Brunei’s digital economy takes leap to the hybrid cloud

If Brunei’s digital economy was to be described as a commercial entity, it would be that of a home-based coffee business. 
 
While the Southeast Asian state on the island of Borneo has some of the best coffee makers in the world, the beverages brewed here was only for sale domestically to a limited market of roughly 450,000 people. 

That could change soon as Brunei gets integrated into the global digital economy. 

The Synapse 2026 Hybrid Cloud Day on April 17, hosted by Comquest and Dynamik Technologies, witnessed the launch of the first AWS Outpost in Brunei aimed at enabling its digital economy to trade and compete globally. 

AWS Outposts extend native AWS infrastructure, services, application programming interfaces (APIs), and tools, providing a hybrid experience where users can run workloads locally on AWS-designed hardware while connecting to the nearest AWS Region for management.  

With this integration, Brunei would become the 24th  AWS Edge Network Location available in Asia Pacific.    

Dynamik’s Technologies Head of Business Development, Albert Hwong, highlighted how 94 per cent of businesses globally were on cloud services, with 70 per cent of them were on hybrid clouds. 

“We are now moving from our home businesses into our own main street cafe and connecting centrally to a network of global cafes which we have shared expertise, scalable resources, optimised costs, and broader reach to the marketplaces and supply chains of the world,” shared Hwong, using the coffee metaphor. 

Bruneian brew 

The implementation of AWS Outposts in Brunei was made possible by a strategic partnership between Comquest and Dynamik Technologies.  
 
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between both IT vendors alongside several key agreements demonstrating how the milestone would advance cloud adoption and nurture the growth of Brunei’s digital ecosystem. 

As one of the first vendors to utilise the AWS Outposts service, Bruneian telecommunications provider Imagine inked a Service Agreement with Comquest. 

The agreement would support Imagine’s two key priorities in compliance and data residency, and capability development. 

“Through this approach, management continues to strengthen its digital capabilities in a structured and sustainable manner, while also laying the groundwork for future innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and data-driven services,” said Imagine’s senior vice president, Information Technology & Innovation, Mohd Radziman. 

Comquest also signed a Partnership Agreement with cloud solutions provider Xtremax to glean its experience in designing, implementing and operating Singapore’s Government Commercial Cloud Infrastructure (GCCI). 

“We see two powerful forces right now transforming digital government: Generative AI (GenAI) and cloud [services].  
 
“In a nutshell, that is our Singapore government digital transformation journey. We started with reliability, now we are focusing on agility, and AI just supercharges the entire process,” said Xtremax’s founder and CEO, James Leong. 

Learn to leap 
 

The proceedings culminated in a panel discussion that unpacked the challenges and opportunities in Brunei’s transition to hybrid cloud. 

Speaking in the panel AWS Worldwide Public Sector (WWPS) Distribution APJ senior manager, Guatam Kuppuswamy stressed that this transition was a matter of pacing. 
 

“I don't believe this is a 100-metre sprint, it is more a marathon. Thereby, how we pace ourselves in any kind of a marathon, it's the most resilient and prepared ones that's laying the groundwork in terms of practice that is able to get ahead,” he shared. 

Kuppuswamy highlighted how Brunei had the opportunity to “leapfrog” its cloud transition by leveraging insights from experienced partners like Xtremax and by being “razor focused” in its goals. 
 
“Starting to lay the foundation in terms of data classification and understanding where they want to get to as a medium to long term goal will always be the first steps [and] the first steps are the hardest,” Kuppuswamy added. 

Responding to the moderator’s question about Singapore’s cloud migration journey, Leong underlined the important of clear policies to accelerate adoption. 

“You need a cloud first policy and very clear data classification rules, because once it’s clear, people know what to do, and adoption just supercharges. Some of the key things that the government take a lot of concern with are personal and private data,” explained Leong. 

As the panellist representing service builders, Dynamik Technologies Head of Solutions, Chandana Athauda, expanded on what AWS Outpost unlocked for Brunei’s digital economy. 

“For the first time, Brunei government agencies, as well as private sector, can move to the cloud without leaving their data leaving Brunei’s borders. ... Previously we had only two options, either we need to run the workload locally on premise, or we have to move to the public cloud,” he explained. 

The milestone was also an investment in Brunei’s talent development, Athauda added, where citizens would have practical access to AWS Outposts, moving from more supporting to engineering roles. 

Communal cloud classroom 

As cloud services continue to accelerate the capabilities in the global digital economy, Synapse 2026 Hybrid Cloud Day underlined the importance of shared learnings in an increasingly connected age. 
 
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Comquest’s General Manager Gaurav Shrotriya, echoed this sentiment for new arrivals to the cloud.

“What we are looking for in a partner, especially with respect to Xtremax, [the company] is a partner who has traversed the similar journey somewhere else.  
 
“When we look at what [the] Singapore government has been doing over the last decade, infrastructure is not such a big issue because that's already sorted out by the cloud provider. In Brunei we don't have that kind of a model yet, so everyone is left to their own devices.  

Moreover, the lessons shared can serve as a powerful equaliser across economic disparities not only supporting digital transformation but providing a launch pad in the process. 
 
“The good thing with Brunei is because perhaps we have missed some of the waves, we can learn from the other experiences and directly leapfrog into AI use cases, rather than going through that whole experimentation phase,” said Shrotriya.