Energy & Technology

HANGZHOU:  Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, today announced it has released over 100 of its newly-launched large language models, Qwen 2.5, to the global open-source community. This significant contribution was revealed at the Apsara Conference, its annual flagship event. In addition, Alibaba Cloud has unveiled a revamped full-stack infrastructure designed to meet the growing demands for robust AI computing. This new infrastructure includes innovative cloud products and services that enhance computing, networking, and data center architecture, all aimed at supporting the thriving development and wide-range applications of AI models. “Alibaba Cloud is investing, with unprecedented intensity, in the research and development of AI technology and the building of its global infrastructure. We aim to establish an AI infrastructure of the future to serve our global customers and unlock their business potential,” said Eddie Wu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. 100 Open-sourced Models Unveiled The newly released open-source Qwen 2.5 models, ranging from 0.5 to 72 billion parameters in size, feature enhanced knowledge and stronger capabilities in math and coding and are able to support over 29 languages, catering to a wide array of AI applications both at the edge or in the cloud across various sectors from automobile, gaming to science research. The Qwen model series, Alibaba Cloud’s portfolio of proprietary large language models, has achieved remarkable traction since its debut in April 2023. To date, the Qwen models have surpassed 40 million downloads across platforms such as Hugging Face and ModelScope, an open-source community initiative by Alibaba. Furthermore, these models have inspired the creation of over 50,000 models on Hugging Face. The Qwen 2.5 release will see over 100 models being made open-source. This extensive range includes base models, instruct models, and quantized models of various precision levels and methods, spanning different modalities such as language, audio, and vision, along with specialized code and mathematical models. “Today marks a significant milestone as we launch our most expansive open-source initiative to date,” said Jingren Zhou, Chief Technology Officer of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “This initiative is set to empower developers and corporations of all sizes, enhancing their ability to leverage AI technologies and further stimulating the growth of the open-source community. We remain committed to investing in advanced AI infrastructure to foster the widespread adoption of generative AI technologies across different industries.” Alibaba Cloud also announced an upgrade to its proprietary flagship model Qwen-Max. The enhanced Qwen-Max model demonstrates performance on par with other state-of-the-art models in areas such as language comprehension and reasoning, math, and coding. Expanding the Frontier in Multimodal In addition to its extensive suite of large language models, Alibaba Cloud also unveiled a new text-to-video model as part of its image generator, Tongyi Wanxiang large model family. The new model is capable of generating high-quality videos in a wide variety of visual styles from realistic scenes to 3D animation. The model can generate videos based on Chinese and English text instruction and transform static images into dynamic videos. The model features advanced diffusion transformer (DiT) architecture to enhance video reconstruction quality. The cloud leader is also deploying a significant update to its vision language model with the introduction of Qwen2-VL, capable of comprehending videos lasting over 20 minutes and support video-based question-answering. Equipped with sophisticated reasoning and decision-making capabilities, Qwen2-VL is designed for integration into mobile phones, automobiles and robots, facilitating the automation of specific operations. For computer programming, Alibaba Cloud has also launched an AI Developer, a Qwen-powered AI assistant designed to support programmers automate tasks such as requirement analysis, code programming and identifying and fixing software bugs. This enables developers to concentrate more on essential duties and further their skills. A Full-Stack AI Infrastructure Upgrade The cloud pioneer has also announced a slew of innovative updates to its full-stack AI infrastructure covering green datacenter architecture, data management, model training and inferencing: Next-Gen Data Center Architecture for Surging AI Development: To meet the increasing and diverse demand for high-performance computing power driven by the global AI boom, Alibaba Cloud has revealed its next-generation data center architecture, CUBE DC 5.0. The new CUBE architecture increases energy and operational efficiency with a set of advanced and proprietary technologies such as wind-liquid hybrid cooling system, all-direct current power distribution architecture and smart management system and reduces deployment times by up to 50% compared to traditional data center builds through prefabricated modular designs. Open Lake Solution to Maximize Data Utility: As organizations face challenges in managing vast amounts of data amidst the growing