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How Singapore is
working towards a
digital advantage

Desktop virtualization
remains on the rise
CWASEAN
The monthly magazine from Computer Weekly focusing on business IT in Southeast Asia DECEMBER 2016

Thailands Health
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
Building a digital future
towards e-health Singapore invests in technologies and skills
to become a leader in the digital age
Organizations in
Malaysia and Singapore
face IT talent gap

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cw asean december 2016 1

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How Singapore is
working towards a
digital advantage
Singapore works towards digital advantage
The city state is investing in technologies and skills to secure its aim of being a leader in the digital age, says Karl Flinders
Desktop virtualization
A
remains on the rise
s a small city state with fewer than six million people and
Thailands Health no natural resources to rely on, Singapore needs differen-
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
tiation to prosper in the global economy. This, combined
towards e-health with a need to be efficient with its limited resources and space,
has put digital technology high on the government agenda.
Organizations in
Since its independence in 1965, the nation has focused on spe-
Malaysia and Singapore cific industries. Initially, it used its strategic position in the world
face IT talent gap
to develop as a sea hub, which is now the worlds second busiest.
It then turned to higher value manufacturing, before focusing on
services, especially those in the finance sector.
The nation has now put foundations in place to become a major
user and supplier of digital services.
Launchpad for a digital future
The recent merger of two government departments the
Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Info-
communications Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to
form the Info-communications Media Development Authority
(IMDA) of Singapore, is the launchpad for the next phase of the
city states Infocomm Media 2025 vision.
The restructure reflects the blurring of lines between IT and
media. The Singaporean government hopes the organization
DIGITIZATION
will help businesses, workers and the local community ride the
current global transformation wave, where digital technology is
being adopted by consumers, governments and businesses.
In a separate but intrinsic announcement, the Singapore govern-
ment announced GovTech, a new department focusing on gov-
ernment IT that will attempt to transform the delivery of public
services by creating citizen-friendly digital government services
and managing its IT infrastructure. Both this and the IMDA sup-
port Singapores ambitions to become a smart nation.
By coordinating citizens, business and government, the IMDA
will help design an education system to ensure Singapore pros-
pers in a digital economy, create legislation that is fit for a digital
world, and work with organizations to help them use digital tech-
nologies to overcome their challenges.
For example, the IMDA will instigate and coordinate digital pilots
in vertical sectors and take the initial risks involved with investing
in pilot projects. Once concepts are proven, organizations across
sectors can benefit from these technologies and methods with-
out the up-front risks.
According to the IMDA, the Infocomm Media 2025 vision will
see Singapore become a place where infocomm media ena-
bles a better quality of life for our people through world-class
cw asean december 2016 2
 DIGITIZATION

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How Singapore is
connectivity, compelling local content, and technologies to make
working towards a everyday lives smoother and more convenient.
digital advantage
It also has plans for the nation to be a living lab for entrepre-
neurs, growth companies and multinationals in the information
Desktop virtualization and communications (infocomm) media space to allow them to
remains on the rise
experiment and innovate to contribute to economic growth.

Thailands Health Equipping the workforce with digital skills

Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
In economic and social transformation, the IMDA will look
towards e-health at potential applications of infocomm media in areas such as
health, education, community and social services, as well trans-
Organizations in
port, financial services, logistics, manufacturing and e-com-
Malaysia and Singapore merce. It will reskill the Singaporean workforce for high-value
face IT talent gap
infocomm media jobs.
Speaking at the launch of the organization, IMDAs CEO Gabriel
Lim said it was spurred on by the convergence of infocomm and
media. [The IMDA] will shepherd and lead Singapore in a future
where there will be far more convergence, technology will be far
more pervasive, and digital disruption and digital transformation
will fundamentally change the way we work, he said.
Despite uncertainties around digital disruption, there are many
opportunities to be reaped, added Lim. For the workforce, the
IMDAs Adrian Lim with
IMDA will look at how to equip citizens with more skills to achieve
Kibo robot (main picture);
in a world where convergence and digitization will become far
Singapore Post drone for
more important. For communities, he said the IMDA would try delivering letters and

