Malaysia's ambitious cloud strategy to lead the regional digital hub race
National Cloud Computing Policy launched this week.
This week, Malaysia launched the National Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP) to become a leading regional cloud and digital hub by 2030.
The NCCP
The NCCP represents a whole-of-nation approach to digital transformation and was launched by Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo at the inaugural Asean AI Malaysia Summit 2025 on Wednesday.
It focuses on five core pillars to guide cloud adoption:
- Public sector transformation (through cloud).
- Help private sector grow (by harnessing cloud).
- Data protection and privacy.
- Digital inclusivity.
- Sustainability.
Crucially, the NCCP framework creates binding requirements with a mandate for confidential data to be processed within Malaysia.
From my quick read, data is tiered into four levels of sensitivity with binding requirements:
- Public.
- Internal.
- Restricted.
- Confidential.
For instance, confidential data must undergo sovereign cloud processing within Malaysia - and protected with encryption and other measures.
This hard boundary contrasts with Singapore's approach which offers more flexibility in implementation with an advisory approach.
Data centres
And of course, a cloud computing policy must mention data centres, which deliver the actual capabilities in the background.
The fifth pillar, sustainability, depends on building an efficient cloud stack - with data centres playing a crucial role.
A few pointers outlined in the NCCP that caught my eye:
- Energy-efficient hosting: virtualisation, resource pooling.
- Encourage investments in green technologies.
- Green data centres powered by renewables.
- Green building practices that minimise water usage.
The similarities with Singapore's Green Data Centre Roadmap published last year underscore that data centre sustainability is a global concern.
Hinges on private sector adoption
The NCCP does offer a detailed action plan with clear, measurable deliverables and timelines. It is also positioned as a living document that will evolve over time.
It is still early days yet, though success will depend heavily on the response of the private sector in terms of embracing the cloud.
Am interested to hear your opinion of the NCCP.
