French aeronautics and defence multinational, Thales Group, is co-locating an InFlyt experience cloud centre of excellence (CCoE) with its existing Thales Digital Factory in Singapore.
The new cloud centre of excellence is expected to create around 30 highly-skilled jobs in cloud computing, design and engineering fields.
The centre will work on a broad spectrum of in-flight entertainment (IFE) digital services and technologies linked to the cloud.
It will cover site reliability expertise, security analysis and other “push-to-cloud” projects, working in the agile and lean methodology of the digital factory, Thales said in a statement.
Projects like maintenance of aircraft systems and integration of on-board payment options or third-party solutions like gaming will be within the ambit of the projects undertaken by the centre.
The CCoE’s cloud-certified and DevOps engineers will drive digital projects locally that will advance the progress of inflight entertainment technology, with solutions that address actual customer pain points and challenges, the Thales spokesperson added.
Security engineering centre
Thales has also established a digital identity and security engineering competence centre (ECC) in Singapore with a team of 350 engineers working on advanced research, product development, and project delivery for customers worldwide.
As part of its collaboration with Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), close to 200 of these engineers will work on new digital innovation in the areas of fifth-generation mobile telephony (5G), fintech and biometrics.
The research will include software engineering and development of 5G offerings, including e-SIMs for the consumer and automotive markets, embedded secure elements and digital services for telecommunications operators, such as trusted digital identity.
Working with more than 450 global telecommunications operators, Thales already has a strong presence in the 5G SIM sector in Singapore, offering solutions for the three major national mobile network operators in the country.
Thales engineers from the ECC will also engage in software engineering and development for the fintech sector, including research on security software for biometric payment cards, mobile security and risk-based authentication software, as more governments and institutions accelerate the pace of adoption for digital financial services.
In addition, other teams in the ECC will work on advanced research for biometrics, including embedded AI for enhanced biometric card authentication and using AI algorithms and machine learning for ID fraud prevention, offering governments and enterprises solutions for secure identity management.
“Over the last decade, we are grateful and privileged to have had the strong support of the EDB to grow our presence and reputation as a digital technology leader here," Thales Singapore country director and chief executive Kevin Chow said.
"We are excited about the next growth chapter, as we further develop our local competencies in new and fast-growing areas such as 5G, cloud, biometrics and fintech.”
Tan Kong Hwee, EDB’s executive VP added: “We look forward to Thales’ activities to develop innovative solutions, products and services for the world, from Singapore”