demand for generative AI, Alibaba Cloud introduces Alibaba Cloud Open Lake which can seamlessly integrate big data engines into a unified solution, maximizing data utility especially for generative AI applications. By integrating workflows, performance optimization, and robust governance in a single platform, it achieves efficient resource usage through compute-storage separation, clear data governance, and significant cost and time savings. AI Scheduler with Integrated Model Training and Inference: Alibaba Cloud has launched PAI AI Scheduler with integrated model training and inference, a proprietary cloud-native scheduling engine designed to enhance computing resource management. Through utilizing intelligent integration of diverse computing resources, flexible resource scheduling, real-time tasks adjustments, and automatic fault recovery, it can achieve over 90% of effective compute utilization rate. DMS for Unified Management of Metadata: To help organizations efficiently manage their data and unleash values, Alibaba Cloud introduced DMS: OneMeta+OneOps, a platform that enables a unified management of over 40 types of data sources in database, data warehouse, and data lake across multiple cloud environments. The platform will boost data utilization rate by 10 times, significantly enhancing the efficiency of transforming data into valuable intelligence. More Powerful Elastic Compute Service: Alibaba Cloud also introduced the 9th Generation Enterprise Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance during the conference. The latest generation of ECS instances has notable performance enhancements, including a 30% increase in search recommendation speed and a 17% improvement in the effectiveness of reading and writing Queries Per Second (QPS) when applying to database products compared to the previous generation. These updates are designed to provide more comprehensive

SINGAPORE: UnionPay, a global leading payment brand, has partnered with AXS, Singapore’s leading payment solutions provider, to offer convenient and secure bill payment services through the UnionPay App for Mainland China residents living in Singapore. Through this collaboration, over 500 million registered users of the UnionPay App users who are using UnionPay cards issued in Mainland China, can have the option to pay for all primary household and educational bills, along with top-ups and e-Services provided by Singapore organisations using the AXS payment tile in the UnionPay App. Chin Mun Chung, CEO of AXS Services, said: “This partnership with UnionPay reflects our commitment to enhancing financial convenience for users, regardless of their location. By integrating UnionPay’s widely downloaded UnionPay App with AXS’s trusted payment platform, we are empowering Chinese nationals to manage essential bill payments in Singapore, seamlessly and securely. This collaboration is a testament to our ongoing efforts to provide innovative solutions that cater to the needs of a global user base.” Carine Low, Singapore Country Manager of UnionPay International, said: “AXS is the most commonly used fast and secure bill payment platform in Singapore. We are very pleased to collaborate with AXS to offer yet another bill payment option on UnionPay App. This will allow Mainland China residents living in Singapore the timely and effortless payment of their monthly bills. I have no doubt that UnionPay App users will find convenience in paying for bills instantly with AXS.” UnionPay and AXS Partnership: A seamless cross-border bill payment solution This collaboration between UnionPay and AXS brings greater convenience for Mainland China UnionPay cardholders to consolidate their bills and making payment through the AXS tile in the UnionPay App. The new service, accessible through the UnionPay App’s AXS tile, allows UnionPay App users who are using UnionPay cards issued in Mainland China, to securely pay over 10 categories of Singapore bills, including living expenses and student services, directly using their card bound in their UnionPay App. How it works Users can make straight forward payment with upfront service fee including adding up to eight payment items in one transaction (except condominium Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) payments, which payment could be made as a standalone payment), with a maximum payment of S$2,000 per transaction and a low service fee of 2% charged upfront. Payments take 3-5 business days, and users will receive an e-Receipt via email upon successful transaction completion. The new AXS tiles support payments such as: General living expenses Season parking Town council fees Healthcare Storage Electricity Condo management fees Home services Student services Education The partnership between UnionPay and AXS marks a significant milestone in enhancing the convenience of Mainland China residents living in Singapore. Whether managing household expenses, ensuring timely payment of educational fees, or covering essential services, the UnionPay and AXS collaboration ensures efficient and secure payments, enabling users to focus on what truly matters. Users can download the UnionPay App to access the AXS tile. Welcome to the future of hassle-free, cross-border financial management.

