Microsoft has announced its Berdayakan Ekonomi Digital Indonesia initiative, marking a significant commitment to advancing the growth and digital transformation of Indonesia – its vibrant developer and startup ecosystem, enterprises, and the public sector.
As part of the plan, Microsoft will establish its first data centre region in Indonesia to deliver trusted cloud services locally, with world-class data security, privacy, and the ability to store data in country.
The company also announced plans to skill an additional 3 million Indonesians – in AI, cybersecurity, and data science – to achieve its goal of empowering over 24 million Indonesians by the end of 2021, through its long-established skills programs designed to create inclusive economic opportunities in the digital era.
The initiative will play an important role in accelerating the country’s digital transformation, toward its vision of becoming Southeast Asia’s leading digital economy.
According to research from IDC, Microsoft’s investment is expected to generate up to US$ 6.3 billion in new revenues from Indonesia’s ecosystem of local customers and partners. Additionally, its cloud-consuming businesses are expected to contribute 60,000 jobs to the local economy over the next four years.
“As a leading global provider of advanced cloud solutions, Microsoft’s investment to establish local data centres, digital skilling and collaboration with the Government of Indonesia will support local innovation, economic recovery, and digital transformation,” said Johnny G. Plate, Minister of Communication and Information, Indonesia.
“The Ministry of Communication and Information welcomes Microsoft’s plans to establish a local data centre region with highly secure and compliant cloud services, which will benefit local businesses, government, and individuals across all sectors. We also welcome Microsoft’s commitment to increase the capacity of Indonesian digital talent across all skill levels.”
Accelerating digital agility across Indonesia
As a new data centre region, Indonesia will join the world’s largest cloud infrastructure with over 60 data centre regions announced to date. Businesses of all sizes and industries will have access to Microsoft Azure at launch, enabling anyone to invent with purpose using cloud services and capabilities that includes computing, networking, databases, analytics, AI, and IoT.
To support customer needs for high-availability and resiliency in their applications, the new data centre region will feature Azure Availability Zones, which are unique physical locations equipped with independent power, network and cooling for additional preventive measures to data centre failures.
“Our partnership with Microsoft is transforming e-commerce and operations for merchants in Indonesia. With a trusted local data centre region, we will help our 6.5 million merchants, 7 million Bukalapak partners and more than 100 million customers achieve business resiliency in the face of the pandemic.
“Equally, our combined efforts in skilling merchants and our employees will empower the digital economy, improving employability, creating opportunities, and transforming lives,” said Rachmat Kaimuddin, CEO of Bukalapak.
The Indonesia data centre region will also be in line with Microsoft’s sustainability goals, including its commitment to shift to 100% supply of renewable energy in Microsoft data centres by 2025.