IMAGE CREDIT
to prevent a digital divide where parts of the community get left parcels (inset)
behind: Everyone, including vulnerable groups and low-income
households, must be part of this journey.

cw asean december 2016 3

 DIGITIZATION

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How Singapore is
Lim said the IMDA would support Singapore in emulating will enable deliveries to shopping malls to be better coordinated
working towards a some of its past success with digital IT and media. If you look through digital platforms, reducing congestion, costs, waiting
digital advantage
at Singapores growth and development since independence, one times and emissions while speeding up deliveries. The project is
thing we have done well is ride every successive wave of transfor- being run at Singapores Bedok and Tampines Malls, and will be
Desktop virtualization mation and position ourselves for growth, he said. With a strong expanded when complete. For example, the IMDA is working with
remains on the rise
infocomm media sector, we can generate opportunities in others.
Weve been working very closely on projects with our SMEs and
Thailands Health stakeholders to identify companies with the right capabilities, The IMDA is running
projectsthrough its labs
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
support them and scale them up.
towards e-health
Supporting technology innovation to helplocal organizations
Organizations in
The IMDA is running projects through its labs to help local
Malaysia and Singapore organizations overcome operational challenges with technol- overcome operational
face IT talent gap
challenges withtechnology
ogy. It takes on the cost of testing concepts to remove the bur-
den of risk from the organizations that might ultimately benefit.
One example is how the IMDA lab tested an idea to use drones to
deliver mail to a remote island off Singapore. With the islands post- IT firm Gursoft to develop systems for scheduling deliveries and
man of 40 years about to retire, the IMDA supported Singapore managing queues. Its also working with Ascent Solutions to cre-
Post in piloting drones to deliver letters and parcels to the inhabit- ate electronic locks for delivery units to secure and track deliveries.
ants of Pulau Ubin Island to replace the need for a boat crossing. The IMDA is also running 30 projects across Singapore to use
Most of Singapore is densely packed, but we also have a remote smart technology such as analytics, sensors and predictive main-
community offshore. We wanted to see how we could make effi- tenance in facilities management. This aims to address a short-
cient deliveries to the island. We piloted the use of drones because age of workers in the security, cleaning, landscaping and facilities
our help brought the risk of the experiment down. We proved the management sectors.
concept, so the postal service could look at how to scale it up for Other programmes being run with IMDA support include the
commercial purposes, said Lim. use of virtual reality in the healthcare sector, to train surgeons for
Another project sees the IMDA work with technology firms example, as well as allowing schoolchildren to experience things
to find ways of improving logistics. The urban logistics project from their classrooms using virtual reality.

Singapores newest healthcare cluster was designed with IT at its core.

