AIMS Data Centre

AIMS, Southeast Asia leading carrier-neutral data centre operator, is the only Malaysian data centre recognised as one of the most influential in Asia by Cloudscene for the second time running.

Rankings are derived from data centre market density (number of facilities) and connectivity (PoPs) based on independent industry data from the world’s largest database of colocation facilities and service providers. The top players in each region were selected from a pool of more than 5,300 global service providers with the ranked operators managing more than 17,000 POPs, over 8% of those in Asia.

“We’re honoured to be listed amongst the best and are pleased to see our hard work result in us moving up the ranks from 8th place in the first quarter to 7th this time around,” said AIMS’ chief executive officer, Chiew Kok Hin (pic, left).

AIMS’ flagship facility in Kuala Lumpur recently became the first Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect location in Malaysia. Businesses operating in the country are now able to establish a dedicated network connection to AWS secure cloud service platform from on-premises data centres, offices or colocation facilities, resulting in lower network cost, increase bandwidth throughput and a more consistent network experience.

Besides its main data centre in Kuala Lumpur, AIMS also operates data centres in Cyberjaya, Johor, Singapore, Penang and Sabah.

“Our emphasis on creating an ecosystem that is mutually beneficial to our vendors and customers has pushed us to where we are today, and we will continue to focus on bringing the latest technologies and innovations to the fore,” Chiew concluded.

If flexibility and customisation are aims of the enterprise tech game, then it’s definitely AIMS’s game. Company veteran and CEO Chiew Kok Hin tells us how it’s done.

AIMS Group is a leader in the data-centre services industry, providing secure, robust and connectivity-rich data-storage facilities in strategic sites across Malaysia and South East Asia. With the support of its parent company, TIME dotCom, the Group’s portfolio has grown to include co-location services, managed services, network services, disaster recovery, cloud, and content delivery networks.

Its ongoing growth is testament to its competitive strength in a heated market, having seen a 24% jump in revenue last year, as well as a 14% increase in new customers, while its cloud-based services revenue grew by more than 300%.

Joining the IT industry on a whim before the dotcom boom, Chiew Kok Hin’s first experience with AIMS was as a customer-service representative in 1997. He spent the following 13 years working across each and every part of the business, losing track of the number of titles he’s had, before finally being appointed CEO in January 2010.

Since that time, he has spearheaded the growth of AIMS across new regions and capabilities, and even found time in his busy schedule to share with The CEO Magazine how AIMS has grown to become a multiple award-winning market leader.

The CEO Magazine: Over the past two decades, technology and the end users that rely on it has evolved drastically. How has the business managed to keep pace?

Kok Hin: We keep pace with an evolving industry by defining ourselves correctly in the ecosystem game, investing in green technology and efficient operating systems, as well as adhering to strict industry standards. We always strive to provide customers with the latest hardware and technology solutions, creating a comprehensive, scalable and future-ready ecosystem.

As the most interconnected data centre in Malaysia, and anchor site for the Malaysian Internet Exchange (MyIX), we now host 100% of domestic telecommunication carriers and more than 80% of foreign carriers.

In 2016, we became the first data centre in Asia Pacific to partner with Network Infrastructure Inventory Inc [Ni2] to provide an all-in-one platform for IT service management [ITSM], operational support systems [OSS], and data-centre infrastructure management [DCIM] capabilities.

This key achievement is especially noteworthy to our clientele in the financial, OTT, oil and gas, and telco sectors, which seek to outsource their IT infrastructure facilities to professional providers like ourselves to achieve better operational efficiency as well as enhanced customer experiences.

Chiew Kok Hin CEO of AIMS Group In terms of size, we have expanded our headquarters, Menara AIMS in Kuala Lumpur, by an additional three floors, resulting in a net lettable area of 15,000 square feet “taking the total size to 60,000 square feet” with added capacity to serve clients within the city.

AIMS was also recognised in 2016 with ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 certification for its IT service management system, as well as becoming Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS 3.2) certified.

What role does the prevalence of Big Data and the Internet of Things [IoT] play in driving the importance of your services?

