Microsoft to establish first datacenter region in Indonesia

Microsoft has unveiled new commitments under its Berdayakan Ekonomi Digital Indonesia initiative aimed at accelerating Indonesia’s digital transformation. 

Under the initiative, which commits to empowering every person and organisation in Indonesia to achieve more, Microsoft announces plans to establish a datacenter region to deliver trusted cloud services locally with world-class data security, privacy and the ability to store data in-country.

The tech giant has further said it will skill an additional 3 million Indonesians to achieve its goal of empowering 24 million by the end of 2021, via its long-established skills programmes designed to create inclusive economic opportunities in the digital era.

Microsoft has a long-term commitment to Indonesia’s growth, and has been “empowering industries acro ss Indonesia and preparing Indonesians with future-ready skills to improve their employability” for the last 26 years. 

However, these latest commitments signify the biggest investment the company has yet made. 

Indonesia as southeast Asia’s leading digital economy

This commitment to invest by Microsoft will accelerate the country’s digital transformation and help achieve its vision of becoming Southeast Asia’s leading digital economy. 

Research from IDC reveals that Microsoft’s investment in Indonesia is expected to generate up to US$6.3 billion in new revenues from the country’s ecosystem of local customers and partners, while its cloud-consuming businesses are expected to contribute 60,000 jobs to the local economy, over the next four years.

According to Johnny Plate, Minister of Communication and Information, Indonesia, Microsoft’s investment “will support local innovation, economic recovery, and digital transformation”, while the datacenter region with highly secure and compliant cloud services will “benefit local businesses, government, and individuals across all sectors”. 

Accelerating digital agility across Indonesia

With the new datacenter region, Indonesia joins the world’s largest cloud infrastructure with over 60 such regions to date, and local businesses of all sizes and industries will have access to Microsoft Azure at launch, enabling them to invent with purpose using cloud services and capabilities that span computing, hetworking, databases, analytics, AI and IoT. 

The establishment of a datacenter region will “enable every Indonesian business to embrace the digital economy and create disruptive innovation”, says Nicke Widyawati, President Director of Indonesian firm Pertamina. 

For Indonesian business Bukalapak, a local datacenter region will help its 6.5 million merchants, 7 million partners and more than 100 million customers “achieve business resiliency in the face of the pandemic”, states CEO Rachmat Kaimuddin.

This is especially good news for the agricultural sector, which is one of Indonesia’s critical industries where “the support of real-time, data-driven innovation through sensors on the field connected with the cloud” along with “digital farming capability graining for Young Fartmers can “make an enormous positive impact on Indonesia’s economy”, says Syrahrul Yasin Limpo, Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia. 

Empowering Indonesia’s workforce with digital skills

To enable such a cloud and AI-enabled future, Microsoft has now committed to working with universities and the Ministry of Communications and information to skill a further 3 million people, adding to its commitment to regional skills training and bringing the total to 24 million by the end of 2021. 

Such an intiative is set to empower Indonesians in AI, cybersecurity and data science through a digital literacy curriculum.