cw asean december 2016 4

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How Singapore is
Without the IMDA managing these projects, this level of col-
working towards a laboration would not be possible due to the higher risk it would
digital advantage
pose to individual organizations.
Tan Kah Chye, board member of Singapore-based financial ser-
Desktop virtualization vices firm Tin Hill Capital, said one of IMDAs strengths was its
remains on the rise
ability to engage different economic sectors to apply contempo-
rary technologies to solve real-world problems.
Thailands Health
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
towards e-health Singapore has spearheaded
blockchain-related proof of
Organizations in
Malaysia and Singapore
face IT talent gap
concepts to digitize trade
Tan Kah Chye, Tin Hill Capital
I was fortunate enough to see how the IMDA engaged the
finance sector to explore the use of blockchain technology some
years ago, despite few in the finance sector having heard of block-
chain. Today, Singapore has spearheaded different blockchain-
related proof of concepts to digitize trade, and such innovations
are capable of having a large impact on the way domestic and
cross-border trades are conducted, said Tan.
The proof of concept exercises were a huge success because
IMDA was there to provide technology domain expertise and
work in conjunction with sector experts provided by the Monetary
Authority of Singapore. It was clear from the start the proof of con-
cepts had to be commercially oriented. As such, the participating
DIGITIZATION
banks were encouraged to apply the blockchain technology to
solve real-world problems and focus on solutions that can be
commercially viable in the marketplace, he added.
I believe Singapore is seen as an innovative global city because
of its ability to harness the best of what technology can provide,
whereby IMDA is always working in close partnership with sector
experts from different government organs, said Tan.
Large multinational organizations can also benefit. Shirish
Wadivkar, global head of payables, receivables and flow foreign
exchange at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, said the com-
pany had received valuable support from the IMDA.
As the progeny of two very progressive agencies, the IMDA
stands out, said Wadivkar. IMDAs parent agencies actively
played the role of catalyst to seed innovation in Singapore in the
past. We, at Standard Chartered Bank, have been direct benefi-
ciaries. Jointly with another bank and IDA, we created the worlds
first application of distributed ledger technology to trade finance.
Laying the foundations
The IMDA also plays a critical role in schools. Part of its remit
includes developing a workforce for the future at an early age.
Speaking at a pre-school where children are being introduced to
the basics of computing through toys, Adrian Lim, director of edu-
cation at IMDA, said: We want the citizens of Singapore to have
the digital skills needed to work, live and play in a digital economy.
We think its important to start them young.
Lim said this involves more than just handing iPads to five-year-
olds. You dont want to throw an iPad at them and have them
cw asean december 2016 5
 DIGITIZATION

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How Singapore is
stare at it. He described seeing children in pushchairs in the US use magnets instead of soldering, and the Bee Bot robot, which
working towards a and Europe with iPads on a special mount in front of them to keep you can make move to a certain point, teaching sequencing
digital advantage
them entertained. I think this is scary because the iPad is being through pressing buttons in an order before setting it off. Lim also
used to keep the child quiet, he said. We dont want to introduce demonstrated the Kibo robot, which can be controlled using block
Desktop virtualization technology to kids that is too advanced, because we want them to programming. There are no screens and these tools are age and
remains on the rise
interact with it and cultivate their creativity. This does not mean development appropriate, he said.
giving them some of the technologies Silicon Valley is trying to The IMDA has 160 pre-schools on the programme. Teachers are
Thailands Health push on the world. We decided from the age of four to six to focus trained to use the equipment and there is tech support on-site.
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
on less screen-based learning and make things play orientated to Tech is the easy part, but getting the teachers to use it meaning-
towards e-health encourage them to work together. fully is challenging, said Lim.
The IMDA encourages the use of what he described as tech Beyond pre-school, the IMDA is involved with various edu-
Organizations in
toys. These include Circuit Stickers, which are circuit boards that cational programmes and provides guidance for schools that
Malaysia and Singapore
face IT talent gap

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 DIGITIZATION

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How Singapore is
focus on infocomm and media. Programmes such as Code@SG Secondary School in Singapore, which has about 1,000 students
working towards a Movement and Code for Fun offer primary and secondary school aged between 13 and 17. The school principal, Helen Tan-Lee,
digital advantage
students exposure to coding and computational thinking. said all schools in Singapore have to do core subjects, known
as Learning for Life, but also choose an applied learning pro-
Desktop virtualization gramme, which is individual to the school.
remains on the rise
IMDA provides guidance Clementi, with support from the IMDA, has chosen computing.
We have chosen our applied learning programme to be related
Thailands Health and support to schools that to computing and coding, said Tan-Lee. We want to give all our
Ministry embraces
chooseto focus on computing on
virtualization in push
students a basic foundation in what coding and computing is. We
towards e-health want to expose them to whats out there in computer science and
top ofthe core subjects hopefully ignite their interest in the process. Hopefully some of
Organizations in
them will consider it a field they can grow in, she added.
Malaysia and Singapore The IMDA also has mobile labs that visit schools to introduce
face IT talent gap
The IMDA also provides direct guidance and support to children to technology. It holds workshops at schools for about a
schools that choose to focus on computing on top of the core week at a time in an attempt to get students to create technology
subjects all schools do. One of these schools is Clementi Town rather than just consume it. n

