Digital transformation has overtaken organizations worldwide, all keen to stay on the cutting edge and one step ahead of a rapidly changing world and business landscape. Recent world events like Covid-19, a gas shortage, and price increases all along the supply chain have thrown inefficient global processes into sharp relief, and practically overnight, performance-oriented enterprises are embracing tools and solutions that they might have taken years thinking about in other situations: solutions harnessing the power of data, cloud services, advanced cybersecurity threat detection, and open source software.

Indeed, enterprises all over the world are increasingly appreciative of leveraging open source technologies for the growth of a truly open, digital ecosystem. The 2022 State of the Open Source survey revealed that the adoption of open source software increased over the last 12 months for 77% of the respondents and 36.5% increased their use significantly. One of the reasons for this growth is society’s increasing longing for digital transparency to accompany digital reliability – two things open source frameworks are known for and are increasingly being passed down to open source applications that will form the cornerstone of data infrastructure in the years to come.

Open source, cloud-based data infrastructure blooms in SEA

Traditionally slower to upscale than the West, parts of the Asia Pacific (APAC) region are waking up to the dual need for stronger developer support and data protection. Singapore specifically is the regional home for many leading open source platforms and companies, and the local government is committed to spending S$3.8 billion on information communication and technology (ICT) procurement in 2022. Almost 70% of that spending is allocated to developing new apps and upgrading existing ones – showcasing the wealth of business potential that can be unleashed when a nation undergoes rapid digitalization.

Digitalized enterprises are now very aware of the potential of open source software to drive their applications ecosystem and data infrastructure, as they look for cost-effective and innovative solutions to fuel growth in an uncertain economic climate. A survey of cloud and database developers working for large enterprises last year reported that the biggest advantage of open source was the transparency of the code, making it easier and faster to learn from, root out, and fix bugs. Other benefits included the freedom to take an existing application and modify it to one’s specific requirements, slashing the reliance on their vendors by avoiding years-long lock-in periods.

The Southeast Asian (SEA) digital economy is on track to be worth US$360 billion by 2025 and US$1 trillion by 2030, and the burgeoning importance of open source and ‘as-a-service’ software and platform solutions cannot be underestimated as part of that growth.

Keeping complex databases secure for the long haul

This exploding regional demand means that developers in the region need to level up their data infrastructure rapidly, increasing the complexities of their database infrastructures along the way. That has led to a boom in the adoption of managed services, as well as new solutions that can reduce operational obstacles and speed up product output.

Open source applications in cloud environments can be very attractive to organizational bottom lines, especially if they can be smoothly integrated and efficiently managed from a single source, saving on operational complexity for developers and IT teams alike. Leading open source cloud data platform provider, Aiven, has already been recognized by its customers for these advantages, as featured in the IDC White Paper, The Business Value of Aiven Data Cloud.

Aiven’s unique multi-cloud, open source approach has been hailed for how its managed cloud database services brought about versatile, tangible business benefits by giving both sides of the organization – the development teams and the business end – the enhanced, automated agility to scale databases upwards and downwards quickly while lowering operational costs.

IDC calculations indicated how each enterprise-level company participating in the study achieved US$184,800 in higher annual net revenue on average, with Aiven customers seeing a 340% three-year return on investment and 37% operational cost savings within the same period.

They can save on headaches for security teams too, who should be working together with the developer community to improve open source security and support booming open source software packages like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kubernetes, and Apache Kafka. Those open source packages are replacing traditional commercial data services from the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM in enterprise spending. With data rights and protection growing in importance in the region, it is more critical than ever that organizations adopt data infrastructure solutions that are forward-looking and already comply with data protection and cybersecurity laws in any given market.

The societal gain of diversity and inclusion

As an organization founded by open source pioneers and technologists, Aiven has championed open source communities and collaborated with developers to modify and use data in innovative ways, delivering the openness to build new things and supporting the digital freedom of the public and private sectors, so they have control over their data.

Aiven aims to make the lives of developer communities better, and as part of that commitment, the company is championing its Sustainability and Social Impact program, where clean and efficient data infrastructures are encouraged, leading to more efficient energy consumption by leveraging a cloud data platform as opposed to private data centers. Aiven’s customers will eventually have full visibility over their entire environmental footprint, being able to trace the source of emissions and their energy mix as it pertains to Aiven’s services.

And in a sector that has struggled to build diverse and inclusive workforces, it is refreshing that Aiven has taken its ‘open source mentality’ to its company culture as well: Aiven is committed to being open and accessible to underrepresented groups in the tech sphere and removing hindrances to hiring and retaining diverse talent.

As an organization firmly rooted in providing flexible, open source data infrastructure to drive the growth of digital-native companies, Aiven supports the digitalization and shift from on-premise to cloud data architecture, while staying true to its mission. Growing swiftly since 2016, Aiven is now in the position to support promising entrepreneurs and enterprises in the region, helping to achieve scale and hypergrowth ahead of digital transformation schedules.

Learn more about Aiven, the company, and the open source cloud data platform. Book a demo to find out how to make your data infrastructure and cloud tools work for you.