The growth of Big Data and IoT is very complementary to our services, as both require enhanced levels of data storage, connectivity and managed services to support the growing requirements. AIMS is always on trend with the market and technology industry requirements: we are both a data centre and cloud service provider.

We are also a growing cloud business, with those new capabilities contributing to the data-centre revenue too. With our unceasing focus to deliver added value and quality to customers, we have outpaced the industry with a 24% growth rate. This was helped by several key OTT players, as well as notable insurance and retail projects over the course of last year.

AIMS specialises in carrier-neutral data centres for businesses. How is this a beneficial set-up for all stakeholders?

Carrier-neutral data centres allow the interconnection between many co-location and connection providers. It does not tie the end user to any one service provider, whether that be a telco, an ISP, or other. This provides greater diversity and flexibility for clients seeking our services, enabling us to form a healthy client ecosystem.

Being able to connect with multiple carriers in a data centre also enables redundancy, optimal uptime, and cost-efficiency. Carrier-neutral facilities tend to be in areas with increased competition and more connectivity, which lowers prices and provides better service to end users.

Because the data centre isn’t limited to one service provider, all providers in the area are naturally encouraged to offer cost-efficiency and value, ultimately producing a better product for end users.

Looking five years into the future, what strategic goals do you have for improving or growing the business further?

In the immediate future, as more and more applications and online services emerge, we believe 2017 will be another great year for us. We’ll continue to provide the customisations that our customers need to set them apart. Looking further ahead, AIMS’s target is to be the top regional data centre and managed service provider. Leveraging on TIME’s parent network, AIMS will be first targeting and growing the South East Asia region by prioritising the Thailand and Vietnam markets.

AIMS is also open for inorganic growth by acquiring suitable and synergised companies. Internal non-core business functions will be centralised with TIME for cost and business efficiency so that AIMS can focus solely in growing the data-centre business. As technology is evolving rapidly, there is a possibility that AIMS will also be offering new services, but it’s hard to pre-empt for this time frame due to the nature of the industry.

AIMS was announced as the 2017 Frost & Sullivan “Malaysia Data Centre Services Provider of the Year” on 13 April this year. It is the fourth time the company has been awarded the accolade, and the second consecutive year in a row (2006, 2014, 2016, 2017). The annual awards are held to provide recognition to organisations that have surpassed market expectations by exhibiting outstanding performance in their respective industries in the country.

• AIMS achieves ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 certification on ITSM from the British Standards Institution (BSI)
• AIMS first APAC datacentre to partner Ni2 to provide ITSM-DCIM-OSS capabilities under one single platform
• AIMS wins 2016 Data Centre Service Provider of the year award from Frost and Sullivan

Kuala Lumpur, 27 April 2016 – The AIMS Group, Southeast Asia’s leading carrier-neutral data services provider, today announces that it has achieved the international ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 certification on IT Service Management System (ITSM) from the British Standards Institution (BSI).

AIMS Group Chief Executive Officer, Chiew Kok Hin says, “The ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 certification is a highly acclaimed certification for the datacentre industry that encompasses our data centre operations, managed services and supporting functions.

“AIMS will like to take this opportunity to thank Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) for helping facilitate and subsidize this certification process that enables us to provide our customers with internationally certified business standards,” adds Chiew.

ISO 20000 is a highly respected international IT Service Management standard that promotes an integrated process approach to effectively deliver services to meet business and customer requirements and it is also the global de facto standard for IT Services. The certification was awarded to AIMS after an extensive audit by BSI Services Malaysia, a leading certification body training and business improvement provider.

AIMS partners with Ni2 to bring customers ITSM-DCIM-OSS

Following this certification, AIMS has become the first datacentre in Asia Pacific to partner with Network Infrastructure Inventory Inc. (Ni2) to provide customers with IT Service Management (ITSM), Operational Support Systems (OSS), and Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) capabilities in one platform.

“We chose Ni2 as they are the only vendor that is uniquely capable of offering ITSM-DCIM-OSS capabilities under one single platform. This is an important aspect for customers especially in the financial, oil and gas and telecommunications sectors, who are looking to outsource their infrastructure/ data centre facilities to companies like AIMS,” explains Chiew.

