The Future is Now: Transforming Malaysia’s Digital Economy” conference in Kuching — the first of a three-part series across Malaysia organised by Jicara Media and hosted by AWS and VST ECS — senior IT executives from Malaysia’s public sector shared their digital transformation journeys and discussed how the cloud is driving innovation.
Power of transformation
Powering the state for over a century, Sarawak Energy aims to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for the region by delivering reliable, renewable energy. Covering power generation, transmission, distribution, and retail, the company serves approximately three million people. Its long-term goal is full electrification of Sarawak while meeting regional renewable power demands.
According to Zaliha Binti Mohamad Ali, General Manager for Digital Strategy & Planning at Sarawak Energy’s ICT Department, the company’s digital transformation began in 2018 with a focus on improving business processes and system performance. This included a gradual shift away from legacy systems built over decades.
The company’s digitalisation blueprint is built on five pillars: establishing a robust and fit-for-purpose digital foundation, leveraging data as a strategic asset, modernising ways of working, enabling smart business, and staying ahead of the curve.
For smart business, Zaliha highlighted three key programs.
- The first is the company’s Digital Power Plant initiative, designed to optimise plant operations, enhance asset productivity, and mitigate risk.
- The second is the Smart Grid initiative, which supports Sarawak Energy’s transmission and distribution businesses.
- The third is Smart Retail, which focuses on digitising the company’s retail services to enhance customer experience.
“Moving forward, we will be focusing on digital enablers to ensure that we are able to deliver all the smart business initiatives and build a robust, secure, and future-ready digital foundation,” Zaliha said.
She outlined five key digital enablers: an intelligent workforce, a data-driven business, a digital core, cyber resilience, and an integrated ecosystem.
“Sarawak Energy has made significant investments in digitalisation. This includes moving to the cloud where appropriate, modernising our operations, and ensuring a secure, efficient, and sustainable energy supply — such as hosting our ERP solution and building our enterprise data platform on the cloud, which is on AWS,” she said.
Unlocking cloud value
As part of Malaysia’s digitalisation efforts, AWS signed a cloud framework agreement with the Malaysian government in 2022, becoming the first public cloud provider to do so. The agreement focuses on strengthening cybersecurity and supporting government agencies’ digital initiatives. That same year, AWS launched its AWS Malaysia Region, enabling cloud adoption across three availability zones.
“An availability zone represents a data centre or a cluster of data centres that are networked together at AWS. We now have 36 AWS regions worldwide, and each region is launched with a minimum of three availability zones. Each availability zone is fully redundant and has its own power and water supply. The reason we do this is to ensure our customers experience the highest levels of resilience and reliability of any public cloud provider,” said Pete Murray, Country Manager, AWS.
During the Kuching roadshow, AWS showcased various strategies for maximising cloud deployment. Nurul Najihah, Solutions Architect at AWS Malaysia, explained different cloud migration techniques, including lift and shift (also known as rehosting), refactoring, and replatforming. Meanwhile, Dr Dzahar Mansor, Head of Security Assurance at AWS Malaysia, outlined the compliance requirements for data residency and sovereignty, and ZiYan Boo, AWS Marketplace Specialist at AWS Malaysia, discussed how AWS Marketplace is streamlining enterprise solutions procurement.
However, any strategy or initiative is bound to fail without strong leadership support — whether in the private sector or government, noted a government representative involved in public sector technology efforts.
“You need to have a visionary leader to make this happen. You need to get buy-in from the top to make things happen on the ground,” the representative said.
For Malaysia’s digital economy, the representative highlighted three focus areas.
The first is connectivity, which is crucial for achieving digital inclusivity. This includes not only addressing rural connectivity gaps but also deploying 5G networks in urban areas.
The second is talent. Without skilled people to implement and manage new systems, the benefits of technological advancement may not be fully realised. Developing the right talent has been a key priority across various government initiatives.
The third is AI, which is playing an increasingly significant role in how organisations operate. When supplied with the right data, AI can help reduce the time required for complex tasks — from weeks to just hours or minutes.
Digital future today
Digital transformation requires significant preparatory work, and neglecting this step can lead to failure. The representative noted that this shift often requires a reevaluation of existing work processes. In some cases, the presence of bureaucratic hurdles has created a clear opportunity to simplify and streamline standard operating procedures.
Among Malaysia’s recent digitalisation successes, the representative pointed to advancements in forestry and natural resource management. AI is being used to monitor forests, study topography, and analyse mineral density — reducing the need for human contact in these environments.
Given AI’s potential to reshape processes and operations, the representative added that concerns about job losses may be overstated.
Similar fears were voiced when computers were first introduced, yet over time, more jobs were created than lost. AI may follow the same trajectory, opening new opportunities even as it transforms existing roles.
Meanwhile, for Sarawak Energy, transitioning to renewable energy is no longer optional — it’s a must. “The adoption of renewable energy is crucial across the board to ensure a sustainable energy future,” Zaliha noted.
To enable and accelerate this, the adoption of new technologies is integral to managing the increased integration of renewable energy and maintaining supply reliability, she added.
Ultimately, Zaliha emphasised that innovation should be driven by existing needs, not pursued aimlessly.
“We do not digitalise for the sake of digitalisation. We focus on generating value for each investment opportunity,” she concluded.