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Home
How Singapore is
working towards a
digital advantage
Desktop virtualization remains on the rise
Desktop virtualization Despite barriers such implementation costs and customer preference for mobile technologies, desktop virtualization
remains on the rise
is still expected to see continued growth due to business demand for availability and continuity. Zafar Anjum reports
B
Thailands Health
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
efore cloud and big data started to dominate IT headlines,
towards e-health virtualization was all the buzz in the enterprise IT space.
Although cloud, along with big data and internet of things
Organizations in
(IoT) technologies, have taken everyones attention, the march of
Malaysia and Singapore virtualization has not stopped.
face IT talent gap
In terms of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), back in 2013
organizations in Southeast Asia were interested but confused
about VDI, according to an IDC Asia-Pacific trend report. The
report concluded that VDI was a long-term project that must pro-
vide good user experience to be successful.
But IT models are changing rapidly, according to William Ngoh,
chief product evangelist of business mobility at VMware. For
most technology initiatives, business agility is now a driving
force, he said. Many enterprises are beginning to view desktop
virtualization as a critical enabling technology.
Among Asia-Pacific countries, the IDC report noted the level
of virtualization in South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong
was on a par with western countries.
Countries such as China, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand,
it said, were approximately 12-18 months behind them, while
DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION INFRASTRUCTURE
most Southeast Asian countries were more than two years
behind the leading pack.
Some ASEAN countries are now picking up pace, said
Shahnawas Latiff, senior market analyst for IDCs Asia-Pacific
software research group. Although IDC does not have a specific
penetration data for desktop virtualization in the region, its virtual
client computing tracker data has desktop virtualization as one of
the sub-markets.
Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia seem to be showing
growth, although Philippines and Indonesia is from a smaller
base, said Latiff.
For VMware, VDI is still showing growth across Southeast Asia,
but not as fast as the likes of Korea, Japan and Australia.
The reason is the stronger focus on consolidating datacentre
infrastructures, said Ngoh.
Another reason for the slower adoption of virtualization in these
countries is linked to specific infrastructural issues such as con-
nectivity and bandwidth.
Due to the larger geographical spread of many of these coun-
tries, connectivity is still relatively poor between offices and
cw asean december 2016 8
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How Singapore is
branches. In addition, leased lines, for example, are generally still
working towards a expensive, and these all inhibit overall growth and adoption.
digital advantage
Paul Serrano, chief evangelist of Asia-Pacific and Japan at
Nutanix, said the company was seeing expanding deployment
Desktop virtualization of VDI across most of the emerging ASEAN countries, and these
remains on the rise
latecomers to the technology might have the advantage of the
lessons learned by early adopters, as well as lower costs due to
Thailands Health maturity of technology.
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
Clearly for ASEAN, the VDI take-up rate will exceed that of
towards e-health countries such as South Korea and Japan. Deployments should
be more successful with lower costs, he said.
Organizations in
Andy Cocks, chief technology officer (CTO) at Dimension
Malaysia and Singapore Data, Asia-Pacific, does not think Southeast Asian countries are
face IT talent gap
lagging behind. Rather, he believes they are just very specific
about the users.
We have seen an uptick in the use of virtualization where the
network infrastructure allows reliable connections. We first saw
this in mature countries such as Japan and Korea, but now the
Southeast Asian network and bandwidth has really caught up,
allowing for this type of adoption, said Cocks.

Top driving factors

Nutanixs Serrano said drivers are the same across the region.

