IBM Malaysia has commended the Malaysian Government for its ‘Madani Ekonomi’ vision especially policies towards advancing technology and digitalisation across various sectors.
In a media roundtable last Friday at its Kuala Lumpur headquarters, Catherine Lian (pic) expressed admiration for the governmental foresight as of Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his government team.
“The ‘Madani Ekonomi’ vision demonstrates a consolidated effort to not only advance the nation’s digital and technological framework but also to do so with an acute awareness of its impact, ensuring a balanced, responsible, and sustainable evolution towards the future – and one rooted in ethical and sustainable practices,” she said.
At its end, IBM Malaysia is aligning itself with the government’s vision, as encapsulated within these tech-centric policies and initiatives.
In aligning with the national objective of boosting the digital economy and technological advancements, IBM Malaysia aspires to further enrich the digital ecosystem through innovative solutions, strategic collaborations and the nurturing of a tech-empowered society.
Catherine cited artificial intelligence (AI) as a technology that is set to improve Malaysia’s national productivity, citing an IBM study that 75% of CEOs surveyed globally including Malaysia believe the organisation with the most advanced generative AI will have a competitive advantage.
Catherine said: “As the nation becomes more competitive and prosperous, AI is set to take the country to the next level.”
IBM has also launched watsonx, a comprehensive platform for scaling and operationalising AI, leading to favourable business outcomes.
“Through IBM watsonx platform, Malaysian organisations will have access to the toolset, technology, infrastructure and consulting expertise to build their own available AI models and deploy them at scale in a more trustworthy and open environment to drive business success,” said Catherine who was honoured with the Women in Tech Award for the private sector and NGOs at the prestigious World Innovation, Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) Global Innovation and Tech Excellence Awards 2023 (pic).
“We aim to further enrich the digital ecosystem through innovative solutions, strategic collaborations and nurturing of a tech-empowered society,” she added.
Catherine is also heartened with the focus on sustainability, which establishes measures aligned with National Transmission Energy Roadmap (NETR) targets, such as funding to facilitate energy transition, enhancements to the Corporate Green Power Programme and incentives for companies that invest in Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) related to development of carbon projects.
“Technology is a fundamental driver, playing a crucial role in mapping out commitment to progress and driving sustainability across industries,” said Catherine.
At its end, IBM is helping its customers turn sustainability ambition into action through data-driven innovation with industry-leading technology capabilities. The IBM Envizi ESG Suite, an AI-powered software, enables the streamlining of task management as part of broader ESG reporting measurements.
“Envisi empowers organisations in Malaysia to automate feedback generated between their corporate environmental initiatives and the operational endpoints being used in daily business operations – a crucial step in making sustainability efforts more scalable.”
Meanwhile on the education front, the IBM SkillsBuild initiative dovetails neatly into this national vision.
“This initiative aims to bridge the STEM skills gap in the country, emerging as an essential conduit through which learners from diverse demographics are empowered with industry-relevant skills and knowledge,” said Catherine.
On the company’s Power Systems, IBM Head of Power Systems (ASEAN, ANZ and Korea) Francis Ong (left in pic) said that the brand itself is world renowned for its scalability and performance with the most demanding workloads.
These systems, renowned for handling demanding workloads, offer significant advantages in virtualisation, management and security.
“For 14 years, IBM Power has maintained a leading reliability rating, providing a cost-effective solution for businesses, including banks, governments and large enterprises,” said Francis.
The IBM Power family comprises servers based on IBM Power processors, compatible with IBM AIX, IBM i, and Linux. “These servers are designed for agility, responding quickly to business needs without increasing the energy or carbon footprint. They offer scalable solutions with pay-per-use options and ensure data security from core to cloud through memory encryption at the processor level,” he added.
“IBM Power excels in AI inferencing and is equipped with advanced recovery and self-healing capabilities for reliable disaster recovery in the IBM Cloud.”
This reliability is evidenced by the trust placed in IBM Power by the global banking sector, with 90% of Malaysia’s Enterprise Banks utilising IBM servers. “Overall, IBM Power represents a combination of efficiency, flexibility, and cutting-edge AI optimisation, making it a leading choice in the digital world,” added Francis.
Meanwhile, IBM’s Power 10 servers, is known for addressing contemporary business challenges with their agile, secure hybrid cloud infrastructure.
“These servers revolutionise data protection with transparent memory encryption, a feature that simplifies encryption while maintaining end-to-end security without affecting performance.
“This encryption, integrated at the silicon level, requires no additional management, ensuring a seamless user experience. Moreover, the Power10 includes four times more crypto engines per core than its predecessor, Power9, boosting encryption performance and improving AES encryption speeds by 2.5 times,” said Francis.
The Power10 also tackles the challenges of AI deployment by incorporating in-core AI inferencing and machine learning capabilities. This approach reduces latency and security risks associated with data transfers in typical AI setups. The Matrix Math Accelerator in the Power10 core enhances computational power for AI tasks, achieving AI inferencing five times faster per socket than the previous model, Power E9802.
“In terms of reliability and availability, the Power10 continues IBM’s legacy of leading the industry. It offers advanced recovery and diagnostic capabilities, along with Open Memory Interface (OMI) attached advanced memory DIMMs. These improvements result in memory DIMMs that are twice as reliable and available as standard industry DIMMs, reinforcing the Power10’s position as a highly reliable and secure server platform suitable for modern IT demands, explained Francis.
Catherine concluded the session by saying that, with IBM at its side, Malaysia is assured of latest powerful technologies to enable the Madani vision, coupled with an adaptive, future-ready workforce that is well-versed in leveraging the opportunities presented by AI and other emergent technologies.
“IBM Malaysia stands ready to navigate, contribute and collaborate towards actualising the digital, economic and sustainable ambitions envisioned in ‘Madani Ekonomi’ vision, ensuring a future where technology is the cornerstone of national progress and prosperity,” said Catherine.