SUBANG JAYA: G-AsiaPacific, subsidiary of K-One Technology Berhad, recently crowned the AWS Partner of the Year Malaysia 2024, celebrates the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region, a strategic move that positions Malaysia as a key digital transformation hub in Asia. Malaysia: The Emerging Digital Transformation Hub The establishment of the AWS Region in Malaysia underscores the country’s growing significance in the global technology landscape. By bringing world-class cloud infrastructure closer to developers, startups, and enterprises, as well as government, education, and non-profit organisations, will have greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from AWS data centres located in Malaysia. G-AsiaPacific is proud to be an AWS Advanced Tier Partner to continue to empower local enterprises and public sector organisations to leverage advanced cloud technologies effectively. “Malaysia is poised to become a leader in the digital landscape within ASEAN, and the launch of the new AWS Region plays a critical role in that journey,” said Mark Goh, CEO and Co-founder of G-AsiaPacific. “By providing businesses such as retail and manufacturing, logistics, automotive, healthcare with access to the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud while meeting data residency preferences, we are facilitating faster and more efficient adoption of cloud technologies across industries. This is a significant step towards realising Malaysia’s vision of becoming a regional digital economy powerhouse.” Catalyzing Growth and Innovation The new AWS Region in Malaysia will offer Malaysian businesses, from startups, small and medium sized businesses to large enterprises, as well as government and public sector organisations the ability to innovate at scale, reduce latency, and meet data residency preferences. G-AsiaPacific is uniquely positioned to help organisations capitalise on these new opportunities through its deep expertise in AWS services and cloud advisory capabilities. For instance, by optimising the e-commerce platform of leading Malaysian retailer Padini, G-AsiaPacific ensured seamless online shopping experiences, even during peak sales periods. This is just one example of how businesses can benefit from the local presence of AWS infrastructure, enabling faster data processing and cost-effective scalability. TF Value Mart, one of the largest retail chains in Malaysia, managed to save 35 percent on infrastructure costs by migrating to AWS in 2018 under G-AsiaPacific’s recommendation. They have implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP), backup and disaster recovery solutions to achieve high availability and stability that offers seamless operations and business continuity. To maintain a smooth user experience for its employees, TF Value-Mart has upgraded most of its virtual machines to Amazon EC2 R5 Instances, which are memory optimised for accelerated performance. G-AsiaPacific also provides readily deployable and cost-effective software as a service (SaaS) solutions for businesses of all sizes. They design and implement internet of things (IoT) solutions to gain real-time insights and improve operational efficiency. Stay updated as G-AsiaPacific and AWS continue to explore the potential of the new AWS Region in Malaysia, driving innovation and digital transformation across ASEAN.

KUALA LUMPUR: Huawei Digital Power’s cutting-edge FusionSolar C&I Smart PV&ESS Solution made its Malaysian debut at the Malaysia PV&ESS Safety Forum & Product Launch 2024, which was hosted by Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Huawei Malaysia) recently, and attended by over 250 participants and stakeholders from the energy, photovoltaic (PV), and energy storage industries (ESS).  PV industry leader Huawei Digital Power demonstrated its innovation prowess at the forum and highlighted compelling proof points on the potential of PV as the next main universal form of energy that will steer Malaysia towards carbon neutrality, environmental stewardship, and sustainability.    Forum participants, which included members of government agencies, enterprise representatives, and industry professionals, were given an insightful introduction to the FusionSolar C&I Smart PV&ESS Solution during the event.     Set to redefine safety standards in commercial and industrial (C&I) application scenarios, which include shopping malls, supermarkets, factories, and official parks, the FusionSolar C&I Smart PV&ESS Solution features safety solutions in three dimensions to provide protection across failure, namely, device safety, asset safety, and personal safety.     In his welcome address, Mr Simon Sun, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Malaysia, highlighted that Huawei Digital Power will continue to push the boundaries of innovation in renewable energy to bring sustainable solutions to its customers and to respond to environmental challenges.     “In 2023, Huawei delivered 145 gigawatts (GW) of solar inverters globally, cumulatively achieving 445GW and generating 1,110.6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, equivalent to the planting of 755 million trees. Looking ahead, it is important to focus on improving energy storage solutions while also ensuring that power generation assets remain safe, reliable, and cost-effective,” he said.    Huawei Digital Power’s approach to strategically facilitate Malaysia’s transition from a high-carbon to low-carbon nation integrates digital technology (Bit), electronic power technology (Watt), thermal management technology (Heat), and ESS management technology (Battery), collectively referred to as the “4T” technologies.     “As PV energy generation improves and the costs of solar panels decrease due to growing market supply and demand, the era of PV and Energy Storage (PV+ ESS) parity is on the horizon. FusionSolar, the integration of battery and solar, is gradually becoming the renewable/green energy of choice of the masses, helping to reduce the dependence on diesel generators, and lessening economic as well as environmental impacts. This means combining solar power with energy storage will become the most prudent and universal form of power,” said Mr Sun.    In addition to the introduction to the FusionSolar C&I Smart PV&ESS Solution, the forum explored three main topics, namely: Overview of Malaysia’s Solar and Energy Storage Landscape, Overview of Potential Safety Hazards in PV&ESS Installations, and a Deep Dive into Securing a Greener Malaysia.   Aligning with the Malaysian Government’s objectives of reducing carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030 and achieving full carbon neutrality by 2050, Huawei is committed to continuous innovation and forming strategic partnerships to catalyse the adoption of advanced renewable energy solutions that will yield optimal ways to build a low-carbon and circular economy for Malaysia. 