IMTMPHOTO/ISTOCK
These include cost, security, simplified and centralized control
for deployment and management, unified upgrade controls of
software, and more.
The adoption of virtualization is driven by business demand for
user mobility, data availability, business continuity and network

cw asean december 2016 9

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How Singapore is
security, said Ngoh. The popularity and acceptance of the bring technical design shortcomings and poor performance, said
working towards a your own device (BYOD) trend, rise of user computing and remote Serrano. It was therefore wise for ASEAN countries to refrain
digital advantage
working, as well as ITs desire to reduce the cost and complexity from anything but testing.
for supporting multiple platforms, fuels the demand for the cross-
Desktop virtualization device mobility VDI provides.
remains on the rise
According to Serrano, there is evidence of VDI adoption growth, Virtualization is driven by a
but the initial take-up and larger implementations are more com-
Thailands Health monly found in the healthcare and manufacturing industries, as demand for user mobility, data
availability, business continuity
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
well as government and education sectors.
towards e-health According to Ngoh, VDI in healthcare is enabling doctors and
nurses to easily access patient medical information and data and network security
entry. In education, he said it can simplify operations by offer-
Organizations in
Malaysia and Singapore ing students access to desktops across the campus, enabling
William Ngoh, VMware
face IT talent gap
greater flexibility and delivering consistent computing experience
throughout schools. Then there is internal resistance. From a user standpoint, the
In financial services, bankers, branch staff, financial advisors, biggest objection to VDI is usually the loss of control, said Ngoh.
loan agents, developers and remote workers can now have secure Some users have a sense of ownership over their physical desk-
and seamless access to data and applications from any device, tops, and they may not like the idea of surrendering their rule to
while ensuring privacy and compliance. a virtual desktop environment.
DiDatas Cocks said the business process outsourcing (BPO) Other inhibitors, according to Ngoh, are cost and preference for
sector was also adopting desktop virtualization: In the BPO mobile technology. There are initial upfront costs, as desktop
industry, transactional and offshore workers who come and go do virtualization involves server infrastructure, unlike traditional PC
not require fully configured PCs that are expensive to manage. replacements that are a straightforward, one-to-one exchange,
he said. Another reason is the customers preference for mobile,
Barriers to adoption where businesses see mobile as more critical than desktop.
But it is not all plain sailing. Studies show that seven out of 10 VDI IDCs Latiff added that security and vulnerability concerns
implementations fail. The reasons include, but are not limited were the main barriers to adoption, with a lack of internal skills
to, cost overruns, infrastructure complexity, limited knowledge, another problem. n

cw asean december 2016 10

 E-HEALTH

Home

How Singapore is
working towards a Thailands Health Ministry embraces
virtualization in push towards e-health
digital advantage

Desktop virtualization
remains on the rise

Ministry is using VMware virtualization technology to provide better healthcare for citizens, writes Ai Lei Tao
Thailands Health

T
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
towards e-health hailands Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) is centraliz-
ing its IT system through virtualization to consolidate its
Organizations in
health IT infrastructure and provide more accessible and
Malaysia and Singapore affordable healthcare for citizens.
face IT talent gap
With more than 10,000 health IT units across Thailands
76provinces, uniting health IT infrastructures will enable the
quick exchange of information between the MoPH, which is
responsible for overseeing public health in the country, and indi-
vidual units across the nation.
This is part of the MoPHs e-health strategy to transform the
delivery of healthcare services in Thailand, which the agency says
is closely aligned to that of the World Health Organization.
The strategy also supports the Thai governments overall vision
for Digital Thailand, which promotes the use of digital technol-
ogy to create opportunities for economic growth and improve the
delivery of government services for the population.
The new infrastructure aims to help clinicians and administra-
tors to optimize workflows, and manage and analyze patient data
better. It also enables mobile access.
Virtualization and business mobility systems allow the indus-
try hospitals and professionals to deliver always-on health-
care for Thailand, said Polawat Witoolkollachit, director of the
information and communications technology center, office of the
permanent secretary at the MoPH.
The ministry has deployed two VMware virtualization platforms
vSphere and VMware Horizon. It has simplified its datacenter
operations by virtualizing and consolidating its servers and appli-
cations using vSphere.
Improved co-ordination
The consolidation of information on virtual servers has improved
co-ordination between central IT administrators and those in
the provinces, allowing the MoPH to track, manage and deliver
IT services and resources more accurately, resulting in cost sav-
ings and more efficient resource allocation.
To virtualize the desktop infrastructure and allow users access
to information from any location, the ministry adopted VMware
Horizon. Here, a virtual desktop infrastructure can reduce the

