SIJORI Week took place this week, featuring multiple conventions and gatherings across Batam, Johor, and Singapore. I stayed in town but attended the OCP 2025 Tech Day and CDC Singapore 2025.
It's been a long week, so I just want to talk about two things today: the thriving data centre ecosystem in the region and the continued role of private cloud.
A thriving ecosystem
Ashton Soh introducing his SGTech team.
I’ve already written a couple of stories after attending OCP Tech Day and CDC Singapore 2025, which I’ll leave you to read below.
One conversation that stuck with me happened during a networking session with a researcher. She worked at a firm providing investment decision support tools and services. During our brief chat, she expressed surprise at how I seemed to have an endless stream of insights about the data centre industry.
The reality? I don't.
I’ve spoken with my fair share of researchers and analysts, and there’s simply no comparison between the rigour of their painstaking work and what I write. I only cover what I know - whereas they can’t afford to leave any stone unturned.
Still, we’re all part of a vibrant, growing ecosystem, one made up of engineers, operators, consultants, investors, and leaders all working at different layers of the stack to push the data centre industry forward. And I’m encouraged by how much the industry has grown, judging by the range of people I met across so many different roles.
I’m just glad to play a small part in helping others understand the space a little better, and maybe even get them thinking differently.
To those who pinged me for a quick meetup or stepped forward to say hi - thank you. Many of you shared how you read what I write, heard from others who have, or encouraged team members to. That kind of support means more than you might think.
By the way, I finally penned an "About" page for Tech Stories here.
Why we still need the private cloud
AWS drove this 18-wheeler onto stage in 2016.
Earlier this week, I finally put pen to paper on a shift I've been observing for some time: why some businesses are quietly moving away from the public cloud.
I still vividly remember this photo I took of an 18-wheeler being driven onto stage in 2016 at AWS' annual re:Invent conference in Vegas. The Snowmobile truck-based data transfer service was touted as a way to transfer petabytes of data cross country and was apparently used a fair bit back then.
At the time, bold proclamations of migrations to the public cloud were common. But while many found success embracing it, others found it unsuitable. Common problems revolve around high recurring fees, unpredictable costs, and exorbitant egress charges - the fees incurred when data is transferred out of a cloud provider’s infrastructure.
Today, the gap between private and public cloud is smaller than ever, and many organisations including banks, stock exchanges, and successful online retailers have quietly deployed their own private clouds. It’s perhaps no surprise that AWS quietly decommissioned Snowmobile last year.
This might be a good moment to take a fresh look at what the private cloud can offer - and where it fits in a more mature cloud landscape. For now, you might want to read what I wrote about the top myths surrounding the private cloud.
As always, you can reach me by replying to this email.
Regards, Paul Mah.
Leave a comment
You can now comment on stories published on techstories.co. If you received this newsletter from me, your account was created automatically.
All you need to do:
Scroll to Member discussion and sign in with the email used for this newsletter.
An email message with a magic link is sent immediately. Click to log in.
Comment away.
Spotlight
A week of candid conversations with data centre insiders
Over 1,500 gather at the premier data centre event of the year.
