Huawei sets up regional ‘cloud exchange’ in Iskandar Malaysia

• To aggregate 200,000+ pieces of digital content from 2,100+ partners worldwide
• These multimedia services will help telcos shape a digital service ecosystem, it says

HUAWEI Technologies Co Ltd has opened its first regional data hosting centre, the Asia Pacific Digital Cloud Exchange, in the Iskandar Malaysia development hub in the southern state of Johor.
 
The Exchange will aggregate and distribute digital music, mobile games, video and other multimedia services to telcos in Malaysia and the rest of the Asia Pacific region, the Shenzen-based ICT solutions provider said in a statement.
 
The establishment of the centre comes in the wake of an October 2013 agreement Huawei signed with Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Malaysian Government’s strategic investment fund, the company said.
 
In its statement, Huawei said that by 2020, there will be 4.6 billion mobile users and 5.9 billion smartphones. 100 billion connections will be made and the mobile market size will be over US$3.9 trillion.
 
In the light of this upcoming ‘Digital Tsunami,’ Huawei has invested an undisclosed sum to develop the Asia Pacific Cloud Exchange in Iskandar, which would aggregate over 200,000 pieces of digital content from more than 2,100 partners worldwide, it said.
 
These aggregated multimedia services will help telco operators shape a digital service ecosystem, and thus generate more revenue, it claimed.
 
“Our investment in this facility is a major milestone in making Malaysia our regional business gateway,” said Huawei Malaysia chief executive officer Abraham Liu.
 
“Malaysia’s investment-friendly policies, its skilled workforce and geographic advantages underline our confidence in the country’s potential as a Regional Digital Cloud Exchange,” he added.
 
Huawei said that today, Malaysia ranks No 15 on the Global Foreign Direct Investment Contribution Index, attracting more than 5,000 foreign companies in 2014.
 
Huawei believes that the reasons Malaysia is well-poised to attract foreign investment is the technological infrastructure and the talent the country has to offer.
 
MoUs and partnerships
 
Huawei said it will also further explore the promising digital market with local and international content providers.
 
The Asia Pacific Digital Cloud Exchange will act as a bridge between partners and telcos in digital product distribution and trading, it added.
 
It announced several new initiatives at the Exchange’s opening ceremony this morning (June 15).
 
Global mobile game distributor Uzone Games launched its Mini 4WD game in Malaysia. Les’ Copaque Production, which produces the Upin & Ipin animated series, announced that it will provide its digital content to the Asia Pacific region from the Huawei Digital Cloud Exchange.
 
Huawei also signed Memoranda of Understanding with Uzone Games, Les’ Copaque, M-Mode Mobile and Elite Entertainment to promote their digital business, and with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to encourage academia and industry collaborations.
 
“We hope that Huawei’s Digital Cloud Exchange will not only help nurture Malaysia's creative content and the vast pool of local talent and, but also create a productive and innovative digital market worth billions of US dollars,” said Liu (pic).
 
“We are keen on partnering with the public and private sectors to turn this vision into reality,” he added.
 
This was just the latest in a series of investments Huawei has made in Malaysia. In 2012, it opened its global training centre in Cyberjaya, its first outside of China, which aims to train 20,000 engineers annually.
 
In collaboration with national ICT custodian Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC), Huawei trained over 10,000 teachers and students by the end of 2014, and said it has built training labs in eight Malaysian universities.
 
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