MALAYSIA: BigID, a leader in data security, compliance, privacy, and AI data management, announced an expanded partnership with Cohesity empowering organizations to find and take action against critical data risks and vulnerabilities across backup and recovery processes. These new developments give organizations unparalleled visibility, context, and control over their sensitive data, across the entire environment – significantly improving data security and risk management at the enterprise scale. The new integration allows organizations to pinpoint sensitive data, identify potential exposure issues related to backup and recovery, and then carry out the appropriate remediation controls and measures to mitigate risk. As a founding member of the Cohesity Data Security Alliance, BigID extends beyond its existing integration within Cohesity’s DataHawk. This new integration will give organizations comprehensive visibility into the location of sensitive data and potential exposure issues related to backup and recovery. BigID’s partnership with Cohesity will deliver a comprehensive approach towards managing and protecting sensitive data from unwanted exposure, enabling joint customers to: Rapidly Identify and Secure Sensitive Data: Discover and map sensitive data sources with or without existing backup policies. Organizations can streamline the process of identifying sensitive data that lack proper security controls, including data backups, so they can swiftly implement the necessary safeguards and measures. Simplify Cyber Recovery Compliance: Simplify compliance by getting a clear picture of data risks and vulnerabilities, as well as existing security controls. This empowers organizations to identify and close gaps between their data protection practices and compliance requirements, ensuring a robust security posture. Proactive Data Security & Risk Management: Maintain visibility into sensitive data across the environment to quickly identify and address potential data exposure risks and vulnerabilities. Organizations can proactively apply remediation actions and security controls faster and more comprehensively to mitigate the chance of a data breach or leak. While the initial integration will enable visibility in sensitive data exposure, BigID is committed to expanding its partnership with Cohesity towards building proactive and automated remediation against data risks. “BigID and Cohesity share a vision of providing proactive Data Security Posture Management with not only visibility into sensitive data exposures but also proactive, automated remediation. We are excited about this next step that we have embarked on together.” – Shay Azulay, Sr. Director, Security Products at BigID. “It is critical for enterprises to quickly and effectively respond to cyber attacks on their critical data sets. However, customers can achieve that rapid response during an attack only if they identify exposures and proactively adjust data protection policies and practices before an attack. Our joint customers can address both scenarios through Cohesity’s integration with BigID’s Data Security Posture Management capabilities.” – Sheetal Venkatesh, Sr. Director, Data Security Products at Cohesity.

CelcomDigi Bhd (CelcomDigi) and Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Huawei) have formalised a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into CelcomDigi’s network, paving the way to establish one of Malaysia’s most intelligent 4G and 5G-ready networks in the country.  The collaboration will explore applying AI capabilities to CelcomDigi’s Radio Access Network (RAN) also known as “IntelligentRAN”. This includes the incorporation of a digital twin system to enable rapid experimentation of new network models, alongside implementing proactive network management capabilities through advanced analytics and leveraging multiple support systems to intelligently provision network services to improve customer experience.    AI and automation can significantly boost network productivity and innovation, even as network infrastructures become more complex. Creating digital twins will enable the company to run large-scale simulations in a virtual network replica before live implementation, accelerating innovation at lower costs with minimal disruption to customers. Proactive network management, powered by predictive algorithms, ensures a consistent and reliable customer experience. Additionally, intelligent orchestration of 4G and 5G resources will enable more personalised and improved wireless services for customers.    CelcomDigi’s CEO Datuk Idham Nawawi said, “The country is in a prime position to be a regional leader in both 5G and AI development. We are proactively investing to build the most advanced 4G and 5G-ready network in the country to realise this ambition and serve the needs of consumers and enterprises in a new 5G-AI powered age of ‘digital-everything’. With a robust AI-driven network, we believe we are best positioned to deploy a high-performance 5G network to power Malaysia’s digital future.”      Mr Simon Sun, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Malaysia, emphasised that Malaysia is at the point of inflexion for deploying network intelligence as AI technology progresses.     “Our vision is to build intelligent networks across Malaysia, and to achieve this, Huawei Malaysia is evolving beyond being an ICT solutions provider towards a collaborative architect of AI-driven networks. By deploying the IntelligentRAN with CelcomDigi, we will unlock significant business value by allowing for full integration of AI capabilities across all layers of wireless networks and enable 5G business success,” he said.     Under the collaboration, CelcomDigi and Huawei Malaysia will also explore jointly leveraging cross-domain data convergence from Huawei platforms to gain a comprehensive view of the customer and service lifecycle, enable proactive user experience management and support seamless digital transformation across the company’s network operations.