Highlighting TM Global’s GPU-as-a-Service with Nizam Daliman

Hey, everyone. Welcome back here to Text Drug tv. I'm happy to have, you know, I love when guests join us from all over the world.

Our next guest is joining us from Malaysia. His name is Zaman Za. Are you in kl, or where are you?

Where are you located? Yes, I'm in Kuala Lumpur. Yes.

Very cool. Thank you for joining us, and I appreciate given the time, differences and everything, uh, you getting on with us to record this. No worries.

Um, so, so Nizam, you are the VP of International Sales and Partnerships for Telecom Malaysia Global. Right? Right.

And that, I guess, means that you're dealing mostly with outside of Malaysia business for, for Telecom Malaysia. Um, before we talk about that, your role presently at Telecom Malaysia, let's talk about where you've been, how you got here. Tell people a little bit about your, your journey.

Okay. Um, thank you, uh, Alan and Textron tv. You know, for the opportunity for us to have this session today.

Um, I'm Niman I've been in telecom, you know, uh, not surprisingly for 30 years. Three zero. Yeah.

Uh, and then I think, uh, for the past 20 years I have been involving in international wholesale business, um, starting as a account manager for Indonesia. And then I think from there I start to, I mean, uh, grow, you know, from, uh, the coverage standpoint until, uh, I think, um, four years back, you know, being, um, promoted to the position of, uh, vice president international sales for TM Global, taking care of, um, uh, the whole international market, um, for telecom leisure. It has been exciting journey.

Um, uh, a lot of learning. And then, um, I managed to meet up with great peoples, you know, around the world, uh, for, uh, for this job. Absolutely.

Now, there's, um, look, our audience is a global audience, as I mentioned, from North America, south America, Europe, middle East, Africa, um, and there's a lot of global telecom providers. Give us a little bit about, uh, telecom Malaysia and kind of its footprint, its offering, I mean, beyond obviously being the national tele tele carrier for Malaysia. So with internally, right?

You are the, the majority, uh, uh, telecom provider within Malaysia itself, which of course includes Koala Lumpur and, and everything, but on a global, and that's your business, right? Yeah. It's global sales, international sales and partnership.

How does it interact on that global stage? Okay. I, I think, um, uh, telecom, leisure, um, uh, as a integrated, uh, telecom providers in Malaysia that wanted to move into, uh, digital services, uh, smart solution, um, I, I think we have a very distinct strategy to expand as well.

Uh, and then when it comes to expansion, we not only focus on, uh, domestic, but also international. We have been in international for earlier than, um, I, I, I, I joined global, you know, uh, through our involvement, uh, in early days, uh, for, uh, what call it, uh, partnership, uh, with ITU in developing, uh, uh, old cable system, for example, safe SAT that goes to Africa and rest, you know, and then from there we start to expand. And then I, I think at the current moment, TM Global, we have, uh, six offices around all we have in, uh, us, uh, in uk, in Dubai, in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Um, we have, um, our team, uh, located, uh, throughout, uh, the world. And then I think, uh, our footprint, uh, can be represented by how many pops that we have. We have almost a 160 CDN pop worldwide.

Yeah. Uh, we invest on, uh, submarine system more than, uh, 30 submarine system. And then I think lately, uh, we expedite, uh, some of those development further.

Um, uh, from fiber kilometer standpoint, I think we're looking at 740 kilometers, uh, for a thousand kilometers for domestic fiber, and 240 kilometers of 240,000 kilometers on, uh, international front. Um, I think, uh, that will give us, um, uh, a lot of, uh, capacity and infra. Uh, nevertheless, I think our main focus is actually Assan region.

You know, if you ask me, you know, what is the main focus for telecom Asan region will be where the most investment that we have, um, from, uh, the Indochina, uh, Malaysia, Singapore, uh, and then down to Indonesia, uh, nevertheless, you know, uh, to, to take, uh, what the position of T-M-U-S-E, um, is an extended arm for, for telecom leisure. And then we deal with, uh, all American hyper skillet, you know what I mean? Uh, all of them is actually clientele.

Uh, we deal with American Telco as well, uh, at t Verizon. Sure. Lumens, you know, um, uh, we deal mm-hmm.

