Companies can leverage cloud computing to accelerate their company digitalization journey to international trade. Using cloud, a company’s digital operations can take place on off-site servers by remote access. Employees can remain connected with the headquarter, whether it is data sharing, or seamless communication across international borders. This is particularly beneficial for companies looking to expand their business to international level.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – RCEP Free Trade Agreement
After 8 years of vigorous negotiation, 15 countries in Asia-Pacific have come together to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The 15 countries account for about 30% of the world’s population (2.2 billion people) and 30% of global GDP ($26.2 trillion) as of 2020, making it the world’s largest free trade agreement (FTA) in history.
The signing of the RCEP is anticipated to benefit local industries, as mega FTAs will lower the barriers of entry for Malaysia goods and services in East Asia. The biggest question, however, is whether Malaysia companies themselves are ready for its implementation, when the FTA come into full force?
Cloud Capabilities for International Trade
Cloud computing has gained its momentum and prominence due to the extremely cost-saving potentials for businesses. The following types of cloud computing give a rough idea of what they can offer and how can they benefit international trading.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS is the most basic level of cloud computing service. It provides flexible on-demand storage space and virtual computing resources. User can leverage the cloud provider’s infrastructure, namely the networking hardware, storage, and servers, through the internet on a pay-per-use basis. This gives company the flexibility in provisioning more services when needed, whilst turning them off when they are not needed via autoscaling. This way, your services will automatically respond to business traffic demand and the number of resources required, preventing unnecessary expenses when the demand is not there.
Example of IaaS: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Under the PaaS environment, the cloud provider provides a platform for companies to develop and customize their business applications by offering the hardware, operating systems, and middleware. The user is only responsible for designing and operating their web application and services. From the international trade viewpoint, applications such as customer portals, trade reporting systems, or trade transactional processing solutions can be developed in programming platform hosted on a PaaS layer.
Example of PaaS: Google App Engine, Azure App Services
Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS offers the complete package of a web application program. Users or administrators are only required to login into the applications to use them. SaaS provider will manage all the system layers from hardware to applications. From a trade finance perspective, companies can leverage SaaS to host a bank’s entire trade finance system on cloud resources provided by a trusted partner. With that, all related parties will be able to apply, track, finance and collaborate to facilitate global trade.
Example of SaaS: CGI Trade360, Surecomp
Strategic Advantages of Cloud Computing:
- Increased Affordability Through Reduced Costs: Reduce the cost of purchasing hardware and software. Reduce the cost for managing, maintaining, and upgrading physical servers.
- Focus Shift to Business Growth: Management can focus on growing the business and leave the IT management to cloud providers.
- CapEx to OpEx: Easy widespread availability and accessibility through the cloud without the need for huge installations and investments.
- Insurance for Your Data: Hassle-free disaster recovery plan protects the business from any unplanned disruptions.
Feel free to contact us for a customized cloud solution that perfectly matches your business objectives.
Written by Yen Chen (Customer Success Analyst)