AIS to operate hyperscale cloud by the first quarter of 2025

This remark came as the company announced collaboration with cloud infrastructure provider Oracle in launching AIS Cloud, the country’s first locally owned and operated hyperscale cloud, by the first quarter of 2025.

The hyperscale cloud will be deployed in the company’s two data centres in Thailand, enabling public and private organisations nationwide to access more than 100 cloud infrastructure services that meet their digital transformation demands, including the latest artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Customer information will be housed within Thailand to help customers address data sovereignty and address regulatory requirements across industries. In-country disaster recovery capability, meanwhile, would be available to ensure business resilience, AIS said.

Somchai Lertsutiwong, chief executive officer of AIS, affirmed that supporting the IT infrastructure modernisation and innovation for organisations in Thailand would lead to sustainable competitive advantages for the country.

“This strategic collaboration between Oracle and AIS will not only accelerate the company’s transformation from telecommunication company to technology company, but also unlock the immense potential for digital transformation and AI innovation for all organisations,” he said.

He said AIS Cloud would be key to transforming the core operations of businesses to capitalise on the market opportunities and create differentiation to take on the competition.

“This will significantly contribute to increasing the competitive advantage of Thai organisations, attracting investments, and supporting Thailand's economic engine for sustainable growth,” he added.

He expects the collaboration to benefit Thailand in enhancing digital economy development, enabling people to boost their digital skills and ensuring data residency in the country.

Oracle executive vice president Garrett Ilg said the collaboration would empower AIS to become a hyperscale cloud provider, enabling them to build new services faster while delivering sovereign cloud and AI capabilities for its Thai customers.

“With its local expertise and deep market knowledge, AIS is strongly positioned to deliver tailored customer experiences by addressing specific customer needs related to where the workloads reside and how their cloud is operated,” he said.

He hopes that the collaboration will drive digital transformation in Thailand, along with boosting the potential of Thai people, especially younger generations.

Daphne Chung, research director of Internet Data Corporation’s cloud services and software research, expects spending on sovereign cloud to increase at 31.5 per cent compounded annual growth rate in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan.

Some 19 per cent of organisations in the region are expected to increase spending on sovereign cloud in the near future driven by compliance and regulations as well as the need for greater operational resiliency, she said.