The Promise of the Cloud for Digital Advancement in Indonesia

The COVID-19 pandemic suddenly came and forced humans to accept and adapt to various new habits. Policy physical distancing encourage people to be active online to reduce the spread of disease. This change in new habits has a direct impact on accelerating digital penetration in Indonesia. Many conventional companies are starting to consider investing in infrastructure and technology for the smooth running of their business.

The acceleration of digital penetration is certainly inseparable from the promise of cloud computing technology as an opening for business development opportunities by more optimally utilizing and managing data. This seems to be a breath of fresh air for conventional businesses that expect business operations to run effectively and new innovations to occur quickly. Furthermore, the government's desire for economic recovery in Indonesia after the pandemic can also be carried out immediately. But how easy is it to fulfill that promise?

At the end of 2020, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) together with Amazon Web Services (AWS) released the results of a study stating that the presence of cloud computing technology is needed in helping Indonesian companies to transform digitally. Utilization of cloud computing can cut 15-40 percent of the cost of building information technology (IT) infrastructure in a company. Not only that, by utilizing cloud computing, company productivity is also expected to increase by 25-50 percent due to business process automation.

The presence of this cloud computing technology is claimed to provide three benefits in digital transformation, namely time efficiency, cost efficiency, and faster innovation and better market penetration.

BCG estimates that if the cloud computing industry in the country grows according to its path or with a normal scenario, the impact on the Indonesian economy is estimated to reach US$36 billion during 2019-2023.

Indonesia with a population of 270,20 million people and has controlled 40% of the total value of the internet-based economy in Southeast Asia in 2019, increasingly shows its potential as the king of the internet-based economy in Southeast Asia. Indonesia also has Indonesia's internet-based economic value reaching 40 billion dollars or IDR 567,9 trillion. This figure is projected to jump 32 percent to 133 billion dollars by 2025.

In the digital era, the company's need for easy access and data integration is a must to stay relevant. Plus during the pandemic, where most of the people choose to do their daily activities online, the need for the application of cloud computing is becoming more and more needed, and cloud computing business acceleration is also getting to the sky. Because this technology can be a bridge in the midst of people choosing to remain productive in the midst of limitations. Cloud computing itself is not limited to providing services on the public internet, but can also manage infrastructure networks owned by companies or called private networks. Although it is not as easy as public cloud services, companies can still get various benefits offered by cloud computing.

The application of cloud computing has long been adapted by technology companies. One of the interesting stories is in Gojek. Ability Gojek to quickly adapt to presenting solutions for the community in the midst of a pandemic is also possible with the ease of technology for managing and optimizing data, such as features geofencing to ensure services cannot operate in areas designated as Strictly Controlled Areas (PSBB) as well as to warn and even take action automatically on partners who are systemically indicated to be congregating specifically in the Greater Jakarta area, recommendations and search engine for GoFood, reduce potency fraud, contactless delivery, and many other innovations made easy thanks to cloud computing services.

Cloud computing also helps in pricing algorithms for equalization supply and demand at certain points, for example rates at certain points will adjust if demand users are increasing and need more number of partners driver. With the tariff adjustment, the waiting time for consumers is faster. Better user experience and partners daily earnings driver also increases with the equalization of points demand.

With millions of users using the app Gojek, it is important to ensure the performance of the application functions properly. By using some of the reliability and security features of the breadth of services provided by cloud computing, then engineers can detect potential disturbances quickly. Innovation is also increasingly facilitated with cloud computing capabilities to facilitate model creation machine learning for data processing. Utilization of cloud computing certainly makes it easier Gojek to focus on the core product (core product) and encourage the acceleration of innovation. Speed Gojek to innovate drives growth Gojek exponentially even in the midst of difficult situations.

This success is certainly very likely to be adapted by other companies and organizations such as hospitals, banking, public transportation services, and government. The government sector has also improved public services with cloud computing, especially for cyber security. For example, the DPR website has utilized cloud computing services from the Electronic Certification Center, to ensure the security of electronic information, so that the potential for information hacking can be reduced.

However, with the various advantages and sweet promises that cloud computing brings, there are many things to consider in adapting cloud computing. First, there are many who doubt the security of customer data if it is stored in cloud computing because the data must be submitted to third parties. In fact, the majority of large cloud computing providers already have ISO 27001 certification which ensures the confidentiality of customer data and ensures the confidentiality of transaction and payment data is guaranteed and according to industry standards.

In terms of cybersecurity, cloud computing already has multiple layers of security, both physically in buildings data center them, as well as security from the side for mobile devices to report the, making it more difficult to hack compared to self-managed servers in office buildings. For example, cloud computing infrastructure performs data encryption, integrating security, and also continuously monitors all activity on the system, so that it can detect cybercrimes before hackers launch their attacks.

Secondly,, Government regulations related to data storage and processing in Indonesia should be further clarified to support digital acceleration in Indonesia and maintain data sovereignty. The government is currently building a state-owned cloud computing service which is planned to be completed in 2022 to safeguard the strategic data of the government and other parties.

The government needs to finalize the planning for the provision of cloud computing services and consider whether the plan will be effective in supporting the huge needs in the digital era. Building a cloud computing infrastructure itself is a tough job, because the reliability and security of the system must be maintained 24 hours a day, should not experience the slightest disturbance, especially if it has to be accessed by tens or even hundreds of millions of users in Indonesia. However, this does not mean that it is impossible to realize it in order to support digital acceleration and post-pandemic economic recovery in Indonesia.

This entry was compiled by Giri Kuncoro as a Senior Software Engineer Gojek. Previously he worked for several international companies such as VMware, General Electric, and Toshiba Corporation. He has also recorded two patents related to algorithms to control the distribution and efficiency of increasing battery power in storage systems.

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