cw asean december 2016 11

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time spent delivering IT support, address administrative overload,

SANTIAGO SILVER/FOTOLIA
How Singapore is
working towards a and increase user efficiency and satisfaction.
digital advantage
Ashwin Moduga, research manager at IDC Health Insights
Asia-Pacific, said this was a logical progression in a public health
Desktop virtualization systems evolution.
remains on the rise
Virtualization could greatly increase mobility and the number
of touchpoints with patients, and help the agency to build a more
Thailands Health efficient national health system, said Moduga.
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
Thailands public health system struggles to provide health
towards e-health services to its 60 million population, he said. With traditional
health delivery, the biggest challenge has been in patient access
Organizations in
and the potentially heavy resources required to maintain qual-
Malaysia and Singapore ity care. A strong virtualization drive can greatly improve the
face IT talent gap
possibilities for increasing interactions between physicians and
patients on a large scale at a population level.

Further synergies
A national health service with a centrally governed IT system
enables further synergies in terms of patient data repositories
and epidemiology statistics, said Moduga.
However, Southeast Asian nations have been comparatively
slow to adopt virtualization, unlike the US and Europe, where it
has been embraced more readily.
But there is a perception challenge, said Moduga. A server
going down or connectivity loss sometimes common in virtu-
A strong virtualization drive could greatly
alization cannot be allowed to get in the way of care delivery, improve the possibilities for increasing
he said. Suppliers and administrators will need to demonstrate a interactions between physicians and patients
continuity plan for such scenarios. n

Private hospital in Thailand is recognized for its effective use of IT

cw asean december 2016 12
 IT RECRUITMENT

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How Singapore is
working towards a
digital advantage
Malaysia and Singapore face IT talent gap
Organizations in Malaysia and Singapore face tough competition to attract people with the right skills, writes Ai Lei Tao
Desktop virtualization

M
remains on the rise

alaysia and Singapore face a shortage of technology
Thailands Health talent as they attempt to bring local IT up to date in the
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
digital world, with keen competition making it harder to
towards e-health attract candidates with the right skills.
Despite a slow local economy, larger organizations in Malaysia
Organizations in
are moving to take their technology in-house to increase their
Malaysia and Singapore capabilities and develop intellectual property.
face IT talent gap
The need for businesses to implement technology has gone
past being an advantage it is now an absolute must-have to
remain competitive in the market, said Ryan Carroll, country
manager for recruitment agency Randstad Malaysia.
Competing for talent
But organizations in Malaysia are also competing with technol-
ogy service providers for talent, according to Randstad.
Top management now need to have strategies for training and
development in IT, said Carroll. Currently, workforce skillset
development is not aligned with technological advances, and if
this is not addressed, it will lead to a major talent gap.
As demand for tech talent increases, private companies and
government agencies are making big investments in the tech
sector to ensure sustainable growth in the future. For example,
Malaysias tech hub, Cyberjaya, is receiving RM11bn (2.1bn) in
investments through the implementation of the upcoming Cyber
City Center, while RM1.5bn has been allocated to the Ministry of
Science, Technology and Innovation.
Mike Farrance, associate director for Randstad Technologies
in Malaysia, said large investments were being pumped into all
Currently, workforce skillset
development is not aligned with
technological advances
Ryan Carroll, Randstad Malaysia
areas of Malaysias technology sector for good reason. Not only
are these major projects going to develop the industry, they will
be a primary driver in developing the tech talent pipeline, he said.
Randstads ranking of the most popular tech jobs in Singapore
shows cyber security and technology risk professionals in high-
est demand, with the potential to earn between S$120,000 and
S$240,000 a year.

