Hello Reader,

I just came back from Jakarta from W.Media's Indonesia Cloud and Datacenter Conference (CDC) and will be heading over to Taipei for Computex 2025 later today. So I'll keep it short today.

The Indonesian data centre market

It's been a few years since I visited Jakarta, and it was a chance to learn about the Indonesian data centre market first-hand. If there's one conclusion to draw, it's that Indonesia isn't just massive – it's truly unique.

I learned that the typical Indonesian customer prefers to spread out workloads and is extremely price sensitive. This explains why public cloud operators have made limited inroads, and why private clouds and on-premises deployments are so prevalent.

The market has its quirks, too. In an informal chat, Antony Dharmawan of Vision+ shared how Indonesian customers often sign up to watch on-demand video at the very last minute. This means traffic for the VOD platform he manages can spike from a low 2,000 concurrent streams to over two million viewers in minutes.

The spike happens so quickly that cloud autoscaling simply falls flat. The solution? Predefined cloud configurations launched up to two hours in advance. I find it intriguing, and it certainly underscores the importance of hyperlocal strategies in Southeast Asia.

The future of content

A kind gesture by Adrian Choo, who runs his own career consultancy firm, got me thinking about the future of social media and content. Speaking on national radio (SPH's Kiss92), Adrian praised me on air as "one of my favourite people" he follows on LinkedIn.

Many of you will know my views on social media platforms like LinkedIn, where it's trivial to game the system fake likes, comments, and even bought followers. There are also grey-hat strategies like churning out comments by the hundreds or outright plagiarising content.

I've always believed that what matters is real-life impact, not fleeting digital engagements. And this really hit home for me at the Indonesia CDC this week, when at least a dozen people came up to specifically express how they benefitted from what I wrote.

In a world overflowing with content, much of it forgettable, it’s heartening to be reminded that relevant, quality writing still stands out. What cuts through isn't clever wording or viral tricks – it's content that helps, informs, or offers real perspective. Would you agree?

As usual, you can reach me by replying to this email.

Regards,
Paul Mah.