With Netflix, apple, you know, so those are among the, uh, what they call it, uh, big clienteles of ours, uh, through, uh, the international connectivity, uh, some of the capacity on infra from, from, from tier John, well, lips in, you know, the, a Asian market, AP market as we call it here, as you've outlined, is, is it's a good market to be in. It's really growing fast. There's a lot of exciting Yes.

Stuff. These are, you know, economies that are really pacing the world. So it's, it's a great place to be.

If you don't mind this on my, I want to, um, focus in on a recent, uh, new offering that, uh, telecom Malaysia launched. Yeah. GPU as a service.

This, in this case, it's sovereign GPU as a service. Um, of course, everyone is excited with ai. Everyone has all, you know, big hopes about what AI is going to, what changes AI is going to bring.

It's already bringing changes, but we've really just, I always like to say we're at the beginning of the beginning, not even the end of the beginning with this stuff, but, but talk to us about, you know, what Summit of Telecom Malaysia is about this offering for GPU as a service. Yeah. Okay.

Um, um, I, I think, I think when, when it comes to GPUI, I think let us talk a bit about our journey. Yeah. Um, uh, before we arrived into GPU in the, I, I think seven or eight years back, you know, um, telecom invest on, during those time, we call it mega mega dc, uh, there are twin core mega dc, uh, which is, uh, about 10 megawatt each, which is, I think at current standard is minute why I say minute.

I will tell you what we are doing now. Yeah. Um, so seven, eight years back, we have a 10 megawatt DC each one in Clung Valley in Copo, and another one in IPDC in al.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. And then, uh, because of the demand, uh, I think, uh, three years back, the capacity was full, and then we start to upgrade.

We will have a, uh, extension of our current DC with, uh, additional of, uh, 20 megawatt, uh, uh, 10 10 each. Yeah. So we have almost like 20 in C Crown Valley and 20 in, uh, Jehova in in IPDC, uh, but, uh, taking into the position where the demand for, uh, the, uh, the cloud services, the hyperscaler, the ai, and then I think tm, uh, now ventures into much bigger DC collaboration.

We entered into agreement with Syntel to develop a GV company, uh, we call it tm, uh, like Sarah. And then this new entity will develop a 64 megawatt DC in one location, which able to grow up 200 megawatt, which is like 200 megawatt. Wow.

So you're going from 10 to 20 to 210 x. Yes. Yes.

So, so that's why I, I say seven years back, it was minute, and then now it's big. But, but, but that almost like a, a current typical implementation in this part or world. Uh, I think the demand is pretty much drive through the hyperscaler, the cloud providers.

You know, I think, um, uh, the, uh, all the what the application for the enterprises, you know, and, and, and tm, uh, I think, um, realized that the demand for AI and GP start to coming in, and then I think late last year in 2024, we start to work on, uh, implementation of, uh, Nvidia GPU, uh, as a service. Yeah. So I think by now we have, um, uh, uh, the service been offered.

Um, the intention is pretty much to see, I mean, how the development of, um, uh, all the application, um, and then how the ai, uh, telecom ourself, uh, being drive by power 2030. There is a team for us, uh, we call it power, uh, 2030, where we wanted to become a digital pop powerhouse. AI is become the center of it.

Yeah. So, GPU as a service, uh, I think is, uh, one of the item which is important for us, not because of, uh, the GPU itself, but we believe TM sit in, um, uh, in the center for where we have the, the data center, we have the connectivity, uh, we have the infrastructure, we have the H network, you know, so we'll support the whole ecosystem because I think GPU, uh, alone without the connectivity, the itch, uh, facilities that go deep into, uh, the eyeballs, you know, in Malaysia, and, and then I think, uh, it would not have not able to bring the, the best experience for our customer. So I think, I think by, by, by doing that, we believe that, um, um, more and more AI enable, or GPU enable kind of, uh, DC um, uh, can be, um, implemented, um, in in telecom leisure, uh, with that, um, we hope we can be supportive towards, uh, the industry and then, uh, achieve our, uh, digital team for 2030.

I love it. You know, so the, look, this is, uh, this is a common theme we're hearing around the world, right? I, I'm sure you probably were following, uh, I think it was last week, US delegation led by, uh, president Trump was in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, and, uh, they announced a huge AI campus to be built at UAEI forget how many, yep.

