Securing digital transformation for SEA businesses

Tommy Li, Vice President of Tencent Cloud

The introduction of EdgeOne, an improved one-stop platform integrating Tencent Cloud’s expertise in network performance and security with high efficiency and stability for multinational organizations, was recently announced.

We examine the commercial need of balancing network performance and data security amid today’s fast enterprise digitalization in light of this revelation, and we discuss how Tencent Cloud EdgeOne can support companies all over the world in their digital transformation.

This is especially true given that Southeast Asia is at the forefront of the global digital revolution and that the complexity of the local network environment is only increasing. In fact, 68% of firms in the Asia Pacific region experienced a breach in 2021, up from 61% in 2020, highlighting the growing need of having security measures in place.

CIO World Asia spoke with Tommy Li, Vice President of Tencent Cloud.


Challenges when businesses face stepping into digitalization

“Every organization is on a different point on the digitalization spectrum.” Tommy Li, Vice President of Tencent Cloud explained.

Choosing the best digital solution to use is a typical difficulty for businesses that are just beginning their journey.

The capital-output ratio, the effectiveness of new technologies, the digital skill sets of employees, and most importantly, whether this will assist the business in constructing long-term digital capabilities, must all be carefully taken into account when undertaking digital transformation initiatives.

According to a recent EY report, more than half of Southeast Asian SMEs are still in the early stages of digital maturity, with several parallel digitalization efforts that are mostly out of sync with the larger company plan. This indicates that the digital initiatives implemented are largely ineffective and inefficient from a financial standpoint.

Businesses frequently overlook the significance of corporate culture for those farther along in their digital transformation path. Digitalization is both a technological and cultural transformation. The first step is to implement digital solutions, but more importantly, businesses must make sure that teams have the skill sets necessary to use these solutions for optimal productivity and efficiency. Long-term upskilling would be prioritized in the workplace if employees had access to chances for digital training and were possibly rewarded for taking use of them.

How do businesses can find the right balance between safeguarding their business data and network performance

The key to striking a balance between data security and network performance is having a long-term and integrated thinking approach.

“Consider the building of a fort: it might take time and resources to build a strong base, but it is also more likely to stay standing in the face of a siege.” Tommy Li, Vice President of Tencent Cloud added.

There is no requirement to select and give one consideration precedence over the other. The easiest method to comprehensively balance these factors is to keep integration top of mind when choosing the type of digital solutions to employ. Additionally, this increases cost effectiveness and simplicity by allowing for the management of a single digital solution that can satisfy both data security and network performance needs.

 EdgeOne keeping their edge ahead of digitalization

Looking ahead, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) explosion has resulted from the advent of cutting-edge technologies over the past ten years, including cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain. The old approach to security is no longer viable as IoT apps adopt use-cases from the industrial sector and as there is a widespread migration to the cloud. Instead, data security plans need to be expanded to include a wider variety of tactics, such as cloud-native, AI, and defense-in-depth, going beyond edge security alone.

EdgeOne is a strategic offering that offers the edge knowledge of Tencent Cloud to international companies wanting to open up new use-cases. Tencent Cloud is constantly thinking forward to see how Tencent Cloud can collaborate with enterprises to push the limits of edge computing applications because Tencent Cloud believes that edge computing has huge promise in the future. Tencent Cloud is still dedicated to developing their edge capabilities to support our customers’ ability to work more securely, agilely, and comfortably.

With EdgeOne, businesses can focus on growing their business to sustain growth without having to worry about the minute details of operational requirements.

3 trends in digitalization that may impact data security

  • Regarding data security, consumers are getting more picky. In a poll done earlier this year, it was discovered that 90% of Asian respondents had reservations about corporate data practices and that more than 60% of them considered a company’s data policies when deciding whether or not to use its goods or services. Evidently, whether businesses sell to customers directly or are a part of a supply chain, meeting these expectations is essential to staying ahead of the competition.
  • Solutions for data security are developing quickly. Many innovative ideas have passed the testing stage and are currently being scaled up for actual use-cases. In particular, we are seen a rise in the use of privacy-enhancing computing technology, which is swiftly emerging as one of the businesses’ preferred data security solutions focused on compliance.
  • Governments all across the world are updating their public sector data protection regulations. In addition, as the use of digital solutions continues to soar internationally, efforts are being made to speed up the implementation of associated practices to safeguard data across sectors. In fact, according to Gartner, by 2023, current privacy laws will encompass the personal data of 65% of the world’s population.