The Digital Economy and Society (DE) Ministry is gearing up for big data analytics development for industrial clusters as part of efforts to push the country forward under the Thailand 4.0 policy.
Thailand 4.0 pertains to the economic drive through innovation and technology.
According to DE Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta, CAT Telecom could play a major role in supporting big data system development in each cluster.
"I expect to see an advance of big data connectivity between clusters over the next six months," Mr Buddhipongse said.
CAT owns eight data centres with a combined capacity of 1,100 racks.
CAT also owns a variety of hard infrastructure, comprising fibre-optics with a length of 2.4 million core-kilometres, 16,000 telecom towers and conduits spanning 463km, as well as six routes of submarine cables and two international internet gateways.
Mr Buddhipongse said the data of all state agencies cannot be pooled into a big data management system all at once, due to the different data storage systems and platforms handled by agencies.
"Gathering big data in each cluster would be a better way for development," the minister said. "It would make it easier for data usage for the public."
Mr Buddhipongse said the tourism-related cluster should receive priority for developing data analytics management systems because the industry is one of Thailand's core economic drivers.
Through the cluster of tourism, the system can aggregate data from related bodies such as Thai Airways, Airports of Thailand and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, he said.
The minister was speaking during a visit to CAT Telecom yesterday to follow up on operations and projects under the supervision of the DE Ministry.
CAT is now ready to diversify its business to deal with the rapid change of the digital economy era, especially for digital solutions and platforms for enterprises, Mr Buddhipongse said.
CAT is the government's key agency that develops and operates government data centre and cloud (GDCC) services, which would serve as a big data facility for the state.
CAT president Sanphachai Huvanandana said the agency is scaling up its digital business as flagship to capitalise on digital transformation of enterprises and boost revenue.
The move is also a part of CAT's transformation from a telecom service provider to a digital service provider. The initiative started last year.
The digital business includes solutions such as the Internet of Things, big data and cybersecurity to capture enterprise demand.
CAT aims to double its digital business revenue from 1.1 billion in 2018 to 2.2 billion by 2020 on the back of the digital transformation, particularly the government's digital innovative park project being developed under the Eastern Economic Corridor.