Tech Stories

Issue #54

Hello Reader,

Today I want to talk about my trip to the Databricks Data+AI Summit in San Francisco, as well as how Johor will soon host the majority of the data centre capacity in Malaysia.

And oh, a quick mention of a friend's free branding webinar happening next week.

Databricks Data+AI Summit

When time allows, I like to attend tech conferences where I listen to keynotes, media briefings, and even technical workshops. The idea is to learn about a company or industry niche to broaden my horizons.

This week, I went to San Francisco at the invitation of Databricks where I attended the Databricks Data+AI Summit over two days.

A privately held organisation, Databricks is something of an outlier. As I sat through the sessions, it was quickly clear how its focus on building an open platform, solving difficult problems that others ignore, and a relentless drive for technical excellence have won it legions of fans who go on to do incredible work with the Databricks platform.

One of them is Lavy Stokhamer of Standard Chartered Bank, who told me the astounding story of how the bank upgraded its SIEM with Databricks. Another was Santhosh Mahendiran of Vietnam's Techcombank, who presented how the data platform his team built made it possible to personalise to a group of one. Finally, I also sat down with Sachin Tonk, the deputy chief data officer at Singapore's GovTech to learn about GovTech's data journey - I'll write about these another day.

I left with a newfound appreciation for the power of data and the right tech stack.

CHECK THIS OUT

Building an impactful presence on LinkedIn?

Though I've posted daily for over two years on LinkedIn, I've never tried to advise others on branding. The reason is simple: I ignore most of the rules and am fixated on quality content - which means my advice won't help most people.

Gabi of Impactful Presence, on the other hand, has made branding her craft. She’s designed her own frameworks, understands the psychology behind it, and knows how to help others in ways that actually work.

She’s hosting a free "Build a Purposeful Brand" webinar this Wednesday. I don’t get anything out of it, but I’d encourage you to check it out if this sounds up your alley.

Learn more

Johor: From zero to 60%

In case you missed it, Malaysia's Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz this week revealed that 60% of the country's data centre capacity will come from Johor by 2030. He said this during DayOne's signing ceremony this week for its RM15 billion financing.

The rapid growth of Johor is incredible when you consider how the first data centre there was a small 10MW facility that went live in 2021. So, what happened?

I think it's a combination of opportunity, readiness, and the right policies crafted to support the data centre industry and encourage investments. After all, Malaysia already has a strong base of data centres, a surplus of power generation capacity, and certainly plenty of land for building new data centres.

And before you call it a bubble that's set to burst, I'll point out that new data centre capacity is being taken up quickly. Moreover, new phases are started almost as soon as the earlier phases are completed, suggesting strong demand. Can this be repeated elsewhere? I think it's hard to see how that can happen.

As with everything, there are challenges in Johor, too, which I outline here.

Feel free to reach me by replying to this email.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Regards,
Paul Mah.

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