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Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled plans to help accelerate adoption of the Thailand Government Cloud following a new agreement with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand (MDES).
Terms of the memorandum of understanding will allow MDES and Thai government agencies the option of using AWS solutions and services as part of the Government Data Centre and Cloud Service (GDCC), which runs as a central cloud infrastructure for government agencies.
Specifically, businesses will be able to leverage more than 200 fully-featured AWS Cloud services -- including security and infrastructure capabilities -- alongside identifying “strategic pilot workloads” to run on AWS through the GDCC during the next 12 months.
Central to such efforts will be an “extensive network” of AWS partners and start-ups supporting customers throughout the migration process, notably 2C2P, Omise and Amity alongside National Telecom (NT), True IDC, G-Able, Dailitech, Deloitte and Accenture.
According to Eric Conrad -- regional managing director of Worldwide Public Sector across ASEAN at AWS -- the agreement forms part of the vendor’s “ongoing commitment” to support Thailand 4.0’s digital initiatives. First launched in 2018, the initiative requires government and state-owned enterprises to set up a digital foundation to enhance citizen service delivery and drive local economic growth.
“Our work in Thailand over the past six years represents AWS’ long-term commitment to the government and the nation,” Conrad said. “We look forward to working with MDES, the Thai Government, and our extensive network of AWS partners to build a digitally skilled workforce, accelerate the country’s digital transformation, and solve some of the biggest challenges in society."
As part of the deal, government agencies nationwide can now access AWS infrastructure that spans over 26 geographic regions and 84 availability zones, including regions in Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul and Jakarta.
Cloud offerings and services delivered via the partner ecosystem span compute, storage, databases, networking and analytics, alongside machine learning, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, virtual and augmented reality and application development.
“Thailand customers can also benefit from AWS’ edge computing technologies,” Conrad stated. “These include Amazon CloudFront, a content delivery network service built for high performance, security, and developer convenience as well as AWS Outposts, a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to customer premises.”
In response, AWS will also bring an AWS Local Zone to end-users in Bangkok.
Increasing commitment to Thailand
The technology giant set up a local office in May 2016 to better support customers of both Amazon and AWS, in addition to building a dedicated AWS public sector team targeting state enterprises alongside education and healthcare sectors.
Customers in Thailand include public sector organisations such as the King Mongkhut Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Royal Thai Government and MDES, in addition to Ampos, Bitkub, Central Group, Kasikorn Business-Technology Group (KBTG), SCB Abacus, Robinhood and CP Food among others.
To further support local transformation efforts, Conrad said plans are underway with MDES to train more than 1200 employees with cloud skills through on-demand digital courses and facilitated training events.
“This means government employees can develop the skills needed to implement cloud technologies at scale, make better data-driven business decisions, and innovate new services to drive improved outcomes for citizens,” Conrad added. “To make cloud skills accessible, AWS offers over 30 free digital training courses available in Thai, with courses on topics such as cloud foundations, machine learning, data analytics, security, and more.”
AWS is also partnering with higher education institutions to help students build in-demand cloud skills prior to entering the workforce through AWS Academy, a free cloud computing curriculum for higher education institutions.
Eight Thai higher education institutions in Bangkok, Chiang Rai, and Pathum Thani have incorporated AWS Academy courses into curriculums, supported by alliances with Siam Cement Group (SCG) also.