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MAST3R/FOTOLIA
How Singapore is
working towards a
digital advantage

Desktop virtualization
remains on the rise

Thailands Health
Ministry embraces
virtualization in push
towards e-health

Organizations in
Malaysia and Singapore
face IT talent gap

Demand is increasing
for skilled IT staff in
Singapore and Malaysia

Project management and business analysts are ranked next
highest. Their functional knowledge and in-depth technical
know-how are sought after as organizations seek to become
more lean and cost-effective.
Randstad ranked application developers as third most in
demand, due to Singapore being an attractive hub for compa-
nies setting up centers of excellence. Demand for experienced
developers exceeds supply in the country due to a lack of experi-
enced developers and an influx of startups. Other skills in demand
in Singapore are DevOps, embedded developers, mobile develop-
ers, data scientists and analysts, cloud specialists and engineers,
user interface (UI/UX) designers, and heads of engineering.
Tech jobs coming into Randstad Technologies have increased
by close to 50% in Singapore in the past two years. The country

cw asean december 2016 14

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How Singapore is
continues to face a gap in IT talent as businesses strive to digi- providing great working environments and clear career growth
working towards a tize their operations and processes, said Daljit Sall, director at plans to attract the best talent in Singapore. For example, mul-
digital advantage
Randstad Technologies Singapore. Organizations in Singapore tinational corporations were encouraging innovation labs within
are racing to digitally innovate, which has resulted in a grow- their organizations to come up with ideas in a safe, startup-like
Desktop virtualization ing talent shortage. In April this year, Singapores Ministry of environment, he said.
remains on the rise
Communications and Information announced its aim to tackle the
talent shortage with an investment of S$120m to train informa-
Thailands Health
Ministry embraces
tion and communications technology professionals. Everyone wants to get
Sammie Sam, director of financial services, legal and IT at Robert
virtualization in push
towards e-health Walters in Malaysia, agreed that many vital technology positions digitized to reduce paperwork
were in strong demand in Malaysia and Singapore.
and move from traditional
Software developers, user interface designers, cloud experts
retail to e-commerce
Organizations in
Malaysia and Singapore and IT project managers are deemed to see the largest demand
face IT talent gap
in both markets because of the emergence of a lot of startups
and small companies, said Sam. Everyone wants to get digi-
Sammie Sam, Robert Walters
tized to reduce paperwork and move from traditional retail
to e-commerce. On the flipside, IT professionals in the enterprise application
space are seeing operations being moved out of Singapore to
Software developers lower-cost locations such as India and China, said Nandakumar.
Nandita Nandakumar, IT manager at Robert Walters Singapore, We see the stronger of these professionals moving into a more
said software developers using the latest technologies were functional, business-facing role to avoid being replaced by lower-
most in demand. JavaScript frameworks such as React.js, cost resources in developing countries.
Node.js and Angular.js seem to be the hype with digital compa- Candidates with experience in penetration testing, vulner-
nies and startups, while other companies dealing with large vol- ability assessment and cyber security incident management are
umes of transactions in the e-commerce and travel space seem highly sought after. Also, many principal suppliers in more mature
to be moving into using Scala, he said. markets are expanding rapidly and setting up headquarters in
Nandakumar added that given the strong demand for IT pro- Singapore to meet increasing demand for cyber security protec-
fessionals, hiring companies would need to stay competitive by tion technologies. n

IT salaries are rising quickly in Singapore, fuelled by shortages in key areas

cw asean december 2016 15