“With the Ni2 platform in place, AIMS will be able to provide faster and more efficient services for our customers. This investment is part of AIMS constant mission to provide world class service for our customers while continuing to deliver or even exceed our customers expected level of service,” says Chiew.

Customers can expect faster trouble shooting or automated trouble shooting, integrated monitoring, optimised infrastructure design for faster capacity delivery, improved customer experience and enhanced self-management capabilities on the customer portal.

“We are very happy to have been chosen by AIMS as its ITSM-DCIM-OSS platform provider of choice. We are also very excited to partner with the fastest growing IT service provider in the APAC region,” says Joseph Hatchuel, Ni2 CEO.

AIMS wins the 2016 Frost & Sullivan “Data Centre Services Provider of the Year” award

AIMS was recently announced the 2016 “Data Centre Services Provider of the Year” by Frost & Sullivan. AIMS had won the same award in 2014. The Frost & Sullivan Malaysian Excellence Awards is held annually to recognise outstanding organisations in Malaysia who have exceeded their industry expectations.

The award places emphasis on areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development.

“We are honoured to once again be named Frost & Sullivan ËœData Centre Services Provider of the Year.’ This exemplifies AIMS commitment to provide the best service for its customers across the region. With our new investments and ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 certification, AIMS is set to further enhance the standards of the data centre industry in Malaysia,” ends Chiew.

The AIMS Group (AIMS), Southeast Asia’s leading carrier-neutral data services provider, today announces its offering of private network connection to support Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect service.

AWS Direct Connect enables customers in Malaysia to establish a dedicated network connection to AWS Cloud from on-premises datacentre, office, or colocation environment. In many cases, using AWS Direct Connect helps reduce customer’s network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than Internet-based connections.

AIMS Group Chief Executive Officer Chiew Kok Hin shares, “We are honoured to provide the service to support AWS Direct Connect in Malaysia so that businesses can leverage the elasticity of AWS Cloud to manage their IT resources.” Businesses can now separate and maintain both a public and private environment where some resources are stored on cloud using public IP address space while critical resources will run on Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) using private IP space. These virtual interfaces can be reconfigured at any time to meet changing needs.

“AIMS has always been focused on building an ecosystem of partners and customers that are mutually beneficial to each other’s business. Our carrier neutral status offers clients the ease to connect with more than one telco creating a unique multi beneficial ecosystem of international and local clients from industries such as media, content, financial institutions, multi-nationals, tourism, gaming and more,” exclaims Chiew.

“AWS Direct Connect is important and strategic to our ecosystem of customers. We have always listened to our customers’ concerns and wish list and we believe AWS Direct Connect will benefit both our existing and future customers,” ends Chiew.

The AIMS Group announces the company’s highest ever 24% growth in revenue last year, propelling the Group well above the industry average and establishing in credibility as the leading data centre in Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur: AIMS Group, Southeast Asia’s Leading carrier-neutral data services provider, targets at least a 20 percent jump in revenue this year, driven by efforts to improve energy cost efficiency and the growth of its enterprise business.

AWS Direct Connect now has two new locations in LG U+ Pyeong-Chon Mega Center, Seoul, South Korea, and Menara AIMS, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia supporting the Asia Pacific (Seoul) and Asia Pacific (Singapore) AWS Regions respectively. Customers in these cities can now establish a dedicated network connection from their premise to AWS.

Using AWS Direct Connect, you can establish private connectivity between AWS and your datacenter, office, or colocation environment, which in many cases can reduce your network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than Internet-based connections. Connections are always made to a particular Direct Connect location, and can run at either 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps, or work with a partner to connect at speeds less than 1G.

The AIMS Group (AIMS), Southeast Asia’s leading carrier-neutral data services provider, today announced that the company recorded its highest ever 24% growth in revenue in 2016, which the group has acknowledged it’s their best ever performance in the history of its operations, again breaking last year’s growth record.

“Despite the overall difficulty and glum of 2016, AIMS managed to outdo the odds with an unprecedented 24% revenue growth that propels the group well above the industry average and establishing our credibility as the leading data centre in Malaysia,” said AIMS Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chiew Kok Hin in a statement today.

He added that in 2016 also, AIMS Group saw a 14% increase in new customers, while the data centre’s cloud-based services experienced more than 300% jump in revenue.

“Just two years ago, AIMS introduced it’s customised, private cloud services.

“Today, we are seeing how well our corporate customers have been embracing this offering as they can get the best of both worlds which are a managed data centre, with cloud capabilities,” he added.

The most inter-connected data centre

Chiew elaborates that achieving such a stellar growth in the depressed economic and market mode of the past year of 2016, is reflective that AIMS’ strategy of strengthening its carrier-neutrality factor and playing in a healthy ecosystem niche, is paying off handsomely.

“Being carrier-neutral, which also means having multiple telecommunications connectivity hosted in our data centres so our clients have the flexibility to choose their connection points and are not restricted or mandated to only one or a few.

“This makes AIMS the most interconnected data centre in the country and enables us to form a healthy client ecosystem. This unique factor has attracted international and local clients such as media, content, financial institutions, multinationals, tourism, gaming and more, who want high network redundancy,” he said.

Totalling over 70,000 square feet of data centre space, AIMS is based in central Kuala Lumpur with sites in Cyberjaya, Penang, Johor and Sabah.

Regional presence

Together with their parent company Time dotCom, AIMS has been pushing towards regional expansion by established their presence in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.

“We are strengthening our position regionally through strategic partnerships and acquisitions. We believe these are essential to our progression in the region.

“Each country has a different business culture and environment, and it is important that we venture in strategically,” explains Chiew.

Frost & Sullivan “Data Centre Services Provider of the Year” 2017

AIMS was announced as the 2017 Frost & Sullivan “Malaysia Data Centre Services Provider of the Year” on April 13 this year at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton.

The annual prestigious Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Excellence Awards was held to provide recognition to organisations which have surpassed market expectations by exhibiting outstanding performance in their respective industries in the country.

“AIMS has illustrated vivid characteristics that are strongly reflective of a leader in the data centre services industry through its comprehensive portfolio offerings which include colocation services, managed services, network services, disaster recovery and content delivery network, making it a one-stop solution centre for customers,” said P. Kavitha, research associate, ICT practice, Asia Pacific Frost & Sullivan.

“With strategic locations spread across Malaysia and SEA, its data centres are able to provide secure, robust, redundant and connectivity-rich data centre facilities and services to its diverse range of customers from varied industry verticals.

“Additionally, AIMS accelerates ahead by strategically investing in green technology to improve power capabilities in each of its data centres, resulting in increased efficiency,” adds Kavitha.

“AIMS’ competitive advantage in being one of the most highly interconnected telecommunications hubs within the region, as well as providing a one stop customisable solution for its customers further boasts the company’s value proposition to current and future customers to meet the increasing needs while experiencing continued unparalleled success within the sphere,” Kavitha explained.

“We are honoured to once again receive the Data Centre Provider of the Year Award for 2017 from Frost and Sullivan.

“This award is a further recognition of our outstanding progress and the inroads we have made in the industry in 2016.

“None of which would be possible without the trust our customers have placed on us and we thank them for continuing to be part of us,” said Chiew.

“Content continues to dominate every aspect of our lives. As more and more applications and online services emerge, we believe 2017 will be another great year for Aims.

We will continue to provide the customisations that our customers need as well as the latest technology that can set our customers apart from their competitor,” he said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ – Frost & Sullivan today honored top Malaysian firms at the 13th annual Malaysia Excellence Awards banquet, held at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur.

Mr. Hazmi Yusof, Senior Vice President and Malaysia Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan said that the award recipients have demonstrated a unique approach to doing business in the local market. Frost & Sullivan is proud to recognize these companies for their strategic ideas that drive corporate growth, he added.

Perodua, Mah Sing, U Mobile, Celcom Axiata, AIMS, CBRE Malaysia, PWB, Pharmaniaga and POS Malaysia were amongst companies honored.

The Malaysia Excellence Awards aims to recognize Malaysian companies for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices.

The findings of the detailed evaluation are then presented to a panel of independent judges comprising influential personalities and leaders in Malaysia, to decide the recipient for the ICT categories. For more information, please visit www.malaysia-awards.com

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