KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 ― The government has announced conditional approvals to four cloud service providers (CSP) to build and manage "hyper-scale” data centres and cloud services, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.

This announcement, among others, is in line with the government's efforts in accelerating and creating an effective ecosystem, paving digital infrastructure under the Digital Economy Blueprint or MyDigital initiative.

"Between RM12 billion and RM15 billion will be invested CSP companies over the next five years,” Muhyiddin said during the MyDigital launch that was broadcasted live from the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

"I am pleased to announce that the government has so far given conditional approvals to four CSP companies ― Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Telekom Malaysia ― to build and manage hyper-scale data centres and cloud services.

"This hyper-scale data centres as well as hybrid cloud services will be created to increase data storage space, thus reducing operating costs and improving analytical efficiency,” he added.

"Cloud” refers to the digital data stored by data centres with servers that are connected to the Internet and can be accessed by other users.

In addition, Muhyiddin said the government has also proposed the appointment of three local ICT (information communication technology) companies as managed service providers to work with the CSPs to manage their services to agencies in the public sector.

This is in line with the government's intentions to strengthen the capabilities of local companies, he said.

The three companies are Enfrasys Solution Sdn Bhd, Prestariang Systems Sdn Bhd and Cloud Connect Sdn Bhd.

"As part of the measures to empower cloud computing services in the public sector, the government, through its ‘Cloud First’ strategy, has targeted the migration of 80 per cent of public data to hybrid cloud systems by the end of 2022.

"In addition, for a more effective and smooth data collection and management, this strategy also helps to reduce government costs in information technology management in the long run.

"All these cloud services will allow big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of things and other applications to be utilised to enhance and strengthen government services,” he added.