GPUs and everything. The, and this, this announcement here, this is a very similar vein, right? Yep.

We're building, we're building all of this capacity for GPU AI services, and of course, software is part and parcel of that, but these, um, are we getting out in front of ourselves? Is the demand, there is this kind of being built on the commas, they say, right. That we hope the demand will be there.

And so we're building it, you know, because this is a big gamble. We're talking big money, right? You don't build a 200 megawatt capacity Yeah.

You know, for a few, a few dollars, of course, a lot of capital, right? Right. Right.

Yeah. How do you, are you seeing that kind of demand or you are hoping to see that kind of demand? So I think, I think if, if you look from, from, from the growth, you know, for the past seven years, yeah.

Uh, I think in Malaysia, uh, I think from some of the analysts, uh, we are looking at two gigawatt kind of, uh, capacity, uh, for the next three years. Uh, so, uh, uh, uh, and then, and then that represent of giga almost like 20%. Uh, there are some other report that's saying higher, you know, but I think we are being guided by 20% kind of giga, uh, with two gigawatt kind of requirement, uh, in Malaysia.

Yeah. So, uh, in, in that, in that respect, you know, two, 200 megawatt is small in comparison to two gigawatt requirement. Yeah.

So it's, uh, uh, Again, 10%, yeah. 10%, Yes, yes. Um, 10%.

Uh, and then, and then I think, I think, uh, what we wanted to do, uh, because, because I, I think the, the, the question about ai, um, although we have a Gemini chat, GBT, uh, uh, all, all those things, you know, but I think, I think something which is maybe people talking about is about sovereign ai, meaning yes. Uh, AI that can, uh, have a reference for Malaysian government, for example, um, where the data need to be, uh, reside, uh, in Malaysia, uh, AI that work on a specific, uh, I, for example, telco, us, you know, telecom Asia, and few others, uh, uh, partners is working on, uh, consolidated, uh, what they call it, um, AI lending for, uh, telco model where it assists in term of, uh, network operation prediction. Yeah.

So, so, uh, every verticals that we are saying, uh, be it, uh, pharmaceutical, be it hospitality, be it on financial services, I think AI become the, the top, top item by every C-I-O-C-T-O. And then, and I think everybody, if we, we ask, you know, everybody is jumping into ai. Uh, so TM believe that, uh, is something which is very, uh, early stage.

And then we wanted to capture, uh, that kind of demand. And then not only from, uh, the capacity ai, uh, the, the capacity of dc, but, uh, as well for the infrastructure. So Malaysia connected to Singapore, Malaysia, connected to Thailand, Indonesia, neighboring country, you know, so I think, I think that will provide a comprehensive ecosystem, uh, for the AI development, uh, in their respective way.

Yeah. So, so we believe, uh, um, as, as, as we mentioned with the strategic sta that we look at, you know, um, I, I think, uh, the future is bright, and then we hope that we can capture a bigger market share in, in this space. I love it.

Ms. Um, for anyone watching who wants to get more information on this, is it available on the TM Global website? Yes.

Yes. Yes. Uh, I, I think, uh, TM Global website, uh, we will have all, all the information, uh, of our services, and then I think there are contact, uh, person as well, um, um, over there that, that people can, uh, access and reach.

Yeah. Uh, I'm available, you know, for everybody to call me up, uh, great to, uh, to be, uh, what call it, uh, uh, to connect with, uh, partners, clients, you know, and, and customers, uh, globally. Excellent.

What is the website for TM Global, do you know? com. Do ny and then they will have a slash inside, which is a TM global you, uh, I mean, people can access into it.

And then we'll get into Tech Global, Go from there. All right. Knees up.

Exciting times, right? We're all, we're all, uh, betting big on AI here, and we'll see how as it, it fills, as it fills the container, if you will. Yeah.

Thank you for coming on Techstrong tv. It's great to have you on, Alan. Thank you so much, Alan.

Uh, and, uh, thank you Textron tv. Uh, I, I hope we, we can have a, a feature develop, uh, again with you guys. Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Always.

All right. Nizam Daliman, man, VP International Sales Partnerships at TM Global, that's Telecom Malaysia Global here on Textron tv. We'll take a break.